Archeologists Uncover a New 1600-year-old 'Night Sun' Mayan Temple

Archeologists uncover 1600-year-old Mayan temple

A TEMPLE built 1600 years ago to honour a Mayan king by streaming sunlight around his tomb is being excavated in the dense forests of Guatemala.

"The sun was a key element of Maya rulership," lead archeologist Stephen Houston explained in announcing the discovery by the joint Guatemalan and American team that has been excavating the El Zotz site since 2006.

"It's something that rises every day and penetrates into all nooks and crannies, just as royal power presumably would," said Houston, a professor at Brown University, Rhode Island.

The temples is dated to around 350-400 AD, with large ornate stucco masks celebrating their king.

Other links:
Ancient Mayan 'night sun' temple found in Guatemala

More on the masks here from the discovery team;
El Zotz masks yield insights into Maya beliefs

A team of archaeologists led by Stephen Houston has made a new discovery at the Maya archaeological site in El Zotz, Guatemala, uncovering a pyramid believed to celebrate the Maya sun god. The structure's outer walls depict the god in an unprecedented set of images done in painted stucco.

El Zotz Masks Yield Insights into Maya Beliefs

Its pretty crazy that we are still uncovering all this ancient information and artifacts. Very cool indeed! Wish I could be there with them uncovering this stuff.

Well if it is 1600 years old, it isn't "new".

*ducks*

Seriously, how did this go unnoticed?

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


They keep finding more and more.

www.nytimes.com...
"
Initially, Ms. Schaan said, researchers, pondering the 20-foot depth of some of the trenches, thought they were used to defend against attacks. But a lack of signs of human settlement within and around the earthworks, like vestiges of housing and trash piles, as well as soil modification for farming, discounted that theory."



" these geoglyphs found on deforested land were as significant as the famous Nazca lines, the enigmatic animal symbols visible from the air in southern Peru."

They also recently found what appears to be the oldest bottle of wine, though they could not verify if the liquid was wine or not. I find this fascinating, there's so much about this world we do not know - and so much left to discover.

I'll have to find the article about the wine and share it too.

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


Could that be the inside of this site?

i love that they find this old stuff... but, .. yet another temple? what did the ancients do apart from worship 24/7 i wonder.

reply to post by ladyteeny


What could they do besides eat, sleep...Hmm, I wonder how often they had sex. (I'm being serious.) I guess maybe not often since they might have needed to limit the number of mouths to feed.

What about playing games? Maybe they didn't have time for that. They might have spent a lot of time gathering food, building traps, making repairs on buildings, making new buildings. Perhaps they had a lot of things to do and didn't have so much spare time.

They were very in tune with the sun, though, always, because the darkness was scary. Go sleep outside one night in a sleeping bag...hell, I'm scared of just the bugs. These people had panthers and jaguars (I guess?) to worry about, and wild boars and other things. (I'm not too good with what animals live there.) So, when the sun came up, they were all saved. That's why people today consider "the [Sun]" their savior. Even today, if it doesn't come up, we all die eventually. Sounds like it is worth worshiping or at least being thankful for.

Originally posted by ladyteeny
i love that they find this old stuff... but, .. yet another temple? what did the ancients do apart from worship 24/7 i wonder.

Well, ancient pre-columbian temples were not all about worship. We must understand for them, it wasn't a separation between religion and science. In many cases you'll find the sun rays and shadows projected are (or were) part of a calendar, indicating the right moment for each agriculture activity.

The cosmogony contemplates a deep vision of the universe, represented by symbols and gods. In other words, that means temples were built based in a multi-discipline knowledge that includes astronomy and advanced math.

As you can tell, they made temples for better purpose and uses. Instead, today we make temples just for blidfold religion followers.

OP,

Excellent thread, already F&S you. I'm a great fan of american pre-columbian cultures and I'm happy to see other members contribute to uncover the truth of these great cultures. We have a lot to learn from ancient people.

Originally posted by Paradoxone
reply to post by Blackmarketeer

 

Could that be the inside of this site?

edit on 21-7-2012 by Paradoxone because: sigh

!

Not being well-versed in South/Central American ancient ruins, can anybody comment on this video? Are these sites known to science and the video is just hyping them, or are these potentially unknown and unstudied sites?

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


What A great Find Black !!!



I always try to imagine, How these places would look, back when it was built. Being that they are only half way done, excavating, I hope they find something special. I always hope for that.....



S&F

reply to post by tetsuo


I think in part we just have better means today of sharing our finds what with social media, facebook, youtube, and twitter. News travels faster with just a click of a button these days.

reply to post by Paradoxone


Interesting video, although it's more likely a known archeological site that hasn't any protection from tourism and looting. The video uploader filled in all the details on the location and name, so I don't think it's a mystery as to the site itself, not sure why they'd then put the label "leaked footage" on it, like it was from an unknown site.

That's the shame of an unprotected archeological site, they get looted and plucked clean of all artifacts by tourists that all the useful information that might be gleaned from it by trained archeologists is gone or trampled.

reply to post by princeguy


They do have some newer tools to play with when it comes to uncovering new sites; example: 3D mapping uncovers Lost Maya city - although in that case the "lost city" was known about by the locals who had described it on maps and through folklore. Even so, 3D mapping and satellite imaging has helped uncover a lot of previously unknown sites. Another example, this one from Africa; The Garamantes are refound in the South-West Sahara, where dozens if not hundreds of sites belonging to a 'lost culture' was rediscovered.

Maybe while they're at it they'll find the commencement of the calendar
2nd

temple of doom?

reply to post by daynight42


I used to sleep under the stars a lot when I was young. I didn't worry about being in a tent or just a sleeping bag those days. I'm not so worried about getting eaten by a bear or attacked by a wolf or eaten by coyotes where I live but the deer running around could step on you. There are skunks here also and they are friendly but also curious. They'd try to get into a sleeping bag or tent and do spray when scared. Although they don't harm us the embarrassment of smelling like a skunk at my age would kill me. People tend to look at you as unwise when you smell of skunk here.

Originally posted by ladyteeny
i love that they find this old stuff... but, .. yet another temple? what did the ancients do apart from worship 24/7 i wonder.

They built many Temples over a very long period of time. The people and cultures/civilizations of the regions lasted quite a long time before being plundered and mascaraed by the "Civilized world" and had gone through many incarnations over many centuries.

The same could be said about Europe, The Middle East and the Americas. There seems to be Churches, Temples and or Masques on every other street corner these days.

OP.

S & F

I'm surprised that I somehow over looked this great find.

Wow! That is awesome. I have always wanted to excavate some ruins or something. That would be the bomb!! Imagine if I found a crystal skull!