Contact: Grant Madsen, (801) 378-9206
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Note to editors: Print quality photos available at http://www.byu.edu/news/releases/Jun/houston/photos.html
PROVO, Utah -- A Brigham Young University archeologist has discovered an elaborate and precise engraving that details the life and times of a Maya king, including his 18-letter name, exact dates of his coronation, major battles, and death, which all preceded Columbus by about 800 years.
BYU's Stephen Houston, who co-directed the National Geographic Society-funded project with Hector Escobedo of Guatemala's Universidad Del Valle, found the sculpture this April during the fourth year of excavations in the remote ancient Maya city Piedras Negras in northwest Guatemala.
The engravings were scheduled to be unveiled Monday, July 3 at 6 p.m. MDT at the National Museum of Archaeology in Guatemala City.
The engravings are found on a stone panel about 4 and a half feet long and 4 and a half feet wide that weighs about 3,000 pounds. Houston and Ernesto Arredondo discovered the panel, face down, at the base of the steps of a pyramid they were excavating.
"It is one of the largest hieroglyphic panels ever found in the Maya area," explains Houston, a university professor of anthropology at BYU. "This panel is the most important find of sculpture from the area in over 65 years."
Houston, an expert in Maya language who can read the 150 glyphs on the panel like others read magazines, explains the history of the king who is detailed in the engravings.
"His name was Itzamk'anahk K'in Ajaw, and he was an unusual ruler because he came to the throne when only 13 years old -- rather like Louis XIV," he says. "Much like that French king, he reigned for an exceptionally long time. In fact, he had the longest known reign at Piedras Negras."
Itzamk'anahk was born May 25, 626 and became king April 15, 639. The panel tells of battles Dec. 3, 664, another Dec. 23, 668, and yet another March 669. Most of the events described on the panel tell of captives being seized.
"The battles were supervised by Itzamk'anahk, although, in all likelihood, the actual warriors were the two lieutenants pictured standing on each side of him," Houston says, pointing to a photo of the engraving. "One presumes that the scene, which shows bound, moaning captives, beautifully rendered in a way that is less clear with the stiff representation of the king, comes at the end of this series of battles. The captives were apparently kept around as hostages, but it is at this time -- the image shown on the carving -- that they are most likely going to be sacrificed."
The researchers had already noticed that the pyramid they were excavating had at least two phases of construction, as appears to be the case with most temples at Piedras Negras. The first had a narrow stairway and a connected plaster floor; the second had a much wider stairway and another floor.
Hieroglyphic evidence from the panel itself enabled them to date the construction of the phases precisely -- the first corresponds to the burial of the king in 686, the second to a re-entry of his tomb in 706. Tomb re-entry, a ritual practiced in at least one other royal tomb at Piedras
Negras, seemed to involve the burning of incense and purification of the tomb chamber some 20 years after a lord's death, Houston says.
The newly discovered panel was crafted to be large for a simple reason, Houston says. "At the top of the pyramid, only the very largest panel would have been visible to the people assembled in the plaza below. Itzamk'anahk's son, named Yo'nalahk, commissioned and erected the sculpture over his father's tomb to honor him."
Houston believes the panel may have been toppled during the collapse of the Maya region around 800 and slid down the steps of the pyramid. It had remained unknown through previous excavations because, lying face down, it looked similar to nearby toppled stone columns called stelae.
"The panel is significant because of its unusually long inscription, which is 5 to 10 times longer than most other texts," Houston says. "It is an unusually full historical account, a powerful reflection of the warlike society record of wars in pre-Columbian America."
The dig at Piedras Negras was one of the largest in the Americas -- Houston and Escobedo supervised some 25 archeologists and 85 workers representing 10 universities. After conflict in Guatemala prevented research for decades, archeologists returned to the area in 1997 to explore the mangled splendor that was once one of the Maya's greatest cities. In addition to the panel, the researchers also discovered a royal tomb from the early classic Maya period, around 500.
As the excavations continued and the ancient city emerged from beneath tangled vegetation and damp soil, an image of the kingdom in its prime formed in Houston's mind.
"You can start walking around the city -- it almost sounds hallucinatory -- and you can see people, see buildings. It almost becomes alive."
In addition to the support of the National Geographic Society, the expedition at Piedras Negras is funded by grants from the Foundation for Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc., the Ahau Foundation, the Heinz Foundation, BYU and private donors.
Contact:
Dr. Houston will be traveling to Guatemala City Monday. After Monday he can be reached at 011 502 366 2265 or [email protected]
Barbara Moffet, National Geographic Society Public Affairs, 202-857-7756 (Barbara is the contact point for the NGS' Maya scholars who may be available for comment.)
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