An archaeologist couple have uncovered a 4th century Mayan ruler’s tomb in Belize, and inside it were unbelievable treasures.
Arlen and Diane Chase are professors at the University of Houston who have pursued their passion of unearthing ancient things for decades, Fox News reported on Friday.
Their most recent discovery at the Caracol archeological site was the tomb that belonged to the earliest king of the city whose name was Te’ K’ab Chaak.
Images shows the professors and the sprawling site where they have spent many years digging:
Airborne light detection and ranging technology helped the professors uncover hidden roadways and structures that had been overgrown by the jungle surrounding them, Innovation Map reported on Thursday.
The website said the recently uncovered tomb was built at the base of a royal family shrine:
The king, who ascended the throne in 331 AD, lived to an advanced enough age that he no longer had teeth. His tomb held a collection of 11 pottery vessels, carved bone tubes, jadeite jewelry, a mosaic jadeite mask, Pacific spondylus shells, and various other perishable items. Pottery vessels found in the chamber depict a Maya ruler wielding a spear as he receives offerings from supplicants represented as deities; the figure of Ek Chuah, the Maya god of traders, surrounded by offerings; and bound captives, a motif also seen in two related burials. Additionally, two vessels had lids adorned with modeled handles shaped like coatimundi (pisote) heads. The coatimundi, known as tz’uutz’ in Maya, was later adopted by subsequent rulers of Caracol as part of their names.
Arlen Chase told Fox the artifacts are “priceless” because the true value is in what they can tell modern people about the ancient world.
“In this case, most of the individual artifacts are unique, but together they not only tell a story about the individual who once owned them but also enable us to provide a date for the burial,” he said, adding that the artifacts date to 350 A.D. and the different types of pieces meant there was long-distance trade at the time.
Per the recent Fox article, the king’s tomb is the first royal one to be confirmed at the site.
“This would be the first individual that we found that actually matches with the hieroglyphic texts, the first ruler, not just the first ruler in name because that’s the first one on the monuments but the first one that we’ve actually found. That in and of itself is huge,” Diane Chase explained during an interview at the University of Houston.
More incredible archeological discoveries in recent years include the world’s oldest intact shipwreck found in the Black Sea, the unearthing of steps where Jesus Christ walked and healed a blind man 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem, and the discovery of a 200-year-old message in a bottle that archeologists located in France.