Another artifact from the Maya civilization was unearthed in Mexico. The rare find was a vault lid with a symbol of a snake.
Maya Artifact With Snake Symbol
A stone relic was discovered by researchers in the Acropolis, or royal palace, of Ek' Balam, a former Mayan settlement in the Yucatán district of Temozón. According to the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH)) stated that the Maya utilized the stone block as the lid of a vault.
The Acropolis, the largest building at Ek' Balam, has an entryway that mimics the gaping maw of a monster with gigantic fangs. There are several rooms on the Acropolis; until present, more than 70 have been discovered. Mesoamerica's historical and cultural territory, which encompasses the majority of Central America and the southernmost reaches of North America, is home to some of the largest buildings on Earth.
The stone vault lid has a red-painted pattern on it. The design features a U-shaped symbol that might allude to the underworld or a cave with water below the surface. It looks like the snake is moving inside the U-shaped space.
The reptile's head and some of its body are visible. According to scholars, the creature may be related to the serpentine foot of the Mayan deity K'awiil.
The finding of the vault cover was announced at a press conference when the development of work on Section 4 of the Tren Maya project was reported. A nearly 1,000-mile intercity railway is the subject of the train project, and it will begin running in December. The railroad travels across the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, the center of the historic Mayan civilization.
Several other Maya artifacts have been found, giving experts more information about the local rulers and dates when the rooms in the Acropolis were built.
Other Maya Artifacts Previously Discovered
During the excavations, a multicolored ceramic dish was also previously unearthed at the Cansacbé archaeological site. The artifact features a "wahyis," a protector spirit or being from Maya mythology. According to INAH, the item was meant to be a remembrance present.
INAH also previously announced the discovery of a rare artifact - a nasal ornament. They discovered the item while researching at the Palenque Archaeological Zone in the southern state of Chiapas.
The Maya city-state of Palenque was inhabited from the latter part of the first millennium B.C. until about the eighth century A.D. The archaeological site has many well-known examples of Maya construction and artwork.
The ceremonial deposit, to which the nose ornament belonged in Mesoamerican history, was made sometime between A.D. 600 and 850. It used a portion of a human leg bone to carve a detailed scene featuring a human skull without a lower jaw and a man wearing headgear with a bird head shape.
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