National Geographic Explorer Francisco Estrada-Belli’s discovery in Chochkitam, Guatemala, sheds new light on an ancient society.
The small mask, made of jade mosaic with spondylus shell for the eyes and teeth, represents a manifestation of the Storm God. It was laid on the chest of a king buried at Chochkitam, circa A.D. 350.Choked by rainforest and crowded with fallen leaves, palms, and chunks of stone, the little-known site of Chochkitam, Guatemala, seems an unlikely place for a breathtaking archaeological find—much less one that reveals new information about a still murky time period that’s long baffled researchers.
If the dating is correct, the bones could be the individual on the monolith"Stela: Muwan Bahlam," which was found on the front of the structure in 2021. LIDAR led the team to both—and Estrada-Belli considers it one of the greatest finds of his decades long career.The Chochkitam site and its history have long been obscured by the ravages of time and the density of the rainforests of Petén, the northeastern lowlands region of Guatemala that’s bounded by Mexico and Belize.
“It wasn’t that easy,” says Estrada-Belli, a professor at Tulane University’s Middle American Research Institute and an expert in the Preclassic and Classic Maya periods.As the men dug more than seven meters into the pyramid, their excavation began to feel more like digging a well. But then, Giron found a skull, some teeth, and a coffin-shaped stone box.
The find is “very, very unusual,” says Estrada-Belli—and has proven extraordinarily informative about a time and place that remain stubbornly obscure. Though his burial site clearly shows a Maya ruler with elite status and royal power, references in the artwork and buildings discovered at the site give credence to a growing theory that many local leaders of the time were subordinates or even puppets of other, more powerful, kings. Some of the items found there echo those found in other powerful Mesoamerican cities, including a depiction of Itzam Kokaj Bahlam in a full-frontal position.
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