14/09/2024
The incredible Maya!
Amazing stuff!
The enigma of Palenque's tomb:
In 1947, a Mexican archaeologist, Alberto Ruz L’Huillier (1906-1979), observed a large stone in the so-called Temple of Inscriptions. It was pierced by twelve holes covered with perfectly corked caps. The archaeologist suspected something was hiding behind the stone and ordered the Josa to be lifted. Amazed, he glanced at the pale light of the temple a staircase that descended endlessly. Which way would you drive?
Until then, no graves had been found in the Mayan pyramids and it was believed that their function was only to contain the temples built on their tops. But this new discovery baffled the archaeologist. The staircase was cluttered with debris, which began to be removed in what turned out to be an ongoing effort for years, as the gallery was incredibly-long and covered with stone and weeds that made it impossible to get through it.
After several years of work and having removed the stones of fifty-nine steps, in 1952 it was possible to descend. The staircase ended up in a wall. A hole had to be opened there to discover a second wall, and behind it was found a box of materials containing three small ceramic fountains, three marine seashells and jade ornaments: it was undoubtedly an offering, but to whom was it intended?
The offers found gave hope after the hard work done. Ruz L’Huillier and his aides felt they were finally on to something really important. But the major test was still missing. In front of them a new wall completely closed the passage, a bigger obstacle than the previous ones because it was nothing less than three meters thick. The hallway was narrow, the heat, suffocating, it took exhausting days to make a small step on the wall.
Behind him, there was a cavity. In it they finally found what was long-awaited: the explanation of the mysterious gallery and a touching finding. Six bones, the remains of five men and one woman. Piled in the narrow grave, there were no doubts that they had been immolated victims of some bloody god. The remains were of young people, killed, but why?.
Then it would be known that it was one more of the many offerings made and that this mysterious people had horns custom to immolate people whose blood was offered to appease the gods. A new block of stone prevented researchers from passing, but it was no occasion to let discouragement beat you when it came so close to success. The archaeologist managed to break a new step in the monolithic and ancient stone. Looking through the opening, the explorer couldn't believe what he was seeing.
Like Carter standing in front of Tutankhamun’s tomb, he could have exclaimed: “I see marvelous things,” as he too observed a fantastic spectacle: a large crypt with walls covered entirely by low-reliefs, the center of which was occupied by a carved stone monument. The Mexican archeologist stated: “... You could say it was a large magical cave carved in ice, with glittering walls that shimmered like snow crystals. Delicate stalactites dangled like curtain strings and the stalagmites on the floor looked like fluctuations of light from a large cirium.
The limestone formations, formed over the centuries, above the cave, gave the whole set a magical and unreal look.
Making a great effort, they managed the monolith to spin on itself. At that moment they were able to pe*****te; finally, in the sanctuary, the excitement reached its peak.
The room measures nine meters by three, in which nine stucco characters were depicted: the Nine Lords of the Night, kings of the infernal world of the ancient Mayans. scattered, there were. numerous offerings, plus two wonderful stucco heads, covered with abundant hair, tied with ribbons and decorated with dried nettle flowers.
Undoubtedly, the most extraordinary thing was the large monument that occupied the entire center of the place, a huge block of stone that must have weighed about twenty tons and whose surface was covered by a finely carved slab.
In this funeral crypt was found a magnificent 5-ton stone tombstone, placed on a sarcophagus; on all the walls were sculptural reliefs depicting the nine Night Lords venerated by the Mayans. Inside the sarcophagus, Huillier discovered the remains of a tall man, deceased in his 40s. Her body and face remained covered in jade jewelry, which contrasted with the red lining of the grave. Enormously luxurious was the funeral mask, made of mosaic jade, with curious obsidian and nakar inlaid eyes. The carvings of the sarcophagus tombstone do not represent an astronaut in a space capsule, as Erich von Daniken assures in his work Memories of the Future, but they constitute a valuable symbol of the soul's transit to the realm of the dead. And more specifically, they describe the transformation of a Mayan chief into a god
In the middle of the slab was a painting of a young man, adorned with great wealth, surrounded by a lushly decorated (sacred signs and hieroglyphics that were alone an enigma enough to reveal the discoverer. How to move it ? They worked in very little space under unbearable heat, in a crypt of rare, suffocating air. They managed to move it with car cats fixed on wooden handles. And before their eyes, they discovered a new slab, a new stone obstacle.
Needless to say, the Mayans jealously kept their secrets. But Ruz L’Huillier was pertinent and wouldn’t stop until the latest unknown was revealed. So they lifted this new loom to finally find the central motive of so much mystery: a skeleton prolifically adorned with rich jewels. The clothes with which he had been buried had not survived, only loose threads remained from them, but he was covered with beautiful jade ornaments that reflected in the shadows of the vault.
The dead man's face was covered with a jade funeral mask, a masterpiece of Mayan art, with eyes made of shells and obsidian iris. The expression of the face is so realistic that one can assume it was a portrait, a representation
Credit: Yeribao
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