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A Maya Maize God’s Severed Head Was Discovered in Palenque – RisePEI

A stuccoed stone head from a 1,300-year-old statue of an historic Mayan maize god has been unearthed by archaeologists in Mexico.

The pinnacle was discovered amongst ruins in Palenque. Situated near the Usumacinta River, Palenque (or Lakamha within the Itza language) was a Mayan metropolis state in southern Mexico that finally ceased within the eighth century CE. The ruins there date from roughly 226 BCE to 799 CE. The previous metropolis is thought for its spectacular Mayan structure, sculpture, roof comb, and bas-relief carvings.

Archaeologists with the Nationwide Institute of Anthropology and Historical past (INAH) discovered the pinnacle whereas they have been excavating a web site in Palenque. Whereas eradicating particles from a hall connecting two sections of a palace advanced, the workforce discovered inside a container with the pinnacle in a small pond.

Researchers consider that the pond was meant to represent the doorway to the Mayan underworld. In response to Mayan beliefs, the universe was divided into three components: the sky, the earth, and the underworld. In every have been commemorated areas that included caves and cenotes, which might have operated as a portal to the subterranean realm, Xibalba, dominated by the Maya loss of life gods and their aids.

Arnoldo González Cruz, a researcher with INAH Chiapas Centre, advised Heritage Daily, “The invention permits us to additional perceive how the traditional Maya of Palenque relived the legendary passage in regards to the start, loss of life and resurrection of the maize deity.”

The severed head sculpture would have been positioned by the Maya on a tripod. It could have been positioned in an east-west orientation, making it in order that the statue would face the solar because it rose. Its positioning was meant to allude to the solar’s function in rising corn vegetation.

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