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News18
11-07-2025
- Science
- News18
Ancient Mayan King's Treasure Tomb Discovered In Belize: Here's What Archaeologists Found Inside
Archaeologists in Belize found the tomb of Te K'ab Chaak, Caracol's first known ruler from AD 350, in Caana. In a discovery hailed as one of the most significant in decades, archaeologists in Belize uncovered the tomb of Te K'ab Chaak, the first known ruler of the ancient Maya city of Caracol, offering a rare glimpse into the early dynastic origins of one of the Maya civilization's most powerful cities. The royal burial, dating back to around AD 350, was discovered by archaeologists Dr. Arlen and Dr. Diane Chase of the University of Houston, who have been excavating Caracol for over 40 years in collaboration with Belize's Institute of Archaeology. The tomb was found deep within Caana or the 'Sky Place"- the tallest structure in Caracol and one of the most imposing manmade buildings of the ancient world. Rising 141 feet high, Caana dwarfs many modern structures and reflects Caracol's once-formidable presence in the Maya world. Dr. Diane Chase said, 'This is one of our most important finds. We found the first person in the dynasty. That, in itself, in terms of the history of Caracol, is huge." Although previous tombs had revealed elite individuals, this is the first burial to match hieroglyphic records confirming the identity of a ruler. Treasures From A Lost Kingdom: What Was Inside The Tomb Inside the tomb, archaeologists uncovered an array of beautifully crafted offerings and treasures. Among them were jade mosaic death masks, jade beads and jewelry and clay pots adorned with intricate artwork. They also discovered carved bones, seashells and a particularly striking pot depicting Ek Chuah, the Mayan god of trade, surrounded by offerings. Other artifacts include vivid scenes showing bound prisoners and a king receiving tributes, all adding to the tomb's ceremonial richness. One of the mosaic death masks is believed to depict Te K'ab Chaak himself. His skeletal remains suggest he stood about 5 feet 7 inches tall and was elderly at the time of his death, having lost all his teeth, likely due to age. The Story Of Caracol Founded as early as 900 BC, Caracol reached its height between AD 600 and 800, rivaling other great Maya cities like Tikal and Calakmul. Spanning more than 75 square miles, it is now considered the largest known Maya archaeological site in Belize. The tomb of Te K'ab Chaak marks the third major royal burial found at the site from this era. In 2009, archaeologists uncovered a richly adorned tomb believed to belong to a noblewoman. A second burial revealed cremated remains of three individuals, accompanied by two large knives and items that appear to have originated from central Mexico, indicating long-distance connections or ritual exchanges. Te K'ab Chaak, whose name means 'Tree Branch Rain God," now stands as the foundational figure in Caracol's known history. His tomb not only confirms the city's dynastic origins but also paints a vivid portrait of Mayan royal life, spiritual practice and political authority. Get breaking news, in-depth analysis, and expert perspectives on everything from geopolitics to diplomacy and global trends. Stay informed with the latest world news only on News18. Download the News18 App to stay updated! view comments Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
NDTV
11-07-2025
- Science
- NDTV
Ancient Mayan King's Tomb Filled With Treasures Found In Central America
Archaeologists in Central America's Belize have discovered the tomb of the first ruler of the ancient Maya city of Caracol. The husband-wife duo, Dr Arlen and Dr Diane Chase of the University of Houston, achieved the historic milestone after over 40 years of excavation. The Royal Tomb belongs to Te K'ab Chaak, meaning "Tree Branch Rain God," the first known king of Caracol and the founder of its royal dynasty. The couple, who led the Caracol Archaeological Project, worked in collaboration with Belize's Institute of Archaeology. The Chases named the structure Caana, which translates to "Sky Place" in Maya, because of its enormous height and size. It rises 141 feet into the sky. "It is one of our most important finds. We found the first person in the dynasty, so that, in itself, in terms of the history of Caracol, is huge, and it's incredible that we could identify him as a ruler," Dr Diana told the University of Houston. She added, "We've found numerous tombs with really impressive artefacts inside that were clearly members of the royal family, but this is the first one where it matches with hieroglyphic records to be a ruler and beyond that, the first dynastic ruler." According to the Caracol Archaeological Project, the city of Caracol dates as far back as 900 BC and thrived for centuries until the broader collapse of the Maya civilisation between AD 800-900. It was one of the most powerful Mayan cities and is now considered the largest Mayan archaeological site in Belize. Archaeologists found many valuable and beautifully crafted items such as clay pots, carved bones, seashells, jade beads, and jade death masks made with mosaic. One such piece showed Mayan King receiving offerings, while the other pieces showed prisoners tied up, reported CBS News. One of the pots also had a picture of Ek Chuah, the Mayan god of traders, surrounded by offerings. The king, 5 feet 7 inches tall, was quite old when he died, as he had no teeth left, researchers said. This is the third tomb discovered at Caracol that dates back to around AD 350. The first tomb, found in 2009, contained the body of a woman along with jewellery, seashells, and pottery. In the second attempt, the ashes of three people, in a container, along with two large knives and several items that seemed to come from central Mexico, were found.
Boston Globe
10-07-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
In Belize, Maya ruler's tomb unearthed with artifacts from his ancient world
It was the 1,700-year-old tomb of a Maya ruler — the first ever found at Caracol, the largest Maya site in Belize — and it held clues to a Mesoamerican world where cities contended with one another from hundreds of miles apart. 'They've found a very early ruler, so that's very important, and he's claimed to be the founder of a dynasty,' said Gary Feinman, an archaeologist at Field Museum of Chicago who was not involved in the excavation. 'That's a major find.' Advertisement Arlen Chase, one of the archaeologists working at Caracol, was among the first to enter the tomb. 'As soon as we saw the chamber, we knew we had something,' he said. From the style of ceramic vessels, he knew the tomb was exceptionally old, and the red cinnabar all around indicated it was for someone of very high status. But it was the mosaic mask, in pieces of jadeite off to the side, that made him realize just how unusual the tomb was. 'Oh my God, this is much more important than I thought it was,' he remembers thinking. With each discovery he called Diane Chase, an archaeologist with whom he has been working at Caracol for four decades. Advertisement 'I kept saying, 'Do you want me to come down?'' she said. 'And he kept saying no. And then, eventually he said yes.' The Chases will celebrate 50 years of marriage in August. Diane Chase hurried from their base at the University of Houston to take stock of the discoveries. The Maya ruler, they determined, had grown old for his time, living long enough to lose all his teeth and for bone to grow over his jaw. 'We've never found anyone that we could identify as a ruler at Caracol before, so that in itself was amazing,' Diane Chase said. 'Double wow,' she continued, the ruler could be identified as the founder of a dynasty. The ruler had been interred not just with the mask but three sets of jadeite ear flares, an extraordinary luxury for the Maya elite, and a variety of ceramic vessels. They showed the Maya god of traders — a hummingbird and a ruler holding a spear, with supplicants making offerings to him. Vessels depicted a monkey, an owl, and the heads of coatimundi — mammals sometimes described as raccoons crossed with lemurs. 'It's stuff that we've never seen before,' Arlen Chase said about some of the designs. Through hieroglyphics, the archaeologists identified the ruler as Te K'ab Chak, who took the throne in A.D. 331. He ruled Caracol as it was growing into a larger city, the Chases said, but centuries before its peak as a regional power with an estimated 100,000 people. Like other Maya cities, it had been abandoned around A.D. 900. The discovery 'adds a whole new dimension' to the site, said Melissa Badillo, the director of Belize's Institute of Archaeology, a longtime working partner of the Chases. 'This is the first of its kind in that it's a ruler, a founder, somebody so old, and in so good a condition, to be honest, because the humidity doesn't lend itself well to preservation.' Advertisement For the Chases, the discovery was thrilling also because of how the artifacts related to other finds over the years. 'Without this tomb, we wouldn't have any idea as to how everything tied together,' Arlen Chase said. Some of the artifacts found in the tomb closely resemble those at two other Caracol burials, dating around A.D. 350, the Chases said. One of those also held cremated human remains, blades of green obsidian from central Mexico and a projectile for an atlatl — used to throw spears — the sort of object often associated with Teotihuacán, an ancient metropolis nearly 750 miles to the north. Cremation was a practice of high-status Teotihuacán but not of the Maya elite. The evidence, the Chases argue, suggests that the early Maya had relations with the people of central Mexico decades earlier than previously thought, despite the great geographic distances between their cities. It is likely to have taken more than 150 days to walk from Teotihuacán to Caracol in the days of Te K'ab Chak. Even today it takes nearly 24 hours by car. The artifacts show that these cities were not just aware of one another but also interacting, perhaps with envoys at the highest levels of society, the Chases said — a sign of what they called a 'globalized' ancient world of trade and diplomacy. That conclusion fits with other research showing that the Maya built societies with complicated political relationships, experts said, although some expressed caution about extrapolating from the artifacts until they could learn more. Advertisement 'This was a very dynamic, political world,' Feinman said. 'They have evidence of some kind of connection to Teotihuacán in central Mexico, but what the mechanism of that connection is — a person? ideas? — it's harder to say. Their interpretations may be right, but I would say I'd like to see it spelled out in an article before I could say more.' Rosemary Joyce, an anthropologist at the University of California, Berkeley, also said that she wanted to learn more. DNA and isotope testing, which the Chases hope to do, could reveal more about the lives of the interred people, and more detail about the ceramic vessels could help determine if they were imported or local imitations, Joyce said. The Chases believe that the artifacts indicate prolonged Maya relations with Teotihuacán decades before A.D. 378, a moment often called the 'entrada,' which some archaeologists believe signals the arrival of central Mexicans into the southern lowlands. When exactly all these cities were interacting, and how and where, will almost certainly be a matter of intense debate among archaeologists, in part because the degree of precision that dating technology can offer is limited. Badillo said that Belizean authorities hoped to showcase some of the artifacts at Caracol, and that the site should become more accessible with the completion of a new road. She also said that she expected that the Chases, 'based on their track record,' would be back to the site again soon.
Miami Herald
03-06-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Ancient waste shows surprising ‘luxury' food item was not only for Roman elite
On the island of Mallorca, in what was once the ancient Roman city of Pollentia, researchers have unearthed evidence of street food vendors selling an item long believed to be reserved for the elite. The popular on-the-go menu item offered to the masses? A fried songbird. Archaeologists discovered the remains of thrushes in an underground waste disposal system called a cesspit connected to a taberna, or food shop, in Pollentia dating back about 2,100 years, according to a May 26 study published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. Cesspits preserve organic material and provide insights into the diets, health and cultural practices of ancient communities, making them important archaeological artifacts, study author Alejandro Valenzuela said. Before now, historical records indicated that thrushes were 'exclusively a luxury food item for elite banquets' and consumed only by the 'upper echelons of Roman society,' according to Valenzuela. The presence of thrush bones among waste deposits of urban kitchens of shops associated with 'lower and middle-class' residents challenges this view, according to Valenzuela. 'This evidence suggests that thrushes were commonly sold and consumed in Roman urban spaces,' Valenzuela said, adding they were 'part of the everyday diet of urban populations.' Valenzuela said it is likely that the thrushes were pan-fried at the market in Pollentia — a common Roman culinary practice of the time, particularly among street vendors who needed to serve food quickly. Thrushes migrate to Mallorca in the winter, so urban vendors likely took advantage of their seasonal availability to diversify their menus — 'a sophisticated economic strategy,' according to the study. Elite members of society distinguished themselves by breeding thrushes, making them available year-round, according to the of Pollentia began in the early twentieth century, according to experts at Institute of Archaeology of the University of Barcelona. Mallorca is one of Spain's Balearic Islands.
National Geographic
16-05-2025
- General
- National Geographic
These exquisite jade burial suits were just a rumor—until the discovery of an ancient Chinese tomb
A burial suit formed by thousands of jade tesserae contains the body of Princess Dou Wan. Second century B.C. Rising over the Mancheng district, 120 miles south of Beijing, is Lingshan. More than 2,000 years ago, thousands of tons of rock were removed from its eastern slope to create complex tombs housing the remains of an elite couple: Liu Sheng, prince of Zhongshan, and his wife, Dou Wan. Miraculously unlooted for the next two millennia, the tombs' 1960s discovery stunned archaeologists, not only for their engineering but also for the dazzling grave goods they contained. The couple's remains were wrapped in jade burial suits now regarded as some of China's greatest national treasures. Lord of the North Liu Sheng's father, Jing Di, was the sixth emperor of the Han, the second of China's imperial dynasties, which ruled between 206 A.D. 220. Beset with rebellions, in 154 B.C., Jing Di sent Liu Sheng to impose rule over Zhongshan, a frontier region in the northeastern part of the empire. The carving out of two palatial cave tombs, similar to each other in size and structure, probably began soon after Liu Sheng took power. The tombs would have taken decades to complete and been a huge challenge technically and financially. By the time Liu Sheng and Dou Wan died in 113 and circa 104 B.C., respectively, the tombs, filled with sumptuous grave goods, were ready to receive them. Both tunnels were then blocked up with brick walls and sealed with cast iron to prevent the tombs from being desecrated. Revolutionary Discovery Numerous elite Han tombs were damaged by looters, but the sealing measures at the Mancheng tombs were unusually effective. It was not until the 1960s, during the iron rule of China's dictator Mao Zedong, that the mountain revealed its buried treasures. In June 1968 an army platoon stationed in Hebei Province knocked down a rock wall during excavations to build an air-raid shelter on the slopes of Lingshan. Behind it they found what appeared to be a burial chamber. Bulgaria's cultural capital The discovery took place at the height of Mao's Cultural Revolution, a campaign of violence against the supposed 'bourgeois elements,' often resulting in the murder and public humiliation of figures in academia and education. (These rare treasures could paint a better picture of China before it unified) In this climate of fear and paranoia, most academic research ground to a halt, but emergency archaeological work was allowed to continue. The Institute of Archaeology of the Beijing Academy of Sciences was called in and immediately put together a team to investigate. They soon established that the tomb was indeed an ancient burial chamber. Excitement mounted when they discovered a second tomb a short distance away from the first. The jade suit of Liu Sheng, displayed in Europe in 1973. THE MANCHENG TOMBS became the poster child of Chinese archaeology. The grave goods formed the core of an exhibit organized for the reopening of the Palace Museum in Beijing in July 1971. The museum was inside the Forbidden City, formerly closed to the public because of the Cultural Revolution. The Liu Sheng jade suit was then included in an exhibit of Chinese archaeology that toured Europe in the 1970s. The team completed their excavation that summer, and the Mancheng tombs quickly became instrumentalized as a symbol of the outstanding achievements of Chinese civilization under the Han dynasty. The discovery was also exploited by Mao's regime to praise Chinese archaeology during the Cultural Revolution. Mirror Images Both tombs had the same structure: They were accessed via a narrow tunnel, which led to a large antechamber covered by a wooden structure with a tile roof. The antechamber was divided into two spaces: The room to the north contained a store of food preserved in terracotta vessels, provisions that would serve the deceased in the afterlife. The room to the south housed the stable, where the archaeologists uncovered chariots and the skeletons of horses, the ultimate symbol of elite power. Water clock, found in the tomb of Liu Sheng at Mancheng, second century B.C. Golden needles, likely intended for acupuncture, were found in Liu Sheng's tomb. Museum of Hebei Province. The central space formed a ceremonial hall, also with a tile roof supported by a wooden structure. In the center were two canopies surrounded by numerous objects arranged in rows: ceramic figurines representing servants, bronze vessels, lamps, and ritual weapons. To the rear of this chamber was a stone door that gave access to the funerary chamber itself. This space had a stone ceiling, and in the center sat the sarcophagus. This room and an adjoining one were seen as the private quarters of the deceased. (Rome wanted silk, China had the goods. Here's how the Silk Roads got their start.) As the first of the Han imperial family graves to be discovered intact, the tombs of Liu Sheng and Dou Wan are significant because of their structure and the two objects found among the grave goods: spectacular armorlike suits made of jade, which until then had only been known from descriptions in literary sources. The thousands of jade tesserae that compose the suits are joined at the corners with gold threads and wire. Each suit is made of 12 sections and tailored to follow the contours of the body. The suits served as shrouds and became the visual representation of the two rulers' transformation into immortal beings. For archaeologists, the suits, intact grave goods, and objects among which they were found provide a fascinating window into the beliefs, practices, and funerary art of the Han period. Although mummification was not practiced in China at this time, various methods were nevertheless employed to preserve immaterial aspects of the dead, such as their soul—of which some Chinese traditions state a human being has two types: the hun and the po. A bronze lamp from the tomb of Liu Sheng has a built-in smoke outlet. National Museum of China, Beijing. A bronze vase with damascene decoration was found in the tomb of Liu Sheng. This piece was one of the luxury objects kept in the burial chamber. Museum of Hebei Province. The hun comprises the person's spirit of mind. The po is the soul of the body's activity and energy. During life these two souls are harmoniously united in the body, but at the moment of death they separate. The hun ascends to the realm of the ancestors. The po remains with the body, and may have been regarded as a malign force that needed containing by the jade shrouds. (Is this the world's oldest saddle?) The two tombs likely reflect this dual conception. Both resemble underground palaces, mirroring the earthly abodes of the deceased. The wooden and stone structures within the tombs correspond to elements of an earthly palace. The antechambers and the central hall form the realm in which the po and the body can continue their existence surrounded by the same well-being they enjoyed in life. Reconstruction of the second-century B.C. tomb of Prince Liu Sheng at Mancheng. The tomb of his consort, Dou Wan, has the same structure. The two empty seats in the center of the main hall of Liu Sheng's tomb were originally topped with silk-curtained canopies and had vases and funerary statuettes arranged in rows around them. This tableau represented a ritual ceremony that evoked the prince and princess. The funerary chamber built in stone, the last room of their eternal palace, was the place where it was believed the deceased would achieve immortality. Liu Sheng's burial suit, like his wife's, is composed of thousands of jade tesserae held together with gold threads and wire. Museum of Hebei Province. The tombs of Liu Sheng and Dou Wan contained a wealth of grave goods from the second century B.C. made of ceramic, bronze, jade, silver, and lacquered wood. They can be grouped into three categories: ritual and symbolic objects, especially bronze vases and jade items; objects for personal use, some of which belonged to the deceased during their lifetime and were intended to serve them after death; and mingqi, or spirit objects, statuettes intended to recreate the prince and princess's enjoyment of earthly pleasures. Completing this symbolism is the use of jade. Closely associated with beliefs on heaven and immortality, the smooth, tight-grained silicate was used in funerary rituals thousands of years before the Han princes, and the Chinese character used to represent it is close to the character for 'emperor.' Several centuries before Liu Sheng and Dou Wan were laid to rest, Confucius numbered the gem's attributes as benevolence, justice, propriety, truth, credibility, music, loyalty, heaven, earth, morality, and intelligence. Truly, a gem worthy of high-born princes. (Go inside China's Forbidden City) A bear stands over a bird, feet apart, in this bronze piece from the tomb of Dou Wan. Museum of Hebei Province. This gilt bronze lamp takes the form of a kneeling maid. Discovered in the tomb of Dou Wan, it was designed to collect smoke through the sleeve. Museum of Hebei Province. This leopard, made of bronze and inlaid with gold, silver, and hard stone, was part of a set of weights used to hold mats in place on the floors of aristocratic residences. Tomb of Dou Wan, Museum of Hebei Province. A bronze censer in the form of a sacred mountain was found in Dou Wan's tomb. A figure kneeling on a fantastic animal holds the vessel. Museum of Hebei Province. This story appeared in the May/June 2025 issue of National Geographic History magazine.
