Researchers Discover Important Mayan Monuments
04/23/04

By SERGIO DE LEON, Associated Press Writer

GUATEMALA CITY - A team of U.S. and Guatemalan archeologists says it has discovered important Mayan monuments covered with texts from the ceremonial ball court at the Cancuen palace in northern Guatemala.

The researchers said the discovery is providing new information about the final years before the collapse of the ancient Mayan civilization.

The excavations were announced on Friday by Guatemalan authorities, as well as by the National Geographic Society and Vanderbilt University in the United States.

Cancuen, one of the largest Mayan palaces found so far, was built between 765 and 790 A.D. by King Taj Chan Ahk. It is located along the banks of the Passion River, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) north of the Guatemalan capital.

Its position along the river gave it control over trade between the southern highlands of Central America and the Mayan city-states further north, which thrived between 500 B.C. and 850 A.D., according to a news release from the project sponsors.

Culture Minister Manuel Salazar and U.S. Ambassador John Hamilton symbolically helped excavate a 225-kilogram (500-pound) altar stone at the site last Friday.

It was the third found at the ball court: A first, removed in 1905, is in Guatemala's National Museum of Archaeology. A second was stolen from the site in 2001 but was recovered in October by Guatemalan law enforcement agents aided by the head of the archaeological team, Arthur A. Demarest of Vanderbilt.

The three monuments depict King Taj playing against visiting rulers.

Salazar also announced the discovery of a 45-kilogram (100-pound) stone panel from the same ball court which is covered with hieroglyphs and images of Mayan royal ceremonies.

The project expert on hieroglyphs, Federico Fahsen, called it "one of the greater masterpieces of Maya art ever discovered in Guatemala," according to the news release.

It showed Taj Chan Ahk installing a subsidiary ruler during a ceremony in his other capital, the city of Machaquila, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) to the north.

Demarest said the panel was dated to the end of the eighth century.

"At a time when most of the other great city-states of the Maya world were in decline or collapsing, Tan Chan Ahk expanded his kingdom through alliances, royal marriages and clever politics," Demarest said, according to the release.

"His palace at Cancuen is one of the largest and most splendid in the May world and he used it and his ball court to awe and entertain visiting kings and nobles."

He compared the games to ceremonial "photo opportunities" more than as modern sports events.

Tomas Barrientos and Michael Callaghan are leading the Vanderbilt-National Geographic project to excavate the Cancuen palace, which had more than 200 masonry rooms and 11 plazas.

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