A RARE Jade mask has been discovered inside a 1,700-year-old Maya tomb in Guatemala.
The mask was just one of a number of artifacts discovered inside an ancient Maya king’s tomb.
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According to Live Science, the mask depicts the Maya storm god.
The tomb was discovered by a Tulane University archaeologist at a site called Chochkitam.
Along with the funerary mask, several rare mollusk shells and carved human femur bones were found.
One carving depicts an unknown king holding a similar jade mask.
Hierpglyphs on the femurs link the king to the Maya states of Tikal and Teotihuacan.
As well as 16 mollusk shells, researchers found a rare spiny oyster.
It’s thought this oyster had several uses for royalty at the time.
Royalty was thought to use them as jewelry or use them as currency.
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The oysters also had religious and sacrificial offering purposes.
Francisco Estrada-Belli was the lead archaeologist in this study.
He said: “A discovery like this is a bit like winning the lottery in terms of information.
“It opens a window into an obscure time we have very little texts about.”
Little remains from the Maya classic period so we don’t know much about it.
Finds like this are crucial to the historical and scientific understanding of that time period.
The height of the Maya classic period dates to around 250 to 900 AD.
“All of Indigenous America has a deep and complex history.
“For this reason, Tulane recognized early on that it was important and worthy of serious and focused academic interest.
“Discoveries like this one and others, including those made by other Tulane faculty and students also conducting fieldwork, represent Tulane’s commitment to the study of ancient indigenous American peoples and their accomplishments,” Marcello A. Canuto, MARI director and Tulane archaeologist said.
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The tomb was initially discovered in 2022 and before this looters had tried to reach it but failed.
Luckily, the tomb remained relatively intact and well-preserved.
