Tomb discovery may shed light on Mayans' fate
Source: Agencies |
January 29, 2010, Friday
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MEXICAN archeologists have found a 1,100-year-old tomb from the twilight of the Maya civilization that they hope may shed light on what happened to the once-glorious culture.
Archeologist Juan Yadeun said the tomb, and ceramics from another culture found in it, may reveal who occupied the Maya site of Tonina in southern Chiapas state after the culture's Classic period began fading.
Many experts have pointed to internal warfare between Mayan city states, or environmental degradation, as possible causes of the Maya's downfall starting around AD 820.
But Yadeun, who oversees the Tonina site for Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History, said artifacts from the Toltec culture found in the tomb may point to another explanation. He said the tomb dates to between AD 840 and 900.
"It is clear that this is a new wave of occupation, the people who built this grave of the Toltec type," Yadeun said on Wednesday. "This is very interesting, because we are going to see from the bones who these people are, after the Maya empire."
The Toltecs were from Mexico's central highlands and apparently expanded their influence to the Maya's strongholds in southern Mexico. They are believed to have dominated central Mexico between the 10th and 12th centuries, before the Aztecs rose to prominence.
Archeologists not connected with the dig expressed caution about drawing conclusions from one site, noting the Maya empire covered a wide area, with a varied and complex history.
"One tomb, even if it is very fancy, isn't going to answer big things about the trajectory of Maya history all over the place ... maybe locally," said David Stuart, a specialist in Mayan epigraphy at the University of Texas at Austin.
The jungle-clad site is dotted with temples and platforms left by the classic Maya. Inside the newly uncovered tomb, archeologists found a stone bowl-type sarcophagus, a pottery urn and the bones of what they believe is a woman.
Archeologist Juan Yadeun said the tomb, and ceramics from another culture found in it, may reveal who occupied the Maya site of Tonina in southern Chiapas state after the culture's Classic period began fading.
Many experts have pointed to internal warfare between Mayan city states, or environmental degradation, as possible causes of the Maya's downfall starting around AD 820.
But Yadeun, who oversees the Tonina site for Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History, said artifacts from the Toltec culture found in the tomb may point to another explanation. He said the tomb dates to between AD 840 and 900.
"It is clear that this is a new wave of occupation, the people who built this grave of the Toltec type," Yadeun said on Wednesday. "This is very interesting, because we are going to see from the bones who these people are, after the Maya empire."
The Toltecs were from Mexico's central highlands and apparently expanded their influence to the Maya's strongholds in southern Mexico. They are believed to have dominated central Mexico between the 10th and 12th centuries, before the Aztecs rose to prominence.
Archeologists not connected with the dig expressed caution about drawing conclusions from one site, noting the Maya empire covered a wide area, with a varied and complex history.
"One tomb, even if it is very fancy, isn't going to answer big things about the trajectory of Maya history all over the place ... maybe locally," said David Stuart, a specialist in Mayan epigraphy at the University of Texas at Austin.
The jungle-clad site is dotted with temples and platforms left by the classic Maya. Inside the newly uncovered tomb, archeologists found a stone bowl-type sarcophagus, a pottery urn and the bones of what they believe is a woman.
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