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Related: About this forumMaya ritual cave 'untouched' for 1,000 years stuns archaeologists
Exploration of Balamku (Cave of the Jaguar God) reveals ancient religious practicesand may hold clues to the rise and fall of the Maya empire.
BY GENA STEFFENS
PUBLISHED MARCH 4, 2019
Archaeologists hunting for a sacred well beneath the ancient Maya city of Chichén Itzá on Mexicos Yucatán Peninsula have accidentally discovered a trove of more than 150 ritual objectsuntouched for more than a thousand yearsin a series of cave chambers that may hold clues to the rise and fall of the ancient Maya. The discovery of the cave system, known as Balamku or Jaguar God, was announced by Mexicos National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in a press conference held today in Mexico City.
After its initial discovery by farmers in 1966, Balamku was visited by archaeologist Víctor Segovia Pinto, who wrote up a report noting the presence of an extensive amount of archaeological material. But instead of excavating the site, Segovia then directed the farmers to seal up the entrance, and all records of the discovery of the cave seemed to vanish.
Balamku remained sealed for more than 50 years, until it was reopened in 2018 by National Geographic Explorer Guillermo de Anda and his team of investigators from the Great Maya Aquifer Project during their search for the water table beneath Chichén Itzá. Exploration of the system was funded in part by a grant from the National Geographic Society.
De Anda recalls pulling himself on his stomach through the tight tunnels of Balamku for hours before his headlamp illuminated something entirely unexpected: A cascade of offerings left by the ancient residents of Chichén Itzá, so perfectly preserved and untouched that stalagmites had formed around the incense burners, vases, decorated plates, and other objects in the cavern.
More:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2019/03/maya-ritual-balamku-cave-stuns-archaeologists/
Anthropology:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/12294542
hibbing
(10,098 posts)JDC
(10,129 posts)Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)edbermac
(15,941 posts)Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)PatrickforO
(14,577 posts)I'm not much for crawling on my stomach for hours through narrow tunnels - that's for others.
But the discovery is so amazing!
magicarpet
(14,155 posts)I get claustrophobic watching them and start hyperventilating...
Thanks for sharing the post with us...
Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)BlueJac
(7,838 posts)Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)Evolve Dammit
(16,743 posts)Fears of looting? Hopefully, this discovery will be done with the best scientific methodology available, and not interfered with or corrupted by outside pressures/ influence. Sounds like a very significant re-discovery. Please update your post as this moves forward.
Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)What a shame there aren't more people like him around. I might add, if there ARE more like him, you can be damned sure they aren't fascists. It couldn't happen with a greedy misanthropic opportunist.
(It has occurred to me that maybe something happened to him after he secured the discovery so it could officially be examined, and studied, for the world's benefit.)
I will most definitely return if I find more on this, to add to the thread. Thanks.
Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)By Brandon Specktor, Senior Writer | March 5, 2019 02:59pm ET
- click for image -
https://img.purch.com/h/1400/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5saXZlc2NpZW5jZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzEwNC82MDYvb3JpZ2luYWwvYmFsYW1rdS1hcnRpZmFjdHMuanBn
An interior view of the artifacts found in the Balamku caverns beneath Chichén Itzá.
Credit: Karla Ortega/Proyecto Gran Acuífero Maya
Shimmying through a maze of dark tunnels below the Mayan ruins of Chichén Itzá on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, archaeologists have rediscovered a long-sealed cave brimming with lost treasure.
According to an statement from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), the cave is stockpiled with more than 150 artifacts, including incense burners, vases, and decorative plates adorned with the faces of ancient gods and other religious icons. The trove is believed to be just one of seven sacred chambers in a network of tunnels known as Balamku "Jaguar God" that sits below Chichén Itzá, a city that accommodated millions of people at its peak during the 13th century. The artifacts have likely been untouched by human hands for more than 1,000 years, according to the INAH.
Though the treasures were probably deliberately sealed off, the ritual cave, rediscovered in 2018 by archaeologists hunting for a sacred well below the city, has had at least one human visitor in the past millennium, National Geographic reported. The cave was initially discovered in 1966 by archaeologist Víctor Segovia Pinto, who wrote a report about the find, but never excavated before directing local farmers to seal the cavern's entrance for reasons that are still unknown. Segovia's records of the discovery went missing, leaving behind a mystery that would take five decades to solve. [30 of the World's Most Valuable Treasures That Are Still Missing]
- video at link -
Last year, archaeologists crawled for hours at a time through a claustrophobic network of pitch-black tunnels below the city to reach the sealed cave's entrance, lead investigator Guillermo de Anda, an archaeologist at the INAH, told National Geographic. Studying the trove of untouched artifacts within the cave will help researchers better understand the culture of Mayan cave rituals, de Anda said.
More:
https://www.livescience.com/64917-lost-mayan-treasure-cave-rediscovered.html
Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)Published 5 March 2019 (3 hours 26 minutes ago)
. . .
Archeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) of Mexico have "re-found" a cave that is "an invaluable treasure of information," and that could help to understand and re-write the history of Chichen Itza, one of the most important ceremonial centers for the Maya ancient civilization.
Guillermo de Anda, archeologist of the INAH and director of the program Gran Acuifero Maya (Great Mayan Aquifer, GAM) stated that the Balamku or "Cave of the Jaguar God" was found 54 years ago was discovered by local Campesinos and by children, who alerted archeologists working in the Chichen Itza archeology complex.
"This is an archeological complex that hasn't been touched or altered, which has a huge value for us," said de Anda to Aristegui Noticias. According to the director fo GAM, the cave's access was blocked after being "accidentally" found and they still don't know the reasons why the archeologists did that 54 years ago, but it is a good thing now. "Because information is there, and we could rewrite history in Chichen Itza."
The cave "was sealed for a long time, the information was stopped in time for more than a thousand years," the data extracted from the cave will allow knowing more information about the Maya, founders of Chichen Itza, and their relations with other ancestral cultures in the territories known today as Mexico.
More:
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Mexico-Mayan-Balamku-Cave-Could-Re-Write-Chichen-Itza-History-20190305-0029.html
Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)In a cave under the ancient city of Chichén Itzá, Mexican archaeologists discovered a trove of ceramic artifacts that appear to be over 1,000 years old.
The archaeologist Guillermo de Anda next to pre-Columbian artifacts in a cave at the Maya ruins of Chichén Itzá.CreditCreditKarla Ortega/Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology, via Associated Press
Karen Zraick
By Karen Zraick
March 6, 2019
Archaeologists announced this week that they had discovered an extraordinary trove of well-preserved Maya artifacts under the ancient city of Chichén Itzá in Mexicos Yucatán Peninsula.
The artifacts were found in a cave called Balamkú, less than two miles from the famed pyramid known as the Temple of Kukulcan, or The Castle, which sits in the center of the site.
Guillermo de Anda, an investigator with the National Institute of Anthropology and History, said in a statement on Monday that the remarkable discovery could help researchers rewrite the history of Chichén Itzá, which flourished from roughly A.D. 750 to 1200.
The city was built on top of a network of waterways, including sinkholes called cenotes, which the ancient Maya believed were sacred places that provided a portal to the underworld. Its name is sometimes translated as the mouth of the well of the Itza, the name of the main ethnic group in the area at the time.
More:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/06/science/chichen-itza-mexico-mayan.html