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Judi Lynn

(160,211 posts)
Thu Jun 12, 2014, 01:27 AM Jun 2014

Ancient Mayan Sculptures and Artwork Discovered in Guatemala

Ancient Mayan Sculptures and Artwork Discovered in Guatemala
By Parismita Goswami
June 11, 2014 12:19 IST



Mayan Civilization (Wikimedia Commons/Wolfgang Sauber) (Representational Image)

A team of researchers have uncovered a council house in Guatemala containing altars, sculpted images of animals and incense burners. The structure is estimated to be around 700 years old.

The house has "two colonnaded halls constructed side by side. The halls were decorated with sculpted reptile, parrot and turtle imagery," said Timothy Pugh, a professor at Queens College in New York during an annual meeting at the Society for American Archaeology in Austin, Texas, according to Live Science. The house is located at the site of Nixtun-Ch'ich' in Petén, Guatemala.

Archaeologists believe that Chakan Itza, a Mayan group would have used the council house to hold meetings and to organise official marriage ceremonies and alliances.

"Basically almost every political and religious ritual would have been held there. The leaders who gathered there would have held power in the community and perhaps the broader region. Among the artifacts is an incense burner showing the head of Itzamna, who was the "shaman of the gods," Pugh told Live Science in an interview.

More:
http://www.ibtimes.co.in/ancient-mayan-sculptures-artwork-discovered-guatemala-602003

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