(ORDO NEWS) — In Mexico, a team of archaeologists conducted another stage of excavations in the ancient city of Palenque and discovered a rich collection of ceramics belonging to one of the most poorly understood periods in the history of the Mayan civilization.
The discovery of more than 10,000 ceramic remains will allow researchers to reconstruct the daily life of the ancient Mayan city of Palenque.
The find is also of great interest because almost all the archaeological materials found date back to the seventh century AD.
It is known that at that time the city of Palenque was ruled by Kinich Janaab Pakal – the most iconic ruler of Lakamhi (as the Mayans themselves called the city, now known to us as Palenque).
Scientists note that Pacal is known from many texts, he is considered one of the greatest rulers of the Maya. However, archaeological objects, especially ceramics, from his reign have not been found so far.
In this regard, the excavations turned out to be a great success for the researchers.
They examined the architectural complex of the IV group, located 300 meters northwest of the center of the ancient Mayan city. This complex consists of more than 270 buildings.
The central square and the monument called J6 were studied especially carefully. Earlier, human burials were found on its southern and western slopes.
Therefore, now archaeologists have focused on the study of the eastern slope. They expected to find burials there as well, but did not find a single grave.
Instead, they found more than ten thousand ceramic fragments – probably the remains of ceramic objects that were specially broken for ritual purposes during funeral ceremonies. That is, in fact, these were local shrines.
Preliminary analysis showed that the fragments mainly belonged to ceramic vessels.
The study of the sherds made it possible to establish a chronology going back to the 9th-7th centuries AD. Most of the items found, apparently, were made specifically for ceremonies and were not used in everyday life.
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