Archaeologists Found a Smoking Gun Behind the End of the Maya Kingdom's Reign

[Judi Lynn]

How burned artifacts offer a window into the dismantling of a dynasty.

By Tim Newcomb



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The discovery of an early ninth century burning event marks a turning point in Maya rule, archeologists say.

The find is a rare archaeological pinpointing of a historic turning point.

Burning Maya artifacts, some a century old at the time, was likely a well-attended public event.


Archaeologists discovered clues to a fire in Guatemala from between 733 and 881 AD that they say represents a key turning point in Maya rule—a very public turning point.

The discovery at the Maya site of Ucanal in Guatemala “marked a public dismantling of an old regime”—a rather pivotal moment in the collapse of rulers and key point in political power that isn’t often shown so clearly from an archeological find, the authors write in a study published in the journal Antiquity.

The event in question occurred at the capital of the K’anwitznal kingdom near a burial site. The bodies and their ornaments—items include a jewel-adorned stone mask, fragments of a greenstone diadem, and jade ornaments—were moved from a tomb to a public burning site, where fire engulfed some of the centuries-old items for all to see.

“This event marked a moment of change in the kingdom and in the lowlands,” the authors write. “Rather than examine this fire-burning event as a bookend to Maya history, we view it as a pivot point around which the K’anwitznal polity reinvented itself and the city of Ucanal went on to a flourishing of activities.”

The new leadership regime welcomed a non-royal leader called Papmalil, and there is little in the written record indicating how he came to power. “Papmalil’s rule was not only seminal because of his possible foreign origins—perhaps breaking the succession of ruling dynasts at the site—but also because his rule shifted political dynamics in the southern Maya lowlands.”

More:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/archaeology/a64514529/maya-kingdom-collapse-burning-event/