FLASH NEWS
What is hidden inside the ancient Mayan pyramids?
2025-05-03 18:37:31 / MISTERE&KURIOZITETE
The ancient Maya built hundreds of pyramids throughout Mesoamerica, from around 1000 BC to 1500 AD, placing a wide variety of objects inside them. But what were these objects ?
Like the pyramids of ancient Egypt, those built by the Maya contained treasures and rich tombs placed alongside the bones of the deceased. But they often also contained more bizarre objects, such as smaller pyramids within larger pyramids.
For example, the pyramid of “El Castillo”, at Chichen Itza on the Yucatan Peninsula, contains a pyramid within a pyramid within a pyramid, just like Russian dolls, matryoshkas.
"When they arrived at a place that was inhabited and then abandoned, the ancient inhabitants of the Yucatan Peninsula did not destroy the old structures," says Andres Tehero-Andrade, a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) who has studied and written extensively about "El Castillo."
They were building a new structure on top of the existing one, which he said was why El Castillo has this structure like the famous Russian dolls. But this practice was not unique to El Castillo. Other Mayan and non-Mayan pyramids also have this type of structure, says Denisa Lorenia Argote Espino, a researcher at Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).
Espino points out that building a pyramid on top of another pyramid “was a common practice in pre-Hispanic times (i.e. before the arrival of the Spanish), and that “the main structures in long-occupied settlements usually have several construction phases . ”
However, pyramids like these are not the most common things archaeologists find at Mayan pyramid sites. While some Mayan temples were used for rituals, others served as tombs for rulers or other elite individuals. These burials contained objects such as jade masks (for the deceased), jade beads, obsidian points, and the bony tail of a fish, which were symbols of self-sacrifice for the ancient Mayans.
The latter were associated with self-sacrificial practices, as they were sometimes inserted into the ears, cheeks, lips, tongue, and penis, and the blood that came out was used to anoint statues of deities. The ancient Maya valued objects made from skins.
One of the most famous examples is a throne made of jaguar skin, found in the pyramid “El Castillo.” “The Classic Maya valued the jaguar skin for its value and beauty, but also as something of great symbolic importance ,” wrote Karl Taube, a professor of anthropology at the University of California , in a 2005 article published in the journal “Ancient Mesoamerica.”
He added that jade was an important component of funeral rites , and of the ritual of invoking the gods and dead ancestors. The Mayan pyramids contained many other extraordinary objects. For example, a pyramid in San Bartolo, Northern Guatemala, contains a fragment of what may be the earliest Mayan calendar ever found, dating back more than 2,200 years.
A pyramid in Chopan, Honduras, has a large inscription that contains more than 2,000 Maya glyphs carved into its steps. The inscription tells the story of the Chopan rulers. The Maya used a writing system that is sometimes called “Mayan hieroglyphs.” This writing system has glyphs that represent sounds that form words that scholars can read and translate./ Bota.al
Happening now...
America may withdraw from Europe, but not from SPAK
Nga Gentian Gaba
ideas
Who is the Surrel Rabbit?
Nga Sidi Hasanaj
The two wrong paths of the opposition with the Ombudsman
Nga Patrik Sadikaj
top
Alfa recipes
TRENDING 
services
- POLICE129
- STREET POLICE126
- AMBULANCE112
- FIREFIGHTER128