Archeologists Uncover Mayan Palace Ruins in the Yucatán
As we’re about to ring in a new decade, the importance of reflecting on our past has never been as significant as it is today
Photo: Unsplash/@javchz
As we’re about to ring in a new decade, the importance of reflecting on our past has never been as significant as it is today. When it comes to science and technology, we’ve made so many strides — and, yet we still have so much to discover. Take, for example, the magnificent beauty of the Chichen-Itza ruins. The structure dates back thousands of years, and while the area has had millions of visitors, archeologists continue to find new structures and artifacts from the Mayan-Toltec civilization.
Just last week, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) discovered a Mayan Palace in the Kuluba archaeological zone. The structure, which dates back a thousand years, is located 63 miles west Cancún in Yucatán, Mexico. According to the INAH, the structure is 55 meters long, by 15 wide and six high. The archeologists report their findings as being in two separate groups. Some of the material found dates back between 600–900 AD and the other between 850–1050 AD.
“It was in the Terminal Classic when Chichén Itzá, becoming a prominent metropolis in the northeast of present-day Yucatan, extended its influence over sites such as Kulubá, which, due to the data we have and Chichén and obsidian-type ceramic materials from the same sources that provided this Mayan city, we can infer that it became an Itzá enclave,” INAH report.
According to CNN, the palace could have been used by “priests and government officials during two eras of the Mayan civilization.”
It’s mindboggling to think a structure that has always been there is just now being discovered. Still, part of the work of the INAH is continuously researching and discovering new material. There is still so much that has yet to be found.
Earlier this year, the INAH made another startling discovery when they uncovered several Maya artifacts inside a cave located under the ancient city of Chichén Itzá in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.
“Balamkú will help rewrite the history of Chichen Itzá, in Yucatán,” Guillermo de Anda, an investigator with the INAH, said in a statement earlier this year. “The hundreds of archaeological artifacts, belonging to seven documented offerings so far, are in an extraordinary state of preservation. Because the context remained sealed for centuries, it contains invaluable information related to the formation and fall of the ancient City of Water Sorcerers, and who were the founders of this iconic site.”
So, as we toast to the new year, let’s also raise a glass to our ancestors.
