Berliner Tageblatt - Ancient Mayan maize god sculpture found in Mexico

NYSE - LSE

CMSC	0.11%	21.744	$
BCC	2.7%	86.6	$
CMSD	-0.73%	21.82	$
RBGPF	1.08%	70.5	$
RIO	1.43%	101.1	$
RYCEF	1.1%	20.85	$
RELX	0.14%	35.52	$
GSK	1.49%	52.96	$
BCE	-0.09%	22.75	$
NGG	0.58%	80.88	$
BTI	1.01%	59.33	$
JRI	1.17%	12.81	$
VOD	1.17%	16.19	$
BP	-1.44%	41.63	$
AZN	0.87%	161.42	$

Ancient Mayan maize god sculpture found in Mexico / Photo: © INAH/AFP

Ancient Mayan maize god sculpture found in Mexico

CULTURE 01.06.2022

Archaeologists have uncovered a roughly 1,300-year-old sculpture representing the head of a Mayan maize god in ruins in southeastern Mexico, the National Institute of Anthropology and History said.

Text size:

The artefact was found in Palenque facing east to west, "which would symbolize the birth of the maize plant with the first rays of the sun," it said in a statement Tuesday.

The sculpture was part of "an offering that was placed on a pond, emulating the entrance of the deity to the underworld, in an aquatic environment," the institute added.

The discovery "allows us to begin to know how the ancient Maya of Palenque constantly relived the mythical passage of the birth, death and resurrection of the maize deity," said researcher Arnoldo Gonzalez Cruz.

As the piece was found in humid conditions, it is in the process of gradually drying out before it is restored, the institute said.

O.Krause--BTB

Berliner Tageblatt - Ancient Mayan maize god sculpture found in Mexico

Ancient Mayan maize god sculpture found in Mexico

Featured

How online disinformation fuelled Ceuta migrant surge

Istanbul cymbals: From Ottoman war tool to pulse of global music

UK mansion where 'listeners' spied on Nazi generals becomes museum

Millions of Thais banish the booze for Buddhist Lent