What's inside the ancient Maya pyramids? 2
The ancient Maya built hundreds of pyramids across Mesoamerica between 1,000 BC and 1,500 AD, and they placed many objects accordingly.
But what exactly did they put inside them?
Palenque is an archaeological site located on the western edge of Chiapas, Mexico.
It turns out that, like the pyramids of ancient Egypt, the pyramids built by the Mayans also contained many treasures and burial items.
For example, the pyramid `El Castillo`, at the site of Chichén Itzá in the Yucatán Peninsula, is a giant pyramid with a very special structure, it has many pyramids inside with a different arrangement.
This pyramid is 24m high, built around the 9th century, and is considered evidence of the Mayans’ very high level of astronomical knowledge.
Andrés Tejero-Andrade, a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), who researched and wrote: `The ancient inhabitants of the Yucatán peninsula, when they came to a living site and happened to
And this type of construction is not unique to El Castillo;
Jaguar Throne inside the `Templo de Kukulkán` pyramid – a Mesoamerican step pyramid located at the center of the Chichén Itzá archaeological site.
However, such pyramid piles are not the most common thing archaeologists find in Maya pyramids.
Burial objects are often artifacts such as jade masks (for the deceased), jade beads, obsidian blades and stingray spines…
Calakmul is a ruins hidden inside the tropical forest of Campache, Mexico.
Karl Taube, a professor of anthropology at the University of California, Riverside, wrote in a 2005 article published in the journal Ancient Mesoamerica: `The Classic Maya valued jade not only for its preciousness and beauty.
The Maya pyramids contain many other notable artifacts.
A pyramid at Copan, Honduras, has a large inscription containing more than 2,000 Maya inscriptions carved into its staircase.
