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Mayan Artifacts Used in Ritual Sacrifices Discovered at the Bottom of
Sacred Lake

By Tom Metcalfe, Live Science Contributor | February 28, 2019 07:32am

A team of Polish archaeologists diving in a possibly sacred lake in
northern Guatemala has recovered hundreds of Mayan artifacts,
including ceremonial bowls and obsidian blades that may have been used
in ancient animal sacrifices.

Scientists in Guatemala are examining the artifacts to learn more
about the material culture of the Mayan people at different times.
Researchers also want to learn how the objects may relate to Mayan
religious practices.

The researchers recovered more than 800 artifacts from Lake Petén
Itzá, which once surrounded the ancient Mayan city of Nojpetén,
according to the team leader, Magdalena Krzemien, an archaeologist at Jagiellonian University in Poland.

The island that was once the site of the ancient Mayan city, linked by
a causeway to the shore, is now the site of the modern town of Flores
in Guatemala's northernmost province of Petén — a landlocked region
famous for its rugged mountains and jungles.
A Mayan ceramic pot on the floor of Guatemala's Lake Petén Itzá.
A Mayan ceramic pot on the floor of Guatemala's Lake Petén Itzá.
Credit: Peten Itza Project
Sacrificial finds

Many of the artifacts found in the lake were small pieces of ceramic,
with a few dating to the Mayan proto-classic period — between 150 B.C.
and A.D. 250 — while most dated to the Mayan post-classic period, from
A.D. 1000 to A.D. 1697.

Krzemien said the largest objects found in the lake included three
ceramic bowls, one inside the other, and an obsidian knife blade. This
was similar to those used in ancient rituals, suggesting it could have
been used for human or animal sacrifices, she said.
This obsidian knife blade found in Lake Petén Itzá could have been
used for sacrifices, the researchers say.
This obsidian knife blade found in Lake Petén Itzá could have been
used for sacrifices, the researchers say.
Credit: Peten Itza Project

Small animal bones were found inside some of the bowls, which may
indicate that the vessels were used for sacrifices, Krzemien said.
However, it's also possible that some small animals entered and died
there later, she said.

The lake surrounding the ancient city of Nojpetén likely played an
important part in ancient Mayan rituals.

"Water had very special and symbolic meaning in ancient Mayans
beliefs," Krzemien said. "It was thought to be the medium [or] door to
the underground world, [the] world of death," where the gods lived,
she said.

As a result of these beliefs, the ancient Mayans sacrificed animals
and sometimes humans to their gods in lakes and in flooded limestone
sinkholes known as cenotes, which are common in the region.

Krzemien said that the latest expedition did not establish that the
whole of Lake Petén Itzá was a holy place, but some of the ritual
objects they found in place underwater showed that at least part of
the lake was considered "sacred" by the people who lived there.
Mayan lake

The ancient city of Nojpetén was a center of Mayan civilization in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica — a civilization that extended across modern southeast Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and parts of Honduras and El
Salvador. Among the most famous Mayan archaeological sites is the
ancient city of Chichen Itza, in the Yucatán Peninsula of modern
Mexico.

The Mayans made advances — including an intricate astronomical
calendar and the culture's distinctive pictorial writing — in a
civilization that lasted more than 2,000 years before the arrival of
Europeans in the Americas. Mayan culture also influenced other
Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Aztec culture of central
Mexico.

The six-member Polish diving team of the recent study included
archaeologists from Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Nicolaus
Copernicus University in Torun and the University of Warsaw. The
researchers spent a month at the lake in August and September last
year, taking a total of about 90 dives at various depths.

The diving team worked with six archaeologists from Guatemala, led by
Bernard Hermes, and with two Polish divers who had sponsored the
expedition, Sebastian Lambert and Iga Snopek. Krzemien, a doctoral
student, is now studying Mayan archaeology during an international
exchange with a Mexican university. She said the Polish and Guatemalan archaeologists plan to reunite for one month a year to further explore
Lake Petén Itzá underwater. They are already planning their next
expedition for August.

https://www.livescience.com/64880-sunken-mayan-artifacts-sacred-lake.html

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