A jade pendant discover in southern Belize has baffle archaeologist , and could greatly carry what we know of the later part of Maya civilization . symbolization on the pendant wind at an unexpected evolution in Maya story , and the location and circumstances where the stone was found bring to its significance .
For hundreds of years the Mayans build one of the most advance refinement the world had yet seen in an arena covering advanced - day Guatemala , Belize , and parts of neighboring country . Then around 850 CE , their authoritative polish collapsed , probably as a result of local climate change . Although subsequent civilizations in the region maintain aspects of Maya culture , the wealth and technical development was never regained .
While digging atNim Li Punitin Belize , Professor Geoffrey Braswellof the University of California , San Diego discovered a jade pendant 19 cm ( 7.4 inches ) wide , 10 centimeters ( 4 inches ) high , and just 0.8 centimeters ( 0.3 inches ) thick . This makes it the second biggest piece of jade jewelry found in Belize . Slicing such a thin shaving off a larger block would have drive both perseverance and competency . Braswell believe it was done with string and slut dust as cutting implements .
On one side the pendant has a profoundly groove tetraiodothyronine cut into it , the Mayan symbol for wind or breathing space . The other has markings indicating something of its history , admit its first utilisation escort , which converted from the Maya calendar to the Gregorian places its origins in 672 CE . The site from which it was recovered indicates the pendant was buried in around 800 CE . judge by sculptures showing the mogul wearing a tonne - determine pendant while scattering incense in 721 and 731 , it remained an crucial part of local spiritual observations for much of that time .
The precious pendent and some of the items entomb with it . Geoffrey Braswell
For the Mayans , the wind god was not a minor deity . They were dependent on the annual monsoon , and knew the consequences when it give out . The fact that the pendant , apparently see deeply sacred through several generation , was immerse , along with 25 pottery vessels and another sacred pit , around the time matter begin to go speculative for the Mayans may be significant . It is possible the impoundment was a desperate attempt to placate a god citizenry thought had deserted them .
Another interesting aspect to the uncovering is that Nim Li Punit , was at the fringe of the Mayan world – not the sort of place where such a valuable Edward Durell Stone would be expected , particularly since the jade was quarried in what is now Guatemala . While many valuable detail were looted and then immerse again , Braswell does n’t cogitate this is the case for the pendant . Fortunately , however , the inscriptions on the stone recount a tarradiddle .
Although there is not yet full agreement on the Mayan language , Braswell and his colleagues translate the inscriptions in the journalAncient Mesoamericaas indicating the pendant was made for the king Janaab ' Ohi K’inich , whose mother , it say , descend from Cahal Pech , 100 kilometers ( 60 miles ) away on the other side of a mountain range . In an epoch when all travel was on foot and the rainforest hard to click , such journey were rarified . Janaab ' Ohi K’inich ’s father appears to have make out from even further afield .
Braswell think that Janaab ' Ohi K’inich was the founder of a new dynasty on the bound of the empire . instead , the pendent may have reached its resting place as a talent , given to an authoritative friend some meter before . “ We did n’t think we ’d see royal , political connection to the N and the west of Nim Li Punit , ” Braswell in astatement .
The site at Nim Li Punit , Belize , where the pendent was discovered . The urban center was abandoned as part of the climate - induced Mayan crash shortly after the pendent was lay to rest . Geoffrey Brasswell
