Tomb of Lady K'abel, Maya Queen and Holy Snake Lord, Discovered in Guatemala

Posted on October 4, 2012

The tomb of Lady K'abel, a late 7th century Maya Holy Snake Lord and queen has been discovered in Guatemala. Archaeologists used the carved alabaster vessel pictured above to help conclude the tomb they found belonged to K'abel. The vessel was found inside the burial chamber. Archaeologists say K'abel is considered one of the great queens of Classic Maya civilization.

The scientists say in a release that a "depiction of the woman, mature with a lined face and a strand of hair in front of her ear, and four glyphs carved into the jar" are evidence the tomb is K'abel's. Other vessels in the tomb and carvings on the outside of the tomb also lead researchers to believe the tomb belonged to the ancient queen.

David Freidel, Washington University in St. Louis archaeologist and co-director of the expedition, says, "The Classic Maya civilization is the only 'classical' archaeological field in the New World - in the sense that like archaeology in Ancient Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia or China, there is both an archaeological material record and an historical record based on texts and images."

Freidel explains the findings in this video and why they are confident the tomb belongs to K'abel. He says, "It's as close to a smoking gun in archaeology as you can get." Freidel says K'abel was both a queen and a supreme warlord. Take a look:



More from Science Space & Robots