Discover the secret behind the Mayan's

Scientists have discovered the secret hidden behind a 1,500-year-old sculpture altar in a temple deep in the Guatemalan forest, in the Mayan area near the Mexican border.

The nearly 1,500-year-old sculpture altar from the Maya 'La Corona area, located in the Peten region of northern Guatemala, is on display at the National and Ethnographic Archaeological Museum in Guatemala City, Wednesday, 12th. 09/2018.

Initially when found, the altar was covered by roots under a collapsed temple. The process of lifting the giant stone sheet from the roots and moving it to Guatemala City for display in the museum took a year.

This limestone altar depicts the image of a previously unknown king, named Chak Took Ich'aak. This king carried a solid two-headed mannequin that symbolized the two gods at the time.

Hieroglyphs on the altar along with images show that it corresponded on May 12, 544 AD according to the Long Count Maya calendar.

Experts believe that the Maya dynasty of King Kaanul (also known as the Snake King) has pinned the kingdoms of competitors. Tomas Barrientos, co-founder of the project and director of the Center for Archeological Studies - Anthropology at the University of Guatemala, said that the kings of Kaanul dynasties dominated the Maya land.

The excavated altar showed the strategy of expanding their original realm and proved that La Corona played an important role from the beginning of the process.

As vassal in the Kaanul dynasty, Chak Took Ich'aak was also the ruler of major cities near Peru-Waka. The guardian gods of this king are different gods in that area.

Tulane archaeologist, Marcello A. Canuto, sits next to the altar that his team discovered in the rainforest of northern Guatemala.

Professor Marcello of Tulane University said 'the discovery of this altar allows us to identify a completely new king of La Corona that seems to have close political ties with the capital of the Kaanul kingdom, Dzibanche , and with nearby El Peru-Waka city. "

Archaeologists believe that the altar shows the final victory Kaanul has obtained as a result of decades of sophisticated politics and cultural appropriation, not every battle.

Francisco Estrada-Belli, Tulane University archaeologist, who did not participate in discovering La Corona, said: 'behind that are the intrigues of snake kings when they are expanding their empire toward of Tikal. "

The altar is the oldest relic from the classic Maya period to date found in the La Corona area.

Estrada-Belli said that ' not long ago, we thought that winning against Tikal was the result of an unexpectedly quick fight. As in the movie 'Game of Thrones', learning about Maya's expansion strategy is interesting.'

This altar is the latest search to unravel more ancient Mayan civilizations.

Recently, a mask depicting a 7th-century Maya king was found in southern Mexico.

Earlier this year, archaeologists used advanced technology to learn more about lost cities and thousands of ancient structures in the Guatemalan jungle, confirming that Maya civilization is much larger than previously thought. here.

The Maya Empire reached a peak of power in the sixth century, although most cities of civilization were abandoned around 900 AD.