Snake King - the 'puzzle piece' of the most mysterious of Maya: The archaeologists are crazy about decoding

In the glorious years of the mysterious background, there is a truth that very few people know, that is the existence of the mighty kingdom of the Snake Kings.

LTS: Maya is said to be one of the largest and most mysterious civilizations in human history.

The article by the famous National Geographic reporter Erik Vance will show us the mystery of the journey to find the mighty "forgotten" empire under the maintenance of the Snake King in the Mayan civilization history. know, through practical experience and sharing of top archaeologists.

Lesson 1: Search for the "missing" kingdom Snake King in Maya civilization: Mysterious puzzle pieces

Search for the first pieces of Maya civilization

The ancient city of Holmul at first glance is not very impressive, with a series of steep hills, dense forests in northern Guatemala, near the Mexican border.

The forests here in the Petén basin, thick and warm but drier than you think. Everything around was strangely quiet, except for the cicadas screaming and occasional screams of monkeys.

Jade masks found in a grave in Calakmul city are said to be more precious than gold, because according to the Jade Mayan concept, it suggests the annual rebirth and agricultural cycle.

On closer inspection, you may notice that most of these hills are arranged into gigantic arcs, like the image many tourists sit around a fire on a cold night.

Then, as you get closer, you'll notice that the parts of those seemingly mediocre hills are made of cut stone, and some also have a mysterious tunnel on either side of the stone.

In fact, they are not all hills, but some are ancient pyramids "forgotten" after the Mayan civilization collapsed a millennium ago.

In fact, this is a "bustling" settlement in the classical period of the Mayan civilization (about 250-900 years), now Central America and southern Mexico.

However, due to the scramble for supreme power and long-term conflicts between cities, it led to the creation of the Mayan empire in history.

Mystical Empire of the Snake King and the first findings

One of the cities here has prevailed and has a close relationship with an empire in Maya history. It was the empire ruled by the snake kings of Kaanul, a dynasty that only a few decades ago had not been known.

Thanks to the area around the city, including Holmul, and through the search and excavation process, archaeologists are now pairing pieces of the story of mysterious snake kings in the Mayan civilization. .

In the 7th century, the kings of the rulers ruled the kingdom at Calakmul city (today southern Mexico).At Calakmul, they established, built and managed an extremely complex political alliance system.In the picture is a pyramid nearly 55 meters high.

Holmul is not a big and famous place like the legendary ancient city of Tikal, and is almost ignored by archaeologists.

It was not until 2000, archaeologist Francisco Estrada-Belli, came to this place to explore and collect some information about the Mayan origin.

One of the first things that Mr. Estrada-Belli found was a few kilometers of the central area to build the pyramid at Holmul. In it, there are traces of a mural depicting soldiers on a pilgrimage to a remote place.

Strangely, some parts of this mural were destroyed by the ancient Mayans themselves, as if they wanted to erase the historical story it described. Hoping to find the cause, Estrada-Belli archaeologist walked into the tunnel near several nearby pyramids.

The unique way of building the Mayan inhabitants of Holmul allowed researchers to enter the tunnel and admire the structures below almost exactly as they were left behind.

No longer fuzzy, reliefs prove the existence of the Snake King

In 2013, Estrada-Belli and his colleagues went on to study the ancient Maya mystery by invading one of the larger pyramids through an ancient passage.

Passing through a small hole on the floor, the team found a bas-relief about 8 meters long, 2 meters high, dating back about 1,400 years, beautifully preserved, just above the entrance of a grave. neck.

The relief is well preserved by wrapping a very rare but easily broken layer of mud.

The relief is quite intact color after 1,400 years made the archaeologists surprised.Photo: Telegraph.

Estrada-Belli said the relief can depict three men, including the king of Holmul, who is sanctified by the Mayan civilization. This is considered a prominent and iconic work of art.

When Estrada-Belli closely observed the relief, he noticed a series of unique engravings at the bottom. These are sculptures, listing Holmul kings. Near the central location of the reliefs is strange carved figures, a snake is laughing.

The 1,400-year-old relief is believed to be the front of an ancient tower in Petén, about 600km north of the capital of Guatemala.Photo: Telegraph.

The discovery made Estrada-Belli know that this is one of the most memorable discoveries in his archaeological research career.

The 1,400-year-old relief and the image of the Mayan ancient city of Homul.Photo: Ancientpages.

"I saw the names of Kaanul's solid kings. Before they were like" anonymous "and then, it was great that we were in the middle of the most interesting history of the Mayan civilization , " said Estrada-Belli. know.

Kingship game: Snake King is "ruler"

In addition to discovering the king or the king of Kaanul, archaeologists have also discovered some details about the struggle of kingship between the two kingdoms in the world of the ancient Mayan people.

Specifically, one is located in the central area of ​​the ancient city of Tikal in Guatemala, the Kaanul kingdom in Calakmul, in present-day Mexico.

The ancient city of Tikal used to have a population of nearly 60,000 with many "spectacular" buildings in 750.

In addition, archaeologists also found hundreds of erect stone blocks like a stele in this area. Observing the hieroglyphs engraved on stone steles, the team recreated the history of Tikal until it collapsed in the 9th century.

About 1,400 years ago, the ruins of the Calakmul citadel were once the kingdom of the Snake Kings who reached the peak and mysteriously disappeared "more than a century later."

However, the period from 560-690 suddenly did not have any record. This 130-year period was called by archaeologists a period of Tikal's disruption and considered it a mystery of the ancient Mayan.

Earlier, archaeologists tried to find a mystery about this period in the 1960s, when they found strange carvings scattered around several study areas. The image of the snake's head and there are signs related to the royal family.

In 1973, archaeologist Joyce Marcus conjectured these traits and conjectured that they might be related to Tikal's hiatus.

In the rainy season, the forests of Petén during the rainy season make people almost impossible to overcome. They are "devastated" by poisonous plants and sweeping insects.

The symbol of the mysterious king's reign appeared in many places related to the Mayan civilization.

However, archaeologist Marcus studied them for several months, went to the ruins and tried to gather information about strange drawings. In places where she passed, she saw traces of the snake's image, especially around the old city of Calakmul (Mexico).

When Marcus arrived at Calakmul, she discovered that the two pyramids in the middle could be easily seen from the air through satellite images. Marcus was surprised by their size, which used to be home to about 50,000 people.

Many stelae are scattered everywhere and most are empty. Limestone is so soft, that over the centuries, they have been eroded, sweeping away the traces on it. Marcus said, she only found two solid drawings in this city.

The mystery of images of snakes urged Simon Martin, a young British researcher, to try to gather all the information he could find about the snake image in Calakmul and smaller places. .

Simon used suggestions of battles and political intrigues in the Maya world to form a "picture" of information about the solid kings and their dynasties.

Simon shared that, unlike Tikal, we know about the mystery of Calakmul from many others and their arrangement is not easy.

Finally, Simon and archaeologist Nikolai Grube have published a book called "Annals of the Kings and Emperors of Maya", describing a mix of the kingdoms of the ancient Maya world. in history.

At the center of that world, there was a brilliant century, that of the king's reign. Like archaeologist Marcus, Simon thinks that the kingdom of the snake king is like a "black hole", sucking all the cities around it and creating what may be the Mayan empire.

Of course, the book still left many questions about the snake king, such as how they lived, ruled, fought for the kingdom. It was even questionable whether the king of snakes actually existed.

There is no evidence of the king's rule in Calakmul before 635. Some experts imagine that, perhaps hundreds of years before the classical period, the solid kings had moved to other places and Create a megacity.

A fresco beside a pyramid in Calakmul shows a rare sight of Mayan daily life under the reign of solid kings.It is a picture of a woman in a blue shirt helping a person with a big porridge pot.

However, this is only a guess. The image of the snake king was first discovered in Dzibanché, a city in southern Mexico, about 80 miles northeast of Calakmul.

Snake kings may have created a bold play to control politics, compete with Tikal in a volatile period, by setting up "games" like staging a political marriage.

But this is the way conquest usually happens in the Mayan world to build relationships with important allies.

Perhaps no one can master this power game more than the Snake King.

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