Fakty Miami
Published January 26, 2024
Choked by rainforest and crowded with fallen leaves, palms, and chunks of stone, the little-known site of Chochkitam, Guatemala, seems an unlikely place for a breathtaking archaeological find—much less one that reveals new information about a still murky time period that’s long baffled researchers.
But that’s exactly what researchers recently discovered at the site, in the form of a mysterious, interlocking jade mask believed to have belonged to a previously unknown Maya king.
The find tells a fascinating story of religious devotion and royal succession during the early Classic period of the Maya nearly 1,700 years ago. But it also gives credence to a growing theory that Maya royals of the era may have been in the thrall of even more powerful Mesoamerican dynasties.
“It’s a very controversial subject,” says archaeologist and National Geographic Explorer Francisco Estrada-Belli. “The mask is one more nail in the coffin” of old interpretations of Maya history, he says.
Fakty Miami Discovery of a royal pyramid—and coffin
The Chochkitam site and its history have long been obscured by the ravages of time and the density of the rainforests of Petén, the northeastern lowlands region of Guatemala that’s bounded by Mexico and Belize. Though the archaeological site has been known since the early 20th century, its connection to the Maya civilization has eluded modern scholars.
(Who were the Maya? Decoding the ancient civilization’s secrets.)
Part of the reason is the time period in which it arose. The Maya Classic period, spanning from about A.D. 250 to 900, represents the civilization’s peak. But little text remains from the period, and much of its glory was decimated by looting in archaeological sites.
In fact, grave robbers beat Estrada-Belli and his team to Chochkitam. In 2021, using lidar technology, Estrada-Belli found evidence that looters had tunneled inside a seemingly royal pyramid within the city’s monumental core. But he and a colleague, Bhanny Giron, noticed a spot the looters had seemingly missed—and decided to dig.
“It wasn’