Mexican archaeologists unearthed an ancient Maya grave holding a human body estimated to be more than 1,000 years old.
On Monday, the country's National Antiquities Institute (INAH) said that the preserved body was found in an area where workers were finishing construction on a major tourist rail project.
Ancient Maya Grave Unearthed in Mexico
The finding happened earlier this month during archaeological salvage work carried out in tandem with building a multibillion-dollar tourist train in southern Mexico. The latter was designed to draw tourists to the region's many ancient Maya sites and nearby top beach resorts such as Cancun and Tulum.
The rail project is the Maya Train and is considered a top economic development priority of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The project employs several teams of relatively well-funded archaeologists who have rushed to complete excavations so that the construction work will not be delayed, as per Reuters.
The latest project comes as various digs in other regions of the country have suffered budget cuts, hampered efficiency. The ancient Maya grave was discovered during work on constructing a hotel near the major Maya ruins of Palenque in Chiapas state.
This area was previously home to one of the ancient civilizations' largest and most sophisticated urban centers. The skeletal remains that the archaeologists found were located roughly two kilometers from the city's center, home to towering templates and a sprawling palace compound, inside a stone box.
The remains likely pertain to an elite city resident, whom the ancient Maya knows as "Lakamha." Additionally, the box had three ceramic vessels, ear flares, and a pair of greenstone beads.
The INAH said that the individual discovered inside the ancient Maya grave was buried face up and had his head facing north. The institute added that further tests are needed to determine the individual's exact age and other characteristics, according to NDTV.
Ancient Maya Civilization
Scholars credit the ancient Mayan civilization with various major human achievements in art, architecture, astronomy, and writing. Like dozens of other ancient cities clustered around southern Mexico and parts of Central America, Palenque thrived from roughly 300 to 900 AD.
Palenque is also home to another discovery earlier this year when archaeologists discovered a burial chamber that contained a primary and secondary burial. They both had several large ceramic bowls placed inside as offerings. Based on Maya funerary customs, these bowls are left inside the Palenque burial chamber to nourish the deceased in the afterlife.
Those particular burial discoveries were made during archaeological salvage operations within the CP3 structure. The latter underwent infrastructure improvements and renewal as part of the Program for improving Archaeological Zones (Promeza).
The general director of the INAH, Diego Prieto Hernandez, shared a report that detailed the updates on the institution's collaborative fieldwork with the National Fund for the Promotion of Tourism. The work encompassed Section 1 and spanned from Palenque, in Chiapas, to Escarcega, Campeche, according to Ancient Origins.
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