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INAH
Blood-red paint clings to the walls of a 1,500-year-old tomb chamber hidden within a Maya pyramid in Mexico.
A tiny remote-controlled camera is providing remarkable views of an apparently intact 1,500-year-old Maya tomb that's thought to hold a ruler's remains.
The 2-inch-long camera was lowered into a vault inside a pyramid at the Palenque archaeological site, in the hills of the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. Archaeologists have known about the vault since 1999, but the only access to the room was through a small shaft in the pyramid — just big enough to fit the micro-camera through.
The images reveal a series of nine figures painted on the walls in black on a vivid, blood-red background. Dishes, apparently meant to hold funerary offerings, are set on the floor. The camera also spotted pieces of a funerary shroud made of jade and mother of pearl. "The characteristics of the funeral site show that the bones could belong to a sacred ruler from Palenque, probably one of the founders of a dynasty," Reuters quoted archaeologist Martha Cuevas as saying.
For more about today's revelations, check out this report from Mexico. And don't miss the National Institute of Anthropology and History's Spanish-language news release, which includes a slideshow and an infographic.
INAH
The tomb is hidden within a pyramid known as Templo XX at Mexico's Palenque archaeological site.
INAH
Workers had to climb down a ladder to get to the place where the micro-camera could be lowered through a small shaft.
INAH
A worker points to the small shaft that provides the only access to the tomb below.
INAH
This camera view shows what appears to be a stylized figure, painted on the red walls of the 1,500-year-old Maya tomb.
Watch a Spanish-language video from INAH about the Palenque site.
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Pretty serious with blood painted walls, Hopefully they did not put any boogerman curses on those who mess with the site like the Egyptians did.............
Yeah, let's hope they hurry up and pop this tomb open so dormant infectious diseases can be released upon the 21st Century explorers! LOL : )~
Hey man......you never know. I read an article on King Tut's tomb how something like 18 people that were there the day his tomb wall was breached died of unexplainable causes within the following year or so..
I can't get video at work and the internet filter is very strict at work, is there any indication that the tomb was ransacked or not? The term "pieces of funeral shroud and mother of pearl" sounds like it was hit, like 99% of the tombs they find in Egypt.
And, if I'm not mistaken, isn't Mayan artwork almost non-existent since they were systematically wiped out by the Spanish? If I recall the Nat Geo article from a couple months ago, the only remaining artwork from the Mayan culture are very few pieces of pottery/clay figures they've discovered. No doubt, anthropologists are foaming at the mouth right now for more peeks at the artwork on those walls.
Dammit, you guys took the idea about releasing a curse. LOL
Its the curse that causes the 2012 apocolypse.
@DMan the tomb looks untouched. Artwork is in tact with what looks like the only damage has been from 1,500 years.
Painted in blood-red paint, not painted in blood.
Really cool pictures!
More, more, more!!! This is so fascinating! More pics. Is there a link?
Zapper, follow the link to the INAH news release and you'll find a slideshow with MORE pictures, as well as an infographic that shows you the structure of the pyramid and tomb. It's in Spanish, though.
Couldn't get it to work yesterday, I'll try again. It's probably our system. Thanks!
You obviously have not seen the 2004 film Curse of the Maya, starring David Heavener.
Mayans are worse - they send zombies after you.
Is that red paint or is it really blood?
That first picture is
vaguelyreally disturbing.The blood wouldn't be red after 1500 years. It was probably painted to resemble it, though.
of course its blood, plant ezymes would alter the discoloring of the blood.
of course the air now going tru it will make it darker now
The first photo made me think someones head exploded. The rest of the photos are fascinating. Lovely scenery. But the first one is just creepy.
@ Dee: After that long underground, it'd be black or a dark brown if it were really blood.
It is creepy and with their religion involving human sacrifice I can see where people would immediately think that red room was covered in blood.
But, there is no way it is. It's just paint. Think about it. If you scrape your arm and stain your shirt it turns brown after a day. There's no way it would still be red after thousands of years.
Other than that though really cool pictures. I'd like to see more of the art.
Not exactly to King Tut standards, but not bad for people who never discovered the wheel.
dud they had wheel LOCK bond and STOCK.!! they invented Death BAsketball!
Ummm. Have you ever been to Chiapas? It's pretty mountainous and craggy, and the wheel would have served very minimal purpose....
Haven't they found clay batteries in Mayan sites? I don't think anyone has figured out what they used them for but that's pretty advanced.
Its their understanding of the cosmos that leaves me impressed.
Might appears to be paint, but its really is blood, they should get DNA samples of the paint to be sure.
Mayan has disappeared so this is what they used for painting most of the red, they added plant ezymes to the blood so it would not lose it colors.
oopps ive said to much!
not blood. it's achiote
How can blood last 1500 years on a wall, yet the body of whomever is buried in the tomb be reduced to bone and dust? If it was blood, it would've already decomposed and left very little, if any trace left. Plant enzymes or not, the majorirty of organics have a tendency to disintegrate over time, given the right conditions.
well its was covered up pretty well, now all the fresh air going in will change the color fresh bacteria flowing thru. you be surprised what us mayans are capable of.
yes im of mayan decent. so i know these things.
have you every watched CSI blood can stay red for a long time, with the right properties, mayans were brutal and knowledgable about everything. just like a mad scientist, nobody builds a bomb but a mad scienetist. correct, the same goes here.
It's paint.
Until you provide proof your claim is malarkey. I don't buy the 'of Mayan decent'. Even if you were you wouldn't know what was going through their heads 1500 years ago.
looks like my first college apartment....
Looks like my post-recession apartment...
minus that cool art.
OK, I see where this is going ... "Indiana Jones and the Tomb of Blood." I'd watch that movie.
No, seriously, you guys need to take that picture down. It'll give me nightmares.
Alan, you have game..........
I think it tells the true story of Mayan life. Wonderful being able to look back in history this way.
Now back to the inevitable Indiana Jones and the Temple of Montezuma movie soon to be released. LOL
Looks pretty ominus, I get chilled just viewing the photos, and that red color is horrible!!! Its mysteriously vibrant, I never would have expected that. If not cursed it has to be haunted by the spirits of so many hundreds of thousands of young people murdered by the Mayan high priests for live sacrifices, cutting out their organs, but especially treatful was their youthful beating hearts to feed to their king.....ugh!!! These young people were massacered then their bodies were thrown down long pyramid steps crushing and beating their bodies to a pulp. No wonder the peasants dissappeared, probably during the night so they could protect their children from these blood thirsty monsters. Who cares about their stupid calendars ending in 2012 or in 2013, they were evil and treated their people like lambs to be slaughtered, what kind of genius is that, nothing but evil could do this and feel righteous.
You have your groups mixed up, it was the Aztecs who did all the major sacrificing.
The Mayans sacrificed humans too. Google it.
an excerpt I found:
" In the religious hierarchy, the head was called Ah Kin Mai ("The Highest One of the Sun") who ruled over all the priests below him (called Ah Kin , "The One of the Sun"). There were two special priestly functions involved in human sacrifice: the chacs , who were elderly men who held down the victim, and the nacon , who cut the living heart from the victim. "
Pretty horrific. I don't think I'd want to live there.
Check this one out:
" Mayas had a sense of physical beauty very different from other peoples in Mesoamerica. They prized a long, backward sloping forehead; in order to attain this look, infants would have their skulls bound with boards. Crossed-eyes were an important item of physical beauty; infants would have objects dangled in front of their eyes in order to permanently cross their eyes (this is still practiced today)."
Yeah that's hot... squashed foreheads and crossed eyes.
both are from:
public.wsu.edu/~dee/CIVAMRCA/MAYAS.HTM
They did discover the wheel. It was used mainly in toys as the Maya did not have a beast, like a horse or oxen, strong enough to pull a cart. They also had roads between the cities for such carts to go on, but it was easier to walk. Most heavy material was most likely carried on water or was close by the cities. Go check anything written by Linda Schiele, Michael Coe, or David Stuart.
WOW guys, the sentence says "blood red", meaning the color of whatever was used to paint the walls is the COLOR of blood.
That is correct, when blood dries it dries black.
Blood would also not last 1000+ years. LOL
Hey what's with the JimmyJohns dude down there?
;o)
Incredible civilization, though their way of helping the sun rise the next day was a bit harsh... Cortez sure found out!
so many anthropologists here :) the red is not blood. it is probably achiote.
Odd how these people can find old graves, take the dead bodies and there organs in mummified cartons and call it science. But if a old dude needs money and pulls a few teeth gold caps out of a skull they call it a crime. Also notice how they can find these tombs but cant find a cure for cancer. Hmmmm..... Im sure they will probably charge a fee to walk this area one day as a tourist site. Humans suck.
The abysmal depth of human stupidity never ceases to amaze me. Its not blood on the walls. The reference is the color looking blood like.
I imagine this Mayan Tomb will closely resemble the Israeli Leaders Nuclear Bunker in the future. The same nuclear bunker they recently moved into as a exercise presumably to shield themselves from a probable Russian MIRV'd ICBM.
It never ceases to amaze me that it appears the Mayans with some help discovered the science of cycles of time and yet Christian leaders were so afraid of that knowledge they were hell bent on destroying all evidence including the Mayan people.
There are stories of Jesus coming to the Americas after he left the Jews. Maybe it's his tomb...those Mayans would have hated him as much as they hated their kids...Right? or am I getting my "hater" history mixed-up? Well, I guess we'll all beleive whatever the hell we want, without regards to facts or logic or common sense.
WRONG! Some 1,000 years ago a Christ (anyone anointed by the Creators energy's) came to the Mayan and TAUGHT THEM their systems of time cycles, mathematics and civilization then left as he came by the Ocean.
Sadly, on the same time cycle many hundreds of years later, Cortez and his blood thirsty men arrived from the same area. The Mayan leaders falsely thought those savages were connected with the man that had come before. What little history which the evil Christian leaders did not erase or destroy appears to indicate while one was obviously extremely intelligent, gifted and 'good', the ones that came on the same time cycle many hundreds of years later were 180 degrees different, evil, diseased and the harbingers of death and utter destruction.
In GREEK the word Christ simply means ANYONE who is anointed by the energy's of the creator. Jesus by the very Greek definition was simply one of many such 'Christs'. Oh but Christians try vainly to copy write anything to do with spirituality often thru obvious theft of many previous ancient earth religions in the process.
Oh god it's A. Smith, conspiracy blogger. This same guy spammed every Libya story with al-Qaeda conpsiracy babble that only him and Gadhafi believe.
Perhaps you could study the history of the Mayan civilization before spewing out some of your trash comments regarding how you mistakeningly think Al Qaeda is not involved with the East Libyan Rebels where Al Qaeda has been operating for the past 20 YEARS.
Vine commenters and Newvine moderators have previously warned Dangerous Mind and suspended you Dangerous Mind for your assine attacks on Newsvine commenters. It appears you are simply continuing such practices.
These are some of the dumbest posts I have seen yet. You people live in fairy worlds.
That is very nice video. Thanks.
It is blood red color. There is no mention of the walls being covered with blood.
We now know that they were excellent ladder makers.
I think these are actually the Temples made by the Laminites and Nephites as depicted in the Book Of Momon. This must be near the Lost City of Zerahemla. yeah???
WOW!!! In that first picture, I can see why people would think it was blood! These people were creepy. Not to much different than they are now.
Nothing like showing modern day ignorance on a story of ancient times. Only the truly uninformed would think it was actually 1000 + year old blood. They knew that then, but you still don't and it's the year 2011.
This is actually a Temple built by the Laminites and Nephites as described in The Book Of Mormon. The lost city of Zerahemla must be close by. Oh joy! They finally found it.
Nope, this temple was built by the Mayans, a race of people which actually existed.
Mormons are very nice people. If they want to believe weird stuff, let them.
Besides, didn't you notice all those Christian and Jewish artifacts and wall drawings?
The remains of a ruler - what, a jagged three inches?