#uxul

[theshunbun]

I do need to do more Uxul art ♡

[archaeologicalnews]

Maya dismembered their enemies: Researchers discover a 1,400-year old mass grave at Uxul, Mexico

Researchers of the Department of Anthropology of the Americas at the University of Bonn have discovered a mass grave in an artificial cave in the historical Maya city of Uxul (Mexico). Marks on the bones indicate that the individuals buried in the cave were decapitated and dismembered around 1,400 years ago. The scientists assume that the victims were either prisoners of war or nobles from Uxul itself.

For the last five years, archaeologists of the department of Anthropology of the Americas of the University of Bonn have been excavating in the historical Maya city of Uxul in Campeche (Mexico) with the aim of researching the origins and the collapse of regional states in the Maya lowlands. Read more.

[archaeologicalnews]

Update: Maya Prince's Tomb Found With Rare Drinking Vessel

Excavating a remote Maya palace in the ruined city of Uxul, archaeologists in Mexico have uncovered the ancient tomb of a young prince—and a rare artifact.

The floor of an entrance building within Uxul's 11-building royal complex concealed the entrance to the small chamber, which held the remains of the 20- to 25-year-old man and nine ceramic objects.

On one cup, "there was a simple message ... in elegantly modeled hieroglyphics that read: '[This is] the cup of the young man/prince,'" team member Nikolai Grube, an anthropologist at Germany's University of Bonn, said in a late-July statement.

Another cup bears a date, which Grube and colleague Kai Delvendahl interpret to mean the year A.D. 711, giving some indication as to when the prince lived and died.

It's common for Maya artifacts to refer to their owners, Grube said. But all previous princely drinking vessels have been excavated "illegally, without controlled excavation, by looters. This is the first time we have found such a vessel in an archaeological context." Read more.

[archaeologicalnews]

German Archaeologists Unearth Tomb of Mayan Prince at Uxul

The team has been digging for four years together with Mexican antiquity authorities at Uxul in present-day Campeche, Mexico. The aim of the excavation project led by Prof Nikolai Grube and Dr Kai Delvendahl is to study the process of centralization and collapse of hegemonic state structures in the Mayan Lowlands using the example of the mid-sized archeological site at Uxul and its ties to the supraregional center at Calakmul.

Since 2011, the team has concentrated on the royal palace of Uxul which is located directly south of the main squares in the center of the ancient city. The royal palace, measuring about 120 x 130 meters, consists of at least eleven individual buildings which all are aligned around five courtyards.

“The finished palace complex was built around 650 AD, a time when the neighboring ruling dynasty from Calakmul was in the process of taking over large areas of the Mayan Lowlands,” Prof Grube said. Read more.