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The Palace at Sayil, a Maya city on the Gulf of Mexico side of the Yucatan Peninsula. Heavily damaged by ancient floods, complete reconstruction is impossible because of scattered stoneworks.

The Maya Controversy: Startling New Evidence for an Antediluvian People who Influenced the World

The oral traditions of Native Americans are historical content that most academics refuse to reference, even in the face of startlingly accurate perceptions of early earth conditions and human...
Mayan script is typically in the form of blocks, which can represent a sound, word, or sentence.

Linguists Are Finally Unravelling the Mysteries Trapped Within Mayan Hieroglyphs

Today, there are over six million people that speak a language that evolved out of the Maya civilization, which inhabited parts of what are now Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador for...
Skull in Actun Tunichil Muknal.

Would You Dare to Visit an Ancient Maya Cave of Human Sacrifice? If So, Head to Belize

Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) Natural Monument, or the “Cave of the Crystal Sepulchre,” in Belize is where archaeologists have uncovered evidence of human sacrifice rituals dating back to 3rd century...
Underwater World (Public Domain) and ruins of the Palace of Sayil, Yucatan. (Rose Vekony/CC BY-SA 3.0); Deriv

Atlantis Unearthed – Do Surprising Underwater Scans Show Lost Architecture on the Sea Floor?

In his poems of the Iliad, the Greek Philosopher Homer introduces us to the mythical city of Troy, which remained a curiosity to many until the late 1870s when Heinrich Schliemann, on a hunch, began...
One of the first cultures to have books were the Maya codices written on doubled-over pages and covered by a layer of "stucco".

The Maya Codices: The Precious Remaining History of an Eradicated Civilization

The Maya were a powerful pre-Columbian civilization who thrived between AD 600 – AD 800. They were literate, had a complex language including pictograms, glyphs, and phonetic representations. They...
Inside the sacred Maya site of the Balankanché Cavern.

Balankanché Cavern: Underground World Tree Reveals Secrets of Sacred Maya Beliefs

Balankanché (which means the ‘Throne of the Sacred Jaguar’) Cavern is a network of caves located in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. This cave network is situated near the famous site of Chichén Itzá, and...
Collection of Egyptian Art, design by Anand Balaji (Photo credits: Rijksmuseum van Oudheden/CC BY-SA 4.0, Leiden; Dr Chris Naunton, Heidi Kontkanen and A. K. Moyls); Deriv.

The Many Mysteries of Maya: Faith, Labor and Love for the Motherland–Part II

The sudden and unfortunate death of Tutankhamun created an unprecedented power vacuum that had to be filled swiftly, if order was to be maintained in the Egyptian state. It is probable that a tussle...
Collection of Egyptian Art, design by Anand Balaji

The Many Mysteries of Maya: On the Trail of Tutankhamun’s Valued Courtier–Part I

The Amarna Period brought to fore many interesting personages, especially from the ruling disposition. While éminence grise Aye and the generalissimo Horemheb became pharaohs after the death of...
El Caracol Observatory at Chichen Itza (Wright Reading/CC BY-NC 2.0) and Composite 3D laser scan image of El Caracol from above

Advanced Engineering Discovered at the Maya Observatory at Chichen Itza

In 1526, the Spanish conquistador Francisco de Montejo arrived on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico and found most of the great Maya cities deeply eroded and unoccupied. Many generations removed from...
The newly-discovered jewel with 30 hieroglyphs on its back, a private message seen mostly by the king who wore it.

Impressively Large Jade Pendant with Unique Inscription Discovered in Belize

A group of archaeologists have discovered in Belize a large, carved jade pendant that once belonged to an ancient Maya king, inscribed with a historical text delineating its first owner. The newly...
Tripping through Time: The Fascinating History of the Magic Mushroom

Tripping through Time: The Fascinating History of the Magic Mushroom

The psilocybin group of mushrooms, popularly known as magic mushrooms, shrooms or psychedelic mushrooms, is found in over two hundred varieties around the world. We know them today as a recreational...
Archaeologists Uncover New Clues on the Collapse of the Maya Civilization

Archaeologists Uncover New Clues on the Collapse of the Maya Civilization

Using the largest set of radiocarbon dates ever obtained from a single Maya site, archaeologists have developed a precise timeline that clarifies patterns leading up to two major collapses of the...
Hanuman kneeling with tail encircling Rama and Sita in bed

The Sky, the Sun & the King: Mischievous and Divine Monkeys in Asian Myth

For the past few thousand years, the Indian Epic Ramayana has been among the most important literary and oral texts of South and Southeast Asia. Every autumn, Lord Rama's victory over the demon king...
2,000-Year-Old Maya Superhighway Discovered in the Jungle of Guatemala

2,000-Year-Old Maya Superhighway Discovered in the Jungle of Guatemala

Few ancient civilizations have left us evidence of the roads they built to maintain effective communication and transportation within their sphere of influence. Until recently, the model for...
Top 10 Archaeological Discoveries of 2016: From Lost Cities to Ancient Tombs, Shrines, Maps and Unknown Species

Top 10 Archaeological Discoveries of 2016: From Lost Cities to Ancient Tombs, Shrines, Maps and Unknown Species

This year has provided an array of exciting, and sometimes puzzling, discoveries for archaeologists and ancient history enthusiasts. Looking back to our most ancient ancestors, a few of the...
Mayan Depictions of Sea Monsters May Be First Representations of Ancient Sharks

Mayan Depictions of Sea Monsters May Be First Representations of Ancient Sharks

You can find numerous images of fearsome shark-like creatures in many major Maya cities throughout the regions of modern Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala. This betrays the fascination the ancient Maya...
Pre-Columbian Murals and Norse Sagas Suggest Vikings Met the Aztecs, and the Outcome Was Not Pretty

Pre-Columbian Murals and Norse Sagas Suggest Vikings Met the Aztecs, and the Outcome Was Not Pretty

Did the Vikings visit Pre-Columbian Mexico? The depiction of white people on Chichen Itza murals in the Temple of the Warriors probably represent Vikings - the major European navigators around the...
Original pyramid found underneath two outer pyramids at Chichen Itza in Yucatan

Original pyramid found underneath two outer pyramids at Chichen Itza in Yucatan

A pyramid within a pyramid within a pyramid: That’s what archaeologists said they have found at the ancient Maya site of Chichén Itza in the Yucatàn Peninsula in the far south of Mexico...
Remarkable Secret Tombs of Maya Snake Kings Reveal Fascinating Story

Remarkable Secret Tombs of Maya Snake Kings Reveal Fascinating Story

Archeologists have unearthed two un-looted Maya tombs in the Holmul ruins of Guatemala. The discoveries within the tombs connect with previous artifacts, and shed light on the famous story of...
Mayan calendar on parchment

Mayan Calendar Similar to Ancient Chinese: Early Contact?

By Tara MacIsaac , Epoch Times Ancient Mayan and Chinese calendar systems share so many similarities, it is unlikely they developed independently, according to the late David H. Kelley, whose paper...
13th Century Maya Codex, Long Shrouded in Controversy, Proves Genuine

13th Century Maya Codex, Long Shrouded in Controversy, Proves Genuine

Brown University’s Stephen Houston and a team of leading researchers in anthropology and Maya archeology methodically verify the authenticity of the oldest known manuscript in ancient America...
An Ancient Mayan Copernicus: Hieroglyphic Texts Reveal Mayans Made Major Discovery in Math, Astronomy

An Ancient Mayan Copernicus: Hieroglyphic Texts Reveal Mayans Made Major Discovery in Math, Astronomy

For more than 120 years the Venus Table of the Dresden Codex -- an ancient Mayan book containing astronomical data -- has been of great interest to scholars around the world. The accuracy of its...
A view across the main plaza of Xunantunich to El Castillo

Tomb of a Possible Royal Found at Ancient Maya Site of Xunantunich in Belize

Much of the legacy and wealth of the ancient Maya city of Xunantunich in Belize was dispersed by a British medical officer who excavated (some would say looted) it in the 19 th century, but last week...
A reconstruction of Pakal's tomb in the Museo Nacional de Antropología

Underground Tunnels Found Beneath Pakal Tomb in Maya Site of Palenque

Archaeologists at the world-renowned Maya site of Palenque in Mexico have made a surprising discovery beneath the Temple of Inscriptions, the impressive funerary monument built for Maya ruler Pakal...

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