Mayan Stucco Panels Dug Up in Guatemala

Recent archaeological digs in Guatemala have unearthed a monumental set of stucco panels, which seem to depict one of the oldest enduring creation myths in human history. The new find also suggests that the Mayan people believed in this story named Popol Vuh for more than a millennium, and that it was the main focus of their religion. Thus, the saga is one of the oldest such accounts in the world, and precedes the Christian Genesis by several centuries.

The panels describe how the ancient Mayan gods created the world and then sought to populate it with living creatures including “mud people” and “wooden people.” Their attempts in this direction failed, and they were not satisfied with what they had created. So, finally, the human race was brought into existence, and came to inhabit the region where El Mirador, the place where the digs have been made, now lies. Spanning several hundreds of thousands of acres all around is the Serpent Kingdom.

Both of the panels were 26-feet- (8-meter)-long and were made entirely out of plaster lime. They adorned the banks of a water-collecting system, which was operating in a region of El Mirador known as the Central Acropolis. It depicts the Hero Twins Hunahpu and Xbanlanque, who are the central figures in the Popol Vuh saga. The two are shown surrounded by cosmic monsters, and one of them has the head of his father, Hun Hunahpu, another central figure of Mayan mythology.

The scene, according to Richard Hansen, the Idaho State University professor that has detailed the find in an official release, is one that blends early aspects of Mayan beliefs with cosmology, thus making it unique. Until now, all known pieces of information on the Mayan saga have been collected from a single source, but the new pictures seem to date as back as 300 BC, which makes them older, and thus more reliable. The Mayan Late Preclassic period stretches from three centuries before Christ to the first century AD.

Hansen will continue excavation and research in the Mirador Basin, which he believes still holds numerous such treasures buried deep within it. The scientist was also a consultant for actor and director Mel Gibson, when the famous star shot his “Apocalypto” movie.