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   Mayan Artifacts Used in Ritual Sacrifices Discovered at the Bottom of   
   Sacred Lake   
      
   By Tom Metcalfe, Live Science Contributor | February 28, 2019 07:32am   
      
   A team of Polish archaeologists diving in a possibly sacred lake in   
   northern Guatemala has recovered hundreds of Mayan artifacts,   
   including ceremonial bowls and obsidian blades that may have been used   
   in ancient animal sacrifices.   
      
   Scientists in Guatemala are examining the artifacts to learn more   
   about the material culture of the Mayan people at different times.   
   Researchers also want to learn how the objects may relate to Mayan   
   religious practices.   
      
   The researchers recovered more than 800 artifacts from Lake Petén   
   Itzá, which once surrounded the ancient Mayan city of Nojpetén,   
   according to the team leader, Magdalena Krzemien, an archaeologist at   
   Jagiellonian University in Poland.   
      
   The island that was once the site of the ancient Mayan city, linked by   
   a causeway to the shore, is now the site of the modern town of Flores   
   in Guatemala's northernmost province of Petén — a landlocked region   
   famous for its rugged mountains and jungles.   
   A Mayan ceramic pot on the floor of Guatemala's Lake Petén Itzá.   
   A Mayan ceramic pot on the floor of Guatemala's Lake Petén Itzá.   
   Credit: Peten Itza Project   
   Sacrificial finds   
      
   Many of the artifacts found in the lake were small pieces of ceramic,   
   with a few dating to the Mayan proto-classic period — between 150 B.C.   
   and A.D. 250 — while most dated to the Mayan post-classic period, from   
   A.D. 1000 to A.D. 1697.   
      
   Krzemien said the largest objects found in the lake included three   
   ceramic bowls, one inside the other, and an obsidian knife blade. This   
   was similar to those used in ancient rituals, suggesting it could have   
   been used for human or animal sacrifices, she said.   
   This obsidian knife blade found in Lake Petén Itzá could have been   
   used for sacrifices, the researchers say.   
   This obsidian knife blade found in Lake Petén Itzá could have been   
   used for sacrifices, the researchers say.   
   Credit: Peten Itza Project   
      
   Small animal bones were found inside some of the bowls, which may   
   indicate that the vessels were used for sacrifices, Krzemien said.   
   However, it's also possible that some small animals entered and died   
   there later, she said.   
      
   The lake surrounding the ancient city of Nojpetén likely played an   
   important part in ancient Mayan rituals.   
      
   "Water had very special and symbolic meaning in ancient Mayans   
   beliefs," Krzemien said. "It was thought to be the medium [or] door to   
   the underground world, [the] world of death," where the gods lived,   
   she said.   
      
   As a result of these beliefs, the ancient Mayans sacrificed animals   
   and sometimes humans to their gods in lakes and in flooded limestone   
   sinkholes known as cenotes, which are common in the region.   
      
   Krzemien said that the latest expedition did not establish that the   
   whole of Lake Petén Itzá was a holy place, but some of the ritual   
   objects they found in place underwater showed that at least part of   
   the lake was considered "sacred" by the people who lived there.   
   Mayan lake   
      
   The ancient city of Nojpetén was a center of Mayan civilization in   
   pre-Columbian Mesoamerica — a civilization that extended across modern   
   southeast Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and parts of Honduras and El   
   Salvador. Among the most famous Mayan archaeological sites is the   
   ancient city of Chichen Itza, in the Yucatán Peninsula of modern   
   Mexico.   
      
   The Mayans made advances — including an intricate astronomical   
   calendar and the culture's distinctive pictorial writing — in a   
   civilization that lasted more than 2,000 years before the arrival of   
   Europeans in the Americas. Mayan culture also influenced other   
   Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Aztec culture of central   
   Mexico.   
      
   The six-member Polish diving team of the recent study included   
   archaeologists from Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Nicolaus   
   Copernicus University in Torun and the University of Warsaw. The   
   researchers spent a month at the lake in August and September last   
   year, taking a total of about 90 dives at various depths.   
      
   The diving team worked with six archaeologists from Guatemala, led by   
   Bernard Hermes, and with two Polish divers who had sponsored the   
   expedition, Sebastian Lambert and Iga Snopek. Krzemien, a doctoral   
   student, is now studying Mayan archaeology during an international   
   exchange with a Mexican university. She said the Polish and Guatemalan   
   archaeologists plan to reunite for one month a year to further explore   
   Lake Petén Itzá underwater. They are already planning their next   
   expedition for August.   
      
   https://www.livescience.com/64880-sunken-mayan-artifacts-sacred-lake.html   
      
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