in 2020, Juan Yadun Angulo, Researchers from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (ah), found prehispanic tomb In temple of the sunThe most important pyramidal structure in the Ocosingo Valley, archaeological zone of Chiapas.
The discovery recently shed light on the possibility that the bodies of at least some rulers, as well as that of a woman from the ancient kingdom of Tonina. Spell From the pope who overthrew Palenque in the Classic Maya period (500-687 AD), he was said to have been subjected to religious material to be burned to ashes and, in turn, Their remains were used to make rubber balls on ball courts, The symbolic location of the elliptical path of the sky, where the stars intersect and face each other, A place of war and death, spectacle and power.
The person responsible for the investigation and preservation of the site for 42 years also states that the record of the site obtained from recent explorations on the northern side of said temple carried out by the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Mexico, through INAH, during which a stone cover was located – 90 by 60 cm – With a depiction of a bound captive, who was taken and handed over to the site museum On site for replication.
like in a maze The stone mouth led to a series of small vaults and rooms connected by a dozen stairsWhich culminates in an antechamber and a crypt located eight meters deep inside the pyramid, sites designed between the 7th and 8th centuries before the explosion of the construction that would shape the temple.
Yadeun Angulo indicates that the antechamber (1.34 x 1.64 m wide and 1.34 m high) and the crypt (1.34 x 1.34 m and 1.10 m high) are more small, where Vessels with human ashes and oily dabs made on its walls thirteen centuries later have been found.
Microscopic analysis of the organic matter contained in these fragments indicates that specific people, Maybe the priests burned High Class Character Passive BodiesAnd this sulfur of ashes, The third most abundant mineral by percentage of total body weight was used for the vulcanization of rubber, with which the balls used in ball game rituals were made.
Unlike other ancient cultures, Among them the Egyptians, who preserved the bodies of their ancestors by mummification, In Mesoamerica, the remains of rulers were cremated, not necessarily completely in ashes, because the body parts had a special power because they belonged to certain gods. In this way, burial packets were formed with the remains, the remains that the offspring kept and carried with them when moved.
In this sense, a figurative discourse of the site’s ball game is possible, the sculptures of the three markers that delimit the interior and ground floor.
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“It is sad to know that the Mayavadis wanted the body of their rulers to be a living force, something that inspires their people. This vessel of communication reincarnated the life embodied in corn, whose cycle, between harvest and sowing, is 260 days, a ritual period completed by the corpses of dignitaries. “Cave of Death”,
a short distance from said crypt, defined by the potential conversion process that would have been placedThe team of workers, led by Juan Yadun, located another independent access – approximately 80 x 80 cm – in the eastern area of the Temple of the Sun.
It is believed that this second tomb also housed the remains of past rulers, although in this case without any cremation or other rituals, it is likely that the premises were burglarized Between the 19th and 20th centuries.
The INAH expert concluded that “Such a discovery at Tonina gives a more precise idea of the interest and the complexity of the Maya religion, in the Mesoamerican vision of the world.And how much knowledge of this process of transformation of the body is necessary to understand this ancient society, because what was intended for its master was the destiny intended for the people”.
