Tomb of Caracol’s First King Unearthed by Archaeologists in Belize

Belize: In a groundbreaking discovery, archaeologists have unearthed one of the most important royal tombs in Maya archaeology in decades, while working in Caracol, Belize’s largest ancient Maya city. The tomb of Maya’s first known king, Te K’ab Chaak dating back to 1700 years was uncovered by a team of Maya scholars from the University of Houston.  

Archaeologists Dr Arlen and Dr Diane Chase made this discovery at the base of a royal shrine in the Northeast Acropolis of Caracol, a site which has been studied since 1985.  

A Royal Burial with Rich History  

The tomb contained several dazzling artifacts including elaborately decorated pottery vessels, carved bone tubes, jadeite jewellery, a jade mosaic mask and pacific spondylus shells. The burial site depicted a vivid picture of how kings were buried in early Maya royalty and spiritual life.  

One of the vessels depicted a Maya ruler receiving offerings from deities, another one featured Ek Chuah, who is known as the god of trade. Many other vessels showed bound captives, however two of them were unique with coatimundi heads (a symbol later adopted by Caracol’s rulers).  

The discovery of the king’s tomb also revealed that he was in an elderly state with about 5’7” in height and toothless at the time of death.  

Rewriting the story of Maya-Mexican relations  

Dr Diane Chase, one of the lead archaeologists involved in the excavation said that this discovery clarifies the fact that ancient Maya were not isolated and the rulers at that time were participating in Mesoamerican-wide networks.  

“This discovery tells us the ancient Maya were not isolated. Caracol’s rulers were clearly participating in Mesoamerican-wide networks far earlier than we thought,” she said.  

Artifacts including green obsidian blades from Pachua, a carved atlatl point and cremation practices which are more common in Teotihuacan indicate towards the formal relations of the rulers from Maya with the elites from Mexican city. 

Another finding including a 2010 cremation with central Mexican artifacts and a 2009 female tomb which dates around to AD 350 also cite towards the Maya-Mexican relations. This is because the date of the tombs, which is AD 350 is decades before the famous ‘entrada’ event of AD 378 that marks Teotihuacan’s known influence in the Maya region.  

Caracol: A national treasure with global significance  

Dr Arlen Chase highlighted Caracol as a Belizean treasure with a global significance. She emphasized that Caracol has always been a jewel in Belizean history.  

“This tomb is just one more reminder of how central this site was to ancient Maya politics and culture,” Dr Arlen emphasized.  

Caracol was once a thriving metropolis with an extensive road network, water systems and agricultural terraces. The royal dynasty of Caracol founded by King Te K’ab Chaak in 331 AD lasted more than 460 years.  

The discovery of the city's hidden road networks, reservoirs through LiDAR mapping and decades of work have helped establish Caracol as a premier archaeological site, not just in Belize but the wider America.  

Following this major discovery, the team of archaeologists is now reconstructing the King’s Jadeite Death Mask, which will be followed by a DNA test and an isotope analysis on the remains. The full results will be presented at a conference in New Mexico this August.