国家地理:Mayan Temple Mystery 玛雅神庙之谜

Deep in the jungles of Guatemala lie the ruins of a lost Maya civilization. The culture thought of as the classic Maya flourished across Central America between 250-900 AD. But archeologists are now discovering a Maya society that existed a full thousand years before that, in a time they call the Preclassic. Many of its remains 1 lie buried at the lost city of El Mirador. Archeologist Richard Hansen has worked for more than 20 years to solve the enigma 2 of the early Maya.

You lost the history, as right now we've never known who these individuals were, and never known what other than seeing the physical evidence of their prowess. We've never had a chance to know them personally, and the work that we're doing now is gonna give us the chance to know these guys personally.

One of the smaller pyramids of this lost city has captured Richard's imagination.

This is a, a, a large jaguar 3 paw with an earspool in the middle, you see the earspool here? And it has three realistic jaguar claws emanating 4 from a, from a realistic cuticle 5. Here is another jaguar claw here and another one at the very bottom. The fact that we found this Preclassic jaguar paw connotes very well with a king who we believe governed from 152 BC to 145 BC. His name was Chak-Tok-Ich'aak or Great Fiery 6 Jaguar Paw. And this may be a symbol of this. That's why this building is so interesting to us because it's possible that this king could be buried here.

To test his theory, Richard has brought in the latest ground-penetrating imaging system.

It's on this side.
It's on this side.
Yeah.
11 meters down on this side.
Yeah. 10, about 10, 11 meters down. Yeah.
What's this?
This is good news. So.
It's definitely there.
Ya.

The system has revealed a cavity, perhaps 8×2 meters, just the right size for a magnificent tomb. This was construction on an epic 7 scale. The results were awe-inspiring: a vast metropolis 8 gleaming red and white in the jungle sun, El Mirador. Perhaps 100,000 people, hundreds of great buildings, and at the eastern end of the city, the massive Pyramid of Danta, possibly the largest pyramid ever built. At El Mirador, Richard and his team have tunneled deep into the jaguar temple, finally arriving at the place where the imaging system showed the cavity.

We broke through here. We found more fill and rubble 9. It should've been a, a chamber 10 or something on the other side of this, of this wall. Em, this has, em, is a setback 11. There should've been something in there. Oh, the fact is that it's not there, tells us that, the, the elusive 12 Kan kings are still elusive.

He is not going to give up that easily. At another temple, he prepares to excavate 13 next season. Maybe then, he'll find the remains of an early Maya king.