The longest Ancient Highway road in Yucatan built by Warrior Mayan Queen

Credit foto: Traci Ardren (University of Miami)/ Proyecto Sacbe Yacuna-Coba/ Cultural Heritage Engineering Initiative

The road was built about 1,000 years ago.

In the 1930s, scientists at the Carniege Archaeological Institute in Washington discovered a road connecting the cities of Cobá and Yaxuná in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Due to the materials used to build roads in this region, they were called "white roads", and the reason for their existence fascinated researchers.

A recent study, in which excavations were used but also aerial observations with the help of lidar, three-dimensional scanning with the help of laser, brings new evidence related to who ordered its construction. Travis Stanton, an archaeologist at the University of California Riverside, explains that the road was most likely ordered by K'awiil Ajaw, a warrior Mayan queen who ruled Cobá more than 1,000 years ago.  Live Science.

Maya warrior queen may have built the longest 'white road' Live Science

"Given the warlike nature of its monuments, it is possible that it was the leader who extended the road to extend his control to Yaxuná," explains Stanton.

Scientists who have studied the material culture of the Mayan civilization explain that these "white roads" were common throughout their territory, but that between Cobá and Yaxuná is the longest and has been a massive logistical effort, both in terms of time, but also of resources.

"We tend to interpret them as a kind of activity that presents the power of a political regime, or at least the alliance between two centers of power," said Traci Ardren, an archaeologist at the University of Miami.

A complicated political situation

Historians believe that Cobá's invasion of Yaxuná was caused by an increase in the military and political power of a third city: Chichen Itza. This city was about 23 kilometers from Yaxuna and, according to archaeological evidence, this city was the main political force in the center of the Yucatan Peninsula.

The death of Queen K'awiil Ajaw was followed by the decline of the military and political power of the city of Cobá. Arden explains that Cobá was a city in which only one family had a monopoly on political power, which means that the increase or decrease of influence in the region depended, to a large extent, on a strong central figure. Instead, Chichen Itza was, according to archaeological evidence, a more decentralized state, with several centers of power that stretched throughout.



Other articles on the same theme:

• Mayan document known as Codex of Grolier was finally elucidated

• The Mysterious Manuscript: Book of Soyga Translated by Archangel Uriel on March 10, 1582

• Deciphering the past - 8 writings still unknown

• Mysterious inscriptions reveals a Dark Egypt during the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses I

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Mayan Civilization History could be Rewritten. Researchers have learned important details on discovery of a Giant Jade Pendant.

G. Braswell/UC San Diego

Researchers have just published a paper on one of the most fascinating and mysterious Maya discoveries in recent years - a huge jade pendant that has a detailed story about the king it was made for etched into its back.

First uncovered back in 2015, researchers have now tentatively translated the inscriptions, and it turns out it's even more unusual than originally thought, and could rewrite our current understanding of Maya history.

This type of T-shaped jade plate was worn on a king's chest during Maya religious ceremonies. At 19 cm (7.4 inches) wide, 10 cm (4.1 inches) high, and 0.8 cm (0.3 inches) thick, this is the second largest Maya jade ever found in Belize.

But it's also the first known to be inscribed with historical text - on the pendant's back, around 30 carved hieroglyphs reveal details about its first owner.

That's odd in itself, but the fact that such a huge and important pendant was discovered where it was is also unusual - the artefact was found in Nim Li Punit in southern Belize, a relatively isolated region at the time.

"It was like finding the Hope Diamond in Peoria instead of New York," said lead researcher Geoffrey Braswell from the University of California, San Diego.

"We would expect something like it in one of the big cities of the Maya world. Instead, here it was, far from the centre."

Nim Li Punit is a small site that sits near the modern-day town of Indian Creek, on a ridge in the Maya Mountains at the southeastern edge of the ancient Maya zone - it's more than 402 km (250 miles) south of Chichen Itza in Mexico, where similar but smaller breast pieces have been found.

It's believed that the village was inhabited by the Maya civilisation between 150 and 850 CE, and researchers have found several important remains in the site since it was rediscovered in the 1970s.

This pendant was discovered in the remains of a palace built around 400 CE, buried inside a collapsed tomb.

The tomb dates back to around 800 CE - towards the end of Maya civilisation in the village - and was surrounded by other artefacts, such as pottery vessels and a large stone that had been carved into the shape of a deity.

UC San Diego

 You can see the full inscription of 30 glyphs below:

UC San Diego

So what does the pendant tell us? The text is still in the process of being translated - something that's complicated by the fact that Mayan script hasn't been fully deciphered or agreed upon.

But according to the team's tentative translation so far, the artefact was made for the king Janaab' Ohl K'inich, and was first used in 672 CE as part of an incense-scattering ceremony.


The text then goes on to describe the king's parentage and accession rites - and ends with a passage that links the king to the powerful and immense Maya city of Caracol, which is located to the northeast of Nim Li Punit in modern-day Belize.

Google Maps

Even today, it's more than a 5-hour drive between the two sites, which are separated by a mountain range and dense forest, so past research hadn't considered a link between the sites.

"We didn't think we'd find royal, political connections to the north and the west of Nim Li Punit," said Braswell. "We thought if there were any at all that they'd be to the south and east."

Braswell thinks the pendant indicates that royalty arrived at Nim Li Punit around the time the pendant was used, founding a new dynasty.

This hypothesis is backed up by the fact that it's only after the pendant's arrival in the region that other hieroglyphs and images of royalty begin to show up around the site.

Still, this one pendant is far from conclusive evidence, and it's something Braswell and his team will now be investigating further.


There's a lot of research to be done to understand how this jade pendant fits in with Maya history, and what it can tell us about the final years before the fall of Nim Li Punit, but it's a fascinating mystery to explore further.

Other articles on the same theme:

• Mayan document known as Codex of Grolier was finally elucidated

• The Mysterious Manuscript: Book of Soyga Translated by Archangel Uriel on March 10, 1582

• Deciphering the past - 8 writings still unknown

• Mysterious inscriptions reveals a Dark Egypt during the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses I

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