:focal(400x301:401x302)/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/07/40/0740c377-f6e1-4b6c-9fe3-70abca224b67/bone_and_mask_0.jpeg)
A 1,700-year-old mosaic jade mask and a carved femur bone found inside an ancient Maya tomb at Chochkitam, Guatemala Francisco Estrada-Belli / Tulane University
Smithsonian Magazine has a story about the discovery in a Mayan mask in Guatemala. The jade artifact dates to about 350 C.E and is made of jade. The site near Chochkitam, Guatemala is a Mayan tomb, which also held rare mollusk shells, carvings, and other funeral offerings.
The archaeological site, known as Chochkitam, is located in the dense rainforests of Petén, a region of northern Guatemala. Researchers have known about the area for about 100 years, but no formal excavations have occurred until recently. Looters have stolen many of the artifacts at the site.
“A discovery like this is a bit like winning the lottery in terms of information,” says Francisco Estrada-Belli, the lead archaeologist on the dig, in the statement. “It opens a window into an obscure time we have very little texts about.”
Estrada-Belli and his team found the tomb using lidar, a remote sensing technology that involves shooting lasers from an airplane to make a digital map of the terrain.
