NEW ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIND

Scientists working at a Guatemalan archaeological site that’s more than 1,400 years old have reported finding a hieroglyphic-covered stone panel that, they say, conclusively identifies the ancient settlement as the enigmatic “Site Q”, a Maya city about which researchers have long speculated.

Yale University archaeologist Marcello Canuto found the well-preserved panel last April at a site called La Corona.

“The writing on the panel opens up a new chapter in Maya history,” says anthropologist David Freidel of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, co-director of the expedition. “This new panel provides the critical test for establishing that La Corona is Site Q.”

This past April, on the Freidel expedition’s last day of mapping and exploration at La Corona, Canuto spied a carved panel wedged into the ground inside a trench that had been dug by a looter. The stone bears more than 140 hieroglyphics.

The writing on the stone covers a period from A.D. 658 to A.D. 677 and refers to two kings previously associated with Site Q. The inscriptions are carved in a style identical to that of a panel previously sold by looters that mentions the same rulers, Freidel says.

The new panel’s detailed historical account “adds proof” to the proposed link between La Corona and Site Q, says Federico Fahsen, a Maya-writing specialist based in Guatemala City.

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