February 22, 2015

More Surprises in a Maya Mural at the Site of Xultun, Guatemala

A mural found in 2010 by a grad student at the site of Xultun in Guatemala, dated to 750 CE, shows intellectuals conversing with a royal governor dressed as the wind god.The mural also gives information about a man buried beneath him. The area below was excavated and the man’s skeleton was uncovered dressed like one of the men in the mural. William Saturno excavated further and found a mural of a king in a blue feathered headdress with a man kneeling before him who was called junior obsidian. Behind them, on another wall, are three black clad men, one who is called senior obsidian. They wear the same headdress and clothing. The murals surprisingly are painted in the residence of a court official and not of royalty. This and much more interpretation of the three walled mural has been published in the February issue of Antiquity.

Live Science has the report here with illustrations of the murals;
http://www.livescience.com/49855-obsidian-maya-mural-guatemala.html