UTSA archaeologists rescue Maya royal vessels missed by looters

Inside the trench with members of his expedition team, UTSA’s Jason Yaeger [prone in foreground] peers into a gap in the capstone that leads to the royal tomb.

APRIL 2, 2020 — The looters’ trench was not small. And it definitely was not a one-man job. It stretched 4 feet wide and ran over 30 feet deep into an ancient Maya pyramid in Belize. By some miracle—or perhaps, Indiana Jones’ luck—the thieves passed just over a royal tomb with elaborate painted drinking cups used by nobility who ruled the kingdom 1,300 years ago. 

“The looters missed the royal tomb by just a few centimeters,” said Jason Yaeger, the President’s Endowed Professor of Anthropology at UTSA and associate dean of the College of Liberal and Fine Arts, who leads a team of researchers with M. Kathryn Brown, the Lutcher Brown Professor of Anthropology. 

Archaeologists at UTSA now have the opportunity to study the royal tomb’s precious objects. Yaeger and Brown take groups of anthropology students to Belize each summer for archaeological field work. 

“The research opportunities and real-world applications that our students get working with us is priceless for them,” Yaeger said. 

In July 2018 they were wrapping up their research at a site called Buenavista—the UTSA team discovered that its ancient Maya name was Komkom—when they made an exciting find. 

“While excavating in the looters’ trench, one of the local men who works with us scraped his trowel across the trench’s floor. That’s where we found a layer of flint flakes,” said Yaeger. 

“This is one of the most exciting finds for our UTSA team. These items are priceless to us...for what they will tell us about the ancient Maya.”

Reading Mayan Symbols

Flint and obsidian chips were used by the Maya to symbolize the underworld, and they placed them over royal tombs. Luckily the looters didn’t know what signs to look for at the site. 

This exciting discovery came too late for the team to properly document their findings. Instead, team members, including those who live in Belize, were sworn to secrecy until the following summer. 

In 2019 the team, which included UTSA postdoctoral fellow Bernadette Cap, returned to carefully excavate and record the tomb. Although the skeleton they discovered was in poor condition, they found fine impressions of the textiles that had shrouded the ruler’s body, preserved in mud mortar that had dripped onto the body and hardened. Five large stone axes lay along the spine. And in an array on each side of the body the team found rows of pottery vessels, 27 in total. 

The tomb had partially collapsed in antiquity, fracturing many of the vessels, but all of them were whole. What was most remarkable was the rich colors and the complexity of the designs. Maya pottery was technologically simple—they didn’t use pottery wheels or elaborate kilns—but the vibrant and intricate designs they painted on vessels testifies to the skills of Maya artists. The most elaborate were vases used for drinking chocolate concoctions during ceremonies and feasts. 

“This is one of the most exciting finds for our UTSA team,” Yaeger said. “These items are priceless to us and to the government of Belize for what they will tell us about the ancient Maya.” 

The two most elaborate drinking vessels depict a seated king dressed as a warrior and a supernatural snake and owl that are wahyob, beings from the underworld often associated with powerful rulers. The tomb and vases date to the Maya Late Classic period (A.D. 600–800), and they provide a window into the nature of royal authority at that time. 

UTSA intends to restore the drinking vessels on behalf of the Belize government. Yaeger estimates that the entire process will take about a month. During the restoration, neutron activation analysis will be used to determine whether the vessels were made locally or were gifts from another kingdom. The team will also seek evidence of ancient residues in the vases, including precious chocolate. The knowledge obtained in these studies will help them understand how these vases were used as symbols and instruments of royal authority. 

Royal Maya Treasures

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Fragments of a clay pot retrieved from the Maya royal tomb at the Buenavista site in Belize.

Fragments of the previously shown clay pot pieced together.

Fragments of the opposite side of the previously shown clay pot pieced together.

Fragments of a clay pot retrieved from the Maya royal tomb at the Buenavista site in Belize.

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Because many Maya tombs were robbed between the 1950s and the 1980s and their contents sold to wealthy art collectors, Maya vases are shrouded in mystery. UTSA’s finds at Buenavista provide an opportunity to study these important vessels in their original context, together with all of the other objects the Maya placed in the tomb. Researchers hope to share their findings and exhibit the vases, which are under temporary loan from the Belize government, in San Antonio.

— Milady Nazir