Archaeologists Found Maya Ruins Frozen in Time

Posted by Alex in Travel & Places on September 23, 2009 at 2:02 am



Photo: Bolonchen Regional Archaeological Project

Archaeologists have found new clues from the Maya ruins of Kiuic in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula that may shed light on the collapse of the Maya civilization ten centuries ago:

… The latest discoveries from the site may capture the moment of departure.

"The people just walked away and left everything in place," says archaeologist George Bey of Millsaps College in Jackson Miss., co-director of the Labna-Kiuic Regional Archaeological Project. "Until now, we had little evidence from the actual moment of abandonment, it’s a frozen moment in time." [..]

When the team started exploring the hilltop palaces, five vaulted homes to the south of the hilltop plaza and four to the north, the archaeologists found tools, stone knives and axes, corn-grinder stones called metates (muh-TAH-taze) and pots still sitting in place. "It was completely unexpected," Bey says. "It looks like they just turned the metates on their sides and left things waiting for them to come back."

Let’s tell the archaeologists to hurry up. 2012 is just around the corner …Here’s an interesting article by Dan Vergano for USA Today: Link


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8 comments to "Archaeologists Found Maya Ruins Frozen in Time"

  1. Shurik
    September 23rd, 2009 at 2:34 am

    I've heard the "the just walked away and left" thing for quite some years now

  2. angstrom
    September 23rd, 2009 at 8:50 am

    C'mon it's obvious what happened ... it was the rapture!

  3. KatieSW
    September 23rd, 2009 at 9:16 am

    Please: The Maya civilization, the people, the archaeological sites etc are all called Maya. You only say Mayan when referring to their language. Sorry it is just a major pet peeve for real archaeologists that the general public doesn't get (most often due to crappy archaeologists and movies that get it wrong). Thank you (a real archaeologist)

  4. FishBottleT
    September 23rd, 2009 at 10:22 am

    So if they left like they were going to be coming back do you think that it was some natural thing like a food source running dry or disease.

  5. Alex
    September 23rd, 2009 at 12:22 pm

    Well, you learn something new every day. Fixed and thanks KatieSW!

  6. BScane
    September 23rd, 2009 at 1:43 pm

    I didn't know the Clippers played in Mexico.

  7. KatieSW
    September 25th, 2009 at 6:10 pm

    You're welcome Alex!

  8. spankme
    September 26th, 2009 at 8:20 pm

    Heather wants to see them holes!


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