Guatemala Mayan - Oldest known Mayan wall painting found
TAPE: EF02/0215
IN_TIME: 23:46:37
DURATION: 2:27
SOURCES: National Geographic
RESTRICTIONS:
DATELINE: San Bartolo - Recent
SHOTLIST:
1. Various of research team walking through jungle to San Bartolo, a Maya ceremonial site in a remote region of northern Guatemala
2. Exterior of pyramid at San Bartolo
3. Trench leading to entrance of the pyramid, while team take measurements
4. Dr David Stuart taking measurements inside the room where mural was discovered
5. Various of research team working inside the room where mural was discovered
6. Maya mural
7. Close up of mural showing a kneeling woman with outstretched arms
8. Close up of mural showing a standing man's head
9. Looter's map found at the site
STORYLINE:
Disappointed at not finding the stone monuments he sought, a tired researcher sat down in the jungle shade and accidentally discovered the oldest known intact wall painting of Maya mythology.
Archaeologist William Saturno discovered the four foot (1.2 meters) long mural, dating from about A.D. 100, during research at San Bartolo, a Maya ceremonial site in Guatemala.
"This painting is among the most important finds in Maya archaeology in the last few decades. It opens a window into the mythological and courtly life of the ancient Maya during the pre-Classic period," said Saturno, a University of New Hampshire lecturer and research associate at Harvard University's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
The discovery, made last year, is reported in the April issue of National Geographic magazine.
Saturno had been looking for some carved stone monuments in the area and was exhausted after an unexpectedly long three-day trek through the jungle. Seeking shade, he sat down in a trench dug by looters seeking goods in the old Maya site. He aimed his flashlight into a looter's tunnel.
"I started laughing. There was this Mayan mural, a very rare thing. The looters had cleared off a section and left it. I felt like the luckiest man on the planet," he said in a statement.
The mural is in an 80 foot (24.38 meters) high pyramid in northern Guatemala. The site is now under guard to protect it from more looting. Research on the mural is funded by the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration.
The mural was confirmed as Maya by comparing it with other work by that civilization. The Maya pre-Classic period dates from around 2000 B.C. to A.D. 250. No other early mural of comparable size or condition has been found, researchers said.
The only previously known paintings from this period are from Tikal, one of the largest Maya ceremonial and political centers discovered in Guatemala. National Geographic said the Tikal paintings are not nearly as extensive or as well-preserved as the newly discovered mural.
Despite years of looting at the site over the last decade, the ruins at San Bartolo were previously unknown to archaeologists.
The site is being studied by a team led by Saturno, David Stuart of Harvard University's Peabody Museum and Hector Escobedo from Guatemala's Universidad del Valle. A five-year project to excavate the site and conserve the art gets under way this year.
The visible portion of the mural shows a scene with at least nine portraits. All the people stand or kneel above a border of geometric designs. The scene is dominated by a standing male figure who strides toward the viewer's left, looking back over his shoulder at two kneeling female figures behind him. Behind the women is evidence of at least three other standing figures.