An extraordinary piece of human bone nose jewelry was found in Mexico at the site of a former Maya city. According to a statement from the nation’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), researchers discovered the rare relic while doing research at the Palenque Archaeological Zone in the southern state of Chiapas.
In the latter part of the first millennium B.C., Palenque was a Maya city-state. around the eighth century A.D. Some of the most well-known specimens of Maya art and architecture may be seen at the archaeological site.
Until the time of Spanish colonization, the Maya civilization ruled over what is now southeast Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and parts of El Salvador and Honduras in the west.
The Maya were renowned for developing the only fully developed writing system in pre-Columbian America, as well as for their impressive architecture and art, as well as their advanced calendar, mathematics, and astronomical system.
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Lost Treasures of the Late Classic
The ceremonial deposit that the nasal jewelry belonged to dates to the Late Classic period of Mesoamerican history (between 600 and 850 A.D.). It is an intricately carved scene and was created from a portion of a human leg bone.
The profile of a guy wearing headgear with a bird head may be observed in one area of the item. A picture of a human skull missing a lower jaw may be seen in another section. The enormously extended head and profile that culminated in a point are among the characteristics of the god, said Arnoldo González Cruz, director of the Palenque Archaeological Project (PAP).
Researchers think the ancient city’s kings and priests used the nasal adornment when they acted as K’awiil, the Maya deity of maize and fertility, in rituals. Cruz asserts that the Palenque people planned to deliberately alter their skulls in order to resemble the look of the deity.
It has been established that several prehistoric societies, especially those of Mesoamerica, engaged in the deliberate distortion of heads. It still happens today in a small number of places throughout the world.
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Source: Newsweek
