Newindpress.com: "Archaeologists have discovered three ancient tombs in the city of Ibb in Yemen, with one believed to belong to a queen from the Hemiriate dynasty.
According to a report in Yemen Observer, an archaeological team from Ibb made the discovery in a rocky room, around five meters deep and about 3 meters wide, located in the al-Usaibyah area of the al-Sadda district of Ibb.
The room contained large pieces of alabaster, each piece around 150 cubic centimeters. The room also contained a 20 centimeter bronze belt.
"The discovery in al-Ausaibyah came about after two tribes began fighting about the discovery the tombs. When local authorities intervened to resolve the conflict between the two tribes, they discovered the tomb," said Dr. Abdullah Ba-Wazir, head of the General Authority of Antiquities and Museums.
Information obtained from local sources suggests that one of the tombs might belong to a woman of royal legacy – maybe a queen or a princess. The finding of golden jewels in this particular tomb further strengthened this idea.
Jewels were also found in the other two tombs. In addition, a bronze spear was found in a second tomb and a 70-centimeter sword in a third tomb.
According to the report, the royal tomb is designed in a rare architectural style.
"The site is a royal grave built in an artistic style indicating that the grave is of an important political person, presumably a woman," said Ba-Wazir. “It may belong to the Himiriat period,” he added.
Authorities have also sent a specialized archaeological team in addition to the team from Ibb. They are to do rescue excavations at the site at which the bronze coffin was found.
According to Ba-Wazir, the team will document all the antiques and other items discovered at the site.
The coffin will be sent to the Ibb city museum for further preliminary preservation. Some scientific archaeological institutes will be contacted as well, so their experts can inspect and determine the chronological age of the decaying body."
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NEW YORK. May 21. KAZINFORM - Archaeologists working in Honduras have discovered an entombed human skeleton of an elite member of the ancient Maya Empire that may help unravel some longstanding mysteries of the vanished culture.
The remains, seated in an upright position in an unusual tomb and flanked by shells, pottery, vessels, and jade adornments, suggest a surprisingly diverse culture and complex political system in the influential Maya city of Copan around A.D. 650.
Located at the western edge of modern-day Honduras near the border with Guatemala, Copan, was one of the most important Maya sites, flourishing between the fifth and ninth centuries A.D.
But until now, much about the political makeup and cultural range of the city—famous for its funerary slabs—has been poorly understood.
The position of the body, the structure of the tomb, and several unexpected artifacts suggest the interred individual was a political or priestly figure, said discoverer Allan Maca, an archaeologist at Colgate University in New York State.
The entombed individual was found with "a jade pectoral hung from a necklace of dozens of jade beads of various sizes," Maca said. Because jade was a precious commodity, he added, the jewels represent "a level of control over economic resources."
"The incised design on the pectoral likely represents a political title or social affiliation that links this individual to other major sites around the city," Maca said.
The remains belong to a 50-year-old man with various illnesses. He had poor use of his left arm, poor arterial flow through his upper spinal cord, and a chronic infection of the skull known as mastoiditis, according to a bioarchaeological analysis by Katherine Miller of Arizona State University.
Maca discovered the tomb in 2005 in the Copan Archaeological park.
But Maca—whose work was funded by the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration—only announced his findings last week, in conjunction with officials from the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History, after months of excavation.
"The tomb is characterized by a split vault created by interlocking lintels [load-bearing horizontal supports]," said Maca, who is also the director of the Project for the Planning of Ancient Copan.
"The chamber was accessed from above by a stuccoed stone chute that descends from the surface of the temple," he continued.
Maca said the features allowed the tomb to be "reentered years after the original interment, for purposes of ancestor veneration."
The tomb's location, some 1,300 feet (400 meters) west of the Acropolis, Copan's ceremonial core, was unexpected, Maca added.
"The design is without precedent in the Maya area and is the first elaborate tomb construction to be discovered outside the ceremonial center of Copan," he said.
The grandiose tombs belonging to members of the Copan dynasty, royal court, and royal family are typically found in Copan's Acropolis, Maca explained. Copan archaeologists have focused their research in the central area for many recent decades as well as much of the 19th century.
"As we begin to think more broadly about the great extent of the royal city, and about how to protect it against modern looting and population growth, we are coming to understand that the dynasty manifested its power in sectors of the Copan Valley that have never been explored," Maca said.
Oddities
There are other oddities to the tomb.
The position of the buried individual—seated with legs crossed—was not common in Copan or in the Maya lowlands during the Classic period, which lasted from about A.D. 300 to 900.
And several vessels found in the tomb, made in sets specifically for the burial, bear "a type of false or alternative hieroglyphics unlike those used by the ancient Maya," he said.
Some of the pottery vessels likely came from the south near present-day El Salvador, Maca added.
"Thus it is unlikely that these were made in Copan and probable that they signify some sort of cultural affiliation with that region," he said.
Also found in the tomb were seashells laid in a pattern that appears to represent a kind of cosmological map and may be representative of the waters in Maya creation mythology, Maca said."
I'm particularly curious about the non-Mayan "hieroglyphs" discovered in the tomb. I wonder if they resemble Mayan glyphs with differences or are truly from some other culture? Again, I wish there were pictures available!
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