Among the fragments of an ancient Mesoamerican mural, archaeologists in Guatemala have uncovered the earliest unequivocal evidence of a Maya sacred calendar.
On one tiny fragment of a mural that once adorned the temple wall, traces of an animal's head can be seen beneath a black dot and solid line – symbols representing '7 Deer', one of the 260 days in the calendar.Other historic records of this sacred calendar have been found in Central America before, but they have proved difficult to date with any accuracy.
"The evidence now suggests that we can no longer single out one region of Mesoamerica such as Oaxaca as 'the' point of origin for scripts or calendrical record keeping," the authors of the study"The situation would point to an even earlier origin of the calendar sometime during the Middle Preclassic, if not before, although the evidence remains indirect."
Underneath the pyramid are several other structures that once stood in its place. In 2005, excavations below the fifth layer of constructionThese scrawls are among the earliest evidence of hieroglyphic writing in the Maya region.
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