Thirty-one assassinated and dismembered Maya nobles have been found by a team of Guatemalan and American archaeologists in a sacred cistern at the entrance to the sprawling royal palace in the ruins of the ancient city of Cancuén, capital of one of the richest kingdoms of the Classic Maya civilization (circa A.D. 300-900), located in the Petén rain forest of Guatemala. The National Geographic Society, Vanderbilt University and the Ministry of Culture of Guatemala announced the gruesome discovery, which is believed to record a critical moment at the beginning of the mysterious collapse of this great ancient civilization. The discovery is the subject of a television show, “Explorer: Last Days of the Maya,” airing on the National Geographic Channel, Sunday, Nov. 27, at 8 p.m. ET/PT. The team of archaeologists, led by Arthur A. Demarest, Ingram Professor of Anthropology at Vanderbilt University, also discovered the skeletons of the king and queen in shallow burials about 80 yards from the mass grave. More than a dozen other skeletons of executed high-status individuals, some dismembered, also were found north of the palace at Cancuén.
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