Mayan visit by aliens is doubted

[pappagooch]

"QUESTION: What does a royal Mayan tomb in Mexico have to do with space aliens?

ANSWER: Probably not much, most scholars say, although some people fervently disagree.

In 1949, Mexican archaeologist Alberto Ruiz Lhullier discovered a staircase plunging into the heart of the pyramid supporting the Temple of Inscriptions at Palenque in Mexico's Chiapas state. After three years of excavating, he reached the burial chamber. It contained a 20-ton stone coffin with a wonderfully carved lid. Inside was the skeleton of a Mayan ruler, heaped with jade.

In 1968, Swiss author Erich von Däniken published his bestseller Chariots of the Gods, which claimed that space aliens had visited the Earth in the remote past and helped create human civilizations. One of his pieces of evidence was the Palenque coffin lid. Von Däniken thought it showed an ancient astronaut, reclining in a couch, blasting off in a spaceship.

Scholars began to get a handle on the meaning of Mayan hieroglyphs in the 1970s. They learned that the king buried in the pyramid was named Pacal , who reigned from A.D. 615 to 684.

Today, most Maya experts believe the coffin lid shows a mythological scene in which Pacal is shown falling into the Mayan underworld in expectation of rebirth."

Article:

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Wow, and I thought that his documentary "Chariots of the Gods" did have some good "theories"... But, it was filmed befor I was even born

[freya]

Mayan visit by aliens is doubted

Ironic that I stumbled upon this because I have just recently seen Chariots of the Gods...

It's all how one interprets I guess.

Dan Kincaid

The Arizona Republic

Nov. 4, 2003 12:00 AM

QUESTION: What does a royal Mayan tomb in Mexico have to do with space aliens?

ANSWER: Probably not much, most scholars say, although some people fervently disagree.

In 1949, Mexican archaeologist Alberto Ruiz Lhullier discovered a staircase plunging into the heart of the pyramid supporting the Temple of Inscriptions at Palenque in Mexico's Chiapas state. After three years of excavating, he reached the burial chamber. It contained a 20-ton stone coffin with a wonderfully carved lid. Inside was the skeleton of a Mayan ruler, heaped with jade.

In 1968, Swiss author Erich von Däniken published his bestseller Chariots of the Gods, which claimed that space aliens had visited the Earth in the remote past and helped create human civilizations. One of his pieces of evidence was the Palenque coffin lid. Von Däniken thought it showed an ancient astronaut, reclining in a couch, blasting off in a spaceship.

Scholars began to get a handle on the meaning of Mayan hieroglyphs in the 1970s. They learned that the king buried in the pyramid was named Pacal , who reigned from A.D. 615 to 684.

Today, most Maya experts believe the coffin lid shows a mythological scene in which Pacal is shown falling into the Mayan underworld in expectation of rebirth.

Source: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/110...dyouknow04.html