A seated king wearing blue feathers. Kukulcan? Dragon? Aliens?
Interesting video ... Play with the images in the National Geographic article ...
Unprecedented Maya Mural Found, Contradicts 2012 "Doomsday" Myth National Geographic - May 10, 2012
In the last known largely unexcavated Maya megacity, archaeologists have uncovered the only known mural adorning an ancient Maya house, a new study says and it's not just any mural. In addition to a still vibrant scene of a king and his retinue, the walls are rife with calculations that helped ancient scribes track vast amounts of time. Contrary to the idea the Maya predicted the end of the world in 2012, the markings suggests dates thousands of years beyond that.
Mayan art and calendar at Xultun stun archaeologists BBC - May 10, 2012
Archaeologists working at the Xultun ruins of the Mayan civilization have reported striking finds, including the oldest-known Mayan astronomical tables. The site, in Guatemala, includes the first known instance of Mayan art painted on the walls of a dwelling. A report in Science says it dates from the early 9th Century, pre-dating other Mayan calendars by centuries. Such calendars rose to prominence recently amid claims they predicted the end of the world in 2012. The Mayan civilization occupied Central America from about 2000BC until its decline and assimilation following the colonization by the Spanish from the 15th Century onwards. It still holds fascination, with many early Mayan sites still hidden or uncatalogued. The ruins at Xultun were first discovered in 1912 and mapping efforts in the 1920s and 1970s laid out much of the site's structure.
Ancient Mayan workshop for astronomers discovered AP - May 10, 2012
Archaeologists have found a small room in Mayan ruins where royal scribes apparently used walls like a blackboard to keep track of astronomical records and the society's intricate calendar some 1,200 years ago. The walls reveal the oldest known astronomical tables from the Maya. Scientists already knew they must have been keeping such records at that time, but until now the oldest known examples dated from about 600 years later. Astronomical records were key to the Mayan calendar, which has gotten some attention recently because of doomsday warnings that it predicts the end of the world this December. Experts say it makes no such prediction. The new finding provides a bit of backup: The calculations include a time span longer than 6,000 years that could extend well beyond 2012.
