FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA—Two hieroglyphic panels thought to have been part of a ceremonial staircase at the Maya site of Caracol in Belize have been found near a newly discovered tomb in Xunantunich, about 26 miles away. As a whole, the engravings on the Caracol staircase told the story of snake-dynasty ruler Lord K’an II, who defeated the city of Naranjo and killed its ruler after a ceremonial ball game. But in A.D. 680 the ruler of Naranjo defeated Caracol and the snake dynasty, dismantled the panels, and partially reassembled them in Naranjo. Fragments of panels have been found in Caracol and elsewhere, but the panels in Xunantunich are thought to tell the origins of the snake dynasty, the move of the capital, the death of K’an’s mother, and identify a previously unknown ruler of Calakmul. Epigrapher Christophe Helmke of the University of Copenhagen explained in the International Business Times that the panels clarify a “tumultuous phase of the snake-head dynasty.” Jaime Awe of Northern Arizona University and the Belize Institute of Archaeology added that it isn’t clear how the panels arrived at Xunantunich, but the city may have been allied with or a vassal state to Naranjo. For more on archaeology in Belize, go to "Lasers in the Jungle."
