MEXICO CITY, MEXICO—Mexico News Daily reports that a stela has been uncovered in a sunken patio at Uxmal, an ancient Maya city founded around A.D. 700 in the eastern Yucatán Peninsula, by a team of researchers led by José Huchim Herrera of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). An image thought to represent death is carved on one side of the monument. It shows a goddess with big eyes, a bare chest, and barbels at the corner of her mouth. She is holding a quetzal bird in her left hand, and wears a pectoral decoration with three rows of pearls, bracelets with pearl details, and a long skirt. An image of a god who may represent life was carved on the opposite side of the stela. He is shown wearing a wide-brimmed feathered headdress featuring an owl’s head, a cape, bracelets, a loincloth, and leg bandages. He holds a cane in his left hand and a bundle in his right. INAH director Diego Prieto explained that such images are commonly found in the southern Yucatán Peninsula. To read about the possible influence of the planet Venus on Uxmal's architecture, go to "The Maya Sense of Time: An Eye on Venus."
