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GUATEMALAN MASTERPIECE PUSHES BACK DATES OF MAYAN CIVILIZATION.

Article Excerpt
A chance 2001 archeological discovery in Guatemala has revealed itself just recently to be a spectacular find, likened by archeologist William Saturno of the University of New Hampshire to the Sistine Chapel. The find is a wall in an underground room from around 100 BC, depicting the Mayan creation myth and the coronation of a king.

"It was like discovering the Sistine Chapel if you didn't know there had been a Renaissance," Saturno said. "It's like knowing only modern art and then stumbling on the finger of God touching the hand of Adam."

The dating is older than first suspected. "Our original dating of the murals to approximately AD 100 was a conservative estimate based largely upon stylistic comparisons. We now know from the radiocarbon dating of the murals and of the construction and ancient debris that buried them that they more accurately date to 100 BC," said Saturno.

The wall measures about 10 meter by 1 meter. It is part of a mural showing the birth, death, and resurrection of the maize god's son pictured four times with different animals offering a blood sacrifice from his genitals, all done in...