Buried beneath it, he says, is a pyramid. In 700-800 C.E., the ancient Maya would ascend a stairway to a temple at the pyramid’s top to offer gifts and sacrifices to the kingdom’s patron deity.

In the ancient Maya kingdom of K’anwitznal—a lowland city located in present-day Guatemala—dead royals weren’t always treated with reverence, archaeologists say. New research, published ...

The Maya civilisation consisted of dozens of often competing kingdoms. Although the new political system (and the desecration event) at Ucanal seems to have given that particular kingdom a ...