Jade Death Mask of Pakal the Great and other Mayan Treasures, ongoing, at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City

Jade Death Mask of Pakal the Great and other Mayan Treasures, ongoing, at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. 

When the jade death mask of Mayan King, Pakal the Great, was discovered in 1952 during an excavation of the Temple of Inscriptions in the ruined Mayan city of Palenque (modern-day Mexico), this intricate jade death mask had been lying in a darkened tomb chamber for over a thousand years, covering a skull. Inscriptions on the walls indicated that the skull belonged to none other than the Mayan king K’inich Janaab’ Pakal, known today as Pakal the Great.  This mask along with a replica of the great king's tomb are one of the highlights of the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. The museum's collections include the Stone of the Sun, giant stone heads of the Olmec civilization that were found in the jungles of Tabasco and Veracruz, and treasures recovered from the Mayan civilization at the Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza.



Image: Funerary mask of king Pakal of Palenque at the National Museum of Anthropolgy in Mexico City.  Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons User Wolfgang Sauber.

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