The authors of this source are Jarosław Źrałka, Wiesław Koszkul, Simon Martin and Bernard Hermes. Źrałka and Koszkul are from Jagiellonian University, a research university in Kraków, Poland (Źrałka 890). Martin is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and is very well known for his works about the Mayan people (“Department of Anthropology” 1). Hermes is an archaeologist who lives in Guatemala City, Guatemala, who worked on the Nakum archaeological project in Nakum for some time (“Źrałka 890). All of these people have a background in the archaeological field and have been on site in Guatemala where the tomb was discovered and studied.
Thesis/ Main Argument and Article Summary: The authors of this article discuss some of the artifacts found at the tomb and how they are significant to Mayan history and the status of the person who was buried. They explain how the artifacts make the person who was buried had a very high status due to the types of artifacts found in their tomb and even the position they were buried in compared to other artifacts. For example, they write about how “the most significant find from the tomb was located in the area [for the] upper part of
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Since many of the important artifacts were on the east side of the complex and the east was “symbolically linked [with] resurrection and rebirth”, the archaeologists believed that this person had rituals performed on them in order to go through the path of the Maize God (Źrałka 903). Also found to support this claim was an inscription on a pectoral found in the tomb that had proof that the jewel was a Maize God’s jewel (Źrałka 989). This information gave a deeper insight into what the afterlife meant to the Mayan culture and people, and how their burial rituals relate to their