News Anthropology

Ancient Maya bookmakers get paged in Guatemala

Discoveries peg ritual specialists as central to bark-paper tomes and wall murals

Taaj mural

RITUAL LINEUP  In this reconstruction of a mural at the Maya site of Xultun, ritual specialists called taaj sit in a row at a royal ceremony. Researchers say the painting shows a high-ranking taaj (far right) who was buried next to the mural room.

Illustration by Heather Hurst (© 2014), courtesy of San Bartolo-Xultun Archaeological Project

By Bruce Bower

- More than 2 years ago

Excavations at a more than 1,200-year-old Maya settlement in Guatemala suggest that ritual specialists made sacred books in a room where they also painted murals and astronomical tables on the walls.