That ancient civilizations were themselves interested in monuments and artifacts left behind by their predecessors is old news. As today, ancient people were probably curious about the “ruins of the past” that dotted their landscapes. Ancient kings were especially interested in uncovering vestiges of past civilizations that could be linked to the origins of their own civilization, proving the greatness of their ancestors. And most intriguingly, the Maya residents at Palenque seem to have been fascinated with ancient fossils:
Ancient Archaeologists
The Egyptian New Kingdom Pharaoh Thutmose IV, of the 18th dynasty (15th century BC), ordered a series of excavations to uncover the Great Sphinx of Giza, which was already several centuries old and covered with sand, and left a stone inscription to commemorate his work.
Centuries later, Nabonidus (6th century BC), the last king of Babylon, conducted excavations in the Sumerian city of Ur, which was already 2,500 years old at his time. His goal was to find clay tablets with earlier kings' names and exhibit them. In the same city of Ur, archaeologists discovered an assemblage of Neolithic tools in a building that probably served as a museum.
In Mesoamerica, the most famous example is the case of the Aztec kings who in the 13th and 14th century AD conducted “excavations” in the city of Teotihuacan, in the valley of Mexico, to uncover artifacts which were more than 1,000 years old, and displayed them in the temples and palaces of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital. Modern archaeologists found some of these objects during the excavation of the Aztec capital.
Fossil Offerings at Palenque
At the Maya site of Palenque, recent studies conducted on a set of rare objects uncovered over the past fifty years, have proved that the ancient Maya were actually searching for and using ancient fossils million of years old.
Thirty-one marine fossils, in the form of shark teeth, stingray spines and slabs with marks of extinct fishes, have been found by archaeologists in different contexts such as the temple complex called the Cross Groups and the Murciélago residential group. The fossil shark teeth and stingray spines were placed in vessels and deposited as burial goods, whereas the slabs were used as tomb covers, all dating to the Late Classic (600-900 AD).
The archaeologists investigating the origin of these fossils believe that possible candidates are the Tertiary deposits located near Palenque, some of them still used as quarries today.
The importance of this discovery lies in the fact that it offers us a tangible connection to ancient Maya beliefs. Maya mythology, in fact, and the mythical origins of Palenque, in particular, are strictly related to ideas of an ancient time when the earth was covered by sea and the gods made the land emerge from this primordial water. The Maya underworld, the destination of human beings after death, is also described as an aquatic land. Finally, water is visible everywhere in Palenque, and watery landscapes are represented in many images.
The presence of rock deposits with marine animals and shell fossils in a mountain region, would have stimulated the curiosity of the ancient Maya who probably inquired themselves about their origins and incorporated them into their social and religious life.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to Mesoamerica , and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Cuevas Garcia, Martha, 2007, Paisaje Paleontologico en Palenque, in XXI Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueologicas en Guatemala. Museo Nacional de Antropología y Etnología, edited by Juan Pedro Laporte, Barba Arroyo and Hector E. Mejía.
Sharer Robert and Wendy Ashmore, 1993, Archaeology. Discovering our Past. Second Edition. Mayfield Publishing Company, Mountain View, California, London and Toronto.