Maya Mia! Scientists discover a sculpture that provides clues about a great ancient civilization.

• Author: Anastasia, Laura
• Position: WORLD NEWS

Archaeologists working in Guatemala recently made a really big find. They were exploring an ancient pyramid when they uncovered a sculpture the size of a billboard. The artwork had been hidden for more than 1,000 years. Experts say it provides clues to what life was like for the ancient Maya, who lived in present-day Mexico and Central America long ago.

Secrets of the Past

Archaeologists discovered the sculpture while exploring a hidden tunnel inside a pyramid in Holmul, an ancient Maya city. The sculpture is a type of artwork known as a frieze (FREEZ), a carving on a long stretch of a wall or ceiling. It measures 26 feet long and nearly 7 feet tall.

The frieze dates back more than 1,400 years to a time when the Maya flourished. Experts say the carving highlights what was happening in Holmul at the time. The frieze shows three rulers wearing feather headdresses. Symbols called hieroglyphs along the bottom tell of a king freeing the town from its enemies.

Archaeologist Francisco Estrada-Belli was part of the team that found the frieze. He says it's one of the most well-preserved of its kind. Experts are working to keep it that way.

"We [plan to] cement together parts of the pyramid that are about to fall so that it will be safe so people can visit it for a long time," Estrada-Belli says.

Word to Know

flourished (FLUR-isht) verb. grew and succeeded; reached a height of development

Ahead of Their Time

The Maya did more than carve sculptures and build pyramids. Here are some of their greatest achievements.

Write On! The Maya created one of the first advanced systems of writing in the Americas. It included about 800 hieroglyphs.

Star Sense: They tracked the movements of the moon and planets--centuries before the invention of the telescope.

Save the Date: The Maya developed a 365-day calendar based on Earth's orbit around the sun, long before Europeans did.

Common Core Lesson: Drawing Inferences (R.1)

Introduce what it means to make an inference...