Looted Maya Treasure Returned Anonymously

Sean Markey
for National Geographic News

June 9, 2006

A 1,500-year-old Maya stone box that had been looted from a Guatemalan cave has been returned by an unnamed collector.

The artifact was delivered anonymously to officials at Guatemala's Ministry of Culture last week.

Experts had described the artifact as one of the most impressive finds from the Early Classic Period (A.D. 250-600) of ancient Maya civilization.

The vessel's theft, first noticed two months ago, led Guatemalan authorities to launch a national investigation.

(Read "Priceless Maya Stone Vessel Looted in Guatemala" [May 5, 2005].)

Archaeologist Brent Woodfill, based in Guatemala City, says he was happy and surprised when he learned the priceless vessel had been recovered.

The Vanderbilt University graduate student was one of several researchers to study the exquisitely carved box after its discovery last year.

Woodfill believes pressure from the inquiry and publicity over the heist may have led the buyer to return the object.

"It's kind of a risky thing to make a lot noise about an artifact disappearing," he said.

"Because it's as probable, if not more [so], that the object will just go into hiding and won't surface for years."

"For it to come back so quickly is astounding."

The archaeologist initially feared the object might vanish into a private collection in Europe or the United States.

But last week a local delivery company left a package at the Ministry of Culture in Guatemala City.

According to the ministry, the large parcel contained the ancient stone box and an unsigned note.

In it, a self-described private buyer said he or she purchased the artifact in "good faith" and only later learned that the artifact may have been stolen.

The ongoing federal investigation, which has already identified ten suspects, may test the veracity of that claim.

Moon Rabbit

About the size of a large toaster, the box dates to around A.D. 480 to 550.

Elaborate hieroglyphs and personages adorn the four sides of the box and its lid, which were carved from volcanic stone by at least three artisans.

In an email, Guatemalan hieroglyph expert Federico Fahsen said the lid depicts the Maya maize god and moon rabbit from the Early Classic Period.

He believes the box may have stored an ancient Maya codex, or book.

Local landowner Javier Leonidas discovered the vessel in a streamside cave last year along with 27 Maya clay pots.

Leonidas left the objects in the cave until they could be registered by experts.

Investigators believe looters slipped past the cave's locked gate one night last August to steal the 1,500-year-old stone box and ten clay pots, which remain missing.

Missing Links?

Perched near a 26-foot (8-meter) waterfall and a large pool, the cave doubled as a shrine and sat near the border of the Maya highlands and lowlands.

The site was situated near a major trade route used by Maya merchants to transport goods such as jade, obsidian, and quetzal feathers between highland and lowland Maya city-states.

(See National Geographic magazine's "The Dawn of Maya Gods and Kings.")

Woodfill believes the vessel and the cave are "missing links" that can fill in gaps in our knowledge of ancient Maya history.

"It's a unique artifact," he said. "There are very few stone boxes from the Maya world, and none that I've seen are this elaborate."

Free Email News Updates
Sign up for our Inside National Geographic newsletter. Every two weeks we'll send you our top stories and pictures (see sample).