Mayan 'Red Queen' skeleton discovered

Scientists have discovered the skeleton of a woman dubbed the "Red Queen" in a Mayan temple.

The skeleton of the "Red Queen" lies in a stone coffin. Photo: INAH.

Fanny Lopez Jimenez, a young Mexican archaeologist, and her colleagues accidentally discovered a 6-meter-long corridor leading to a tomb containing a stone sarcophagus in 1994, while conducting research on the steps of Temple XIII in Palenque, Mexico, according to Ancient Origins.

When the team opened the coffin, they discovered a skeleton preserved in red cinnabar. Surrounding the skull was a crown of jade beads as well as hundreds of green fragments from a broken mask.

The team also found a number of artifacts in the tomb, including parts of a weaving loom, figurines, and ceramic bowls dating from 600 to 700 AD. Jimenez suspects the sarcophagus holds the body of a royal woman related to K'inich Janaab Pakal I, the famous Mayan king. This is because Temple XIII is a smaller pyramid structure located right next to Pakal's burial pyramid.

Jimenez’s hypothesis was further reinforced when Arturo Romano Pacheco, an expert at Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), examined the skeleton. Pacheco confirmed that the body was that of a woman after analyzing the shape of the pelvis, jaw structure, and skull. Jimenez was delighted to be the first to discover the tomb of a Mayan queen.

Arnoldo Gonzalez Cruz, archaeologist and director of the INAH research project, dubbed the royal woman the “Red Queen.” The identity of the Red Queen remains unknown to this day.

According to Cruz, there are four candidates for the identity of the Red Queen based on the description of Pakal's family inscribed in his tomb in hieroglyphs and drawings, namely Yohl Ik'nal (Pakal's grandmother), Sak K'uk (Pakal's mother), Tz'aakb'u Ahau (Pakal's wife), and K'inuuw Mat (Pakal's daughter-in-law).

According to VNE