Mysterious Maya Sculpture Guarding Elite Gathering Site Unearthed in Yucatán

Carved limestone face of an “elderly lord” found guarding a Preclassic Maya structure in Sierra Papacal, Yucatán. Credit: INAH Archaeologists in Yucatan have uncovered a mysterious limestone sculpture that once stood guard at the entrance to what appears to have been an elite Maya gathering. The find was made in the ejido of Sierra Papacal as part of an archaeological salvage project tied to the Mérida–Progreso railway bypass, a section of the Tren Maya freight in