GUATEMALA CITY - The Guatemalan government says archeologists have found an "extraordinary" Mayan frieze richly decorated with images of gods and governors and a long dedicatory inscription.
A statement issued Wednesday says the frieze was found by archaeologist Francisco Estrada-Belli, a professor at Tulane University's Anthropology Department and his team in the northern Province of Peten, home to other big classic ruin sites.
The frieze is 8 metres (26 feet) long and 2 metres (6 feet) wide and was found at a Mayan pyramid that dates to A.D. 600. It includes three main characters wearing rich ornaments of quetzal feathers and jade sitting on monsters heads.
In the government's words, the high-relief stucco sculpture is "an extraordinary finding that occurs only once in the lifetime of an archaeologist."
