Most wanted fugitive in Canada arrested in Charlottetown, P.E.I.
The most wanted fugitive in Canada was arrested in Charlottetown, P.E.I., Tuesday night.
Archeologists in Guatemala uncovered evidence of a ritual where the human remains of royals during the early ninth century AD were burned, indicating that ancient Maya people used the event as a public display to highlight regime change.
A new study published in the journal Antiquity looked at textual sources from between AD 800 and 900, highlighting political upheaval in the Maya Lowlands, and that the Maya kingdom of K'anwitznal grew during the reign of Papmalil. The new discovery coincides with Papmalil's empire and suggests a dramatic show of power.
Christina T. Halperin, a professor from the University of Montreal and lead author of the research, says this discovery is unique because archeological research typically doesn't highlight precise moments when there is regime change.
"Much epigraphic and archaeological research in the Maya area has focused on the collapse of Classic Maya polities at the end of the eighth and the beginning of the ninth century AD," Halperin said in a news release. "However, key tipping points in history are rarely found directly in the archaeological record."
Halperin and the research team excavated a temple-pyramid in Ucanal, which was the K'anwitznal capital and is now present-day northern Guatemala. They discovered a deposit containing burnt human remains and ornaments, which included a greenstone mask usually saved for royal tombs, as well as jade and marine shell ornaments. This indicates it was the burial of Maya royalty.
Burnt and cracked greenstone ornaments, including a Hu'unal greenstone diadem and a round relief pendant of a human head. (Christina Halperin/University of Montreal)
Through radiocarbon dating, the research team was able to figure out that the burning event occurred some time after the royals had died, suggesting the tomb was re-entered specifically to burn the remains. It likely overlapped with Papmalil's takeover of the kingdom.
Halperin says the burning ritual would have been "a dramatic, public affair" that rejected the Late Classic Maya dynasty (AD 600-810) and introduced a new political order.
"The fire-burning event itself had the potential to be highly ceremonial, public and charged with emotion," Halperin said. "It could dramatically mark the dismantling of an ancient regime."
Through Maya hieroglyphic texts, the act of re-entering a tomb and burning royal remains is considered an act of desecration, and the public display of burning those remains symbolizes the dismantling of previously hardened institutions.
Halperin says this specific moment in history demonstrates not just the end of a dynasty, but a total transformation from what the K'anwitznal political structure and Maya Lowlands had been previously.
"The fire-burning event itself and the reign of Papmalil helped usher in new forms of monumental imagery that emphasized horizontal political ties and fundamental changes in the social structure of society," Halperin said.
The most wanted fugitive in Canada was arrested in Charlottetown, P.E.I., Tuesday night.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he does not regret calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'wacko,' and now his MPs are renewing calls for the House of Commons Speaker to resign, this time over ordering the Official Opposition leader to leave the chamber.
Harvey Weinstein was back in a New York courtroom Wednesday for his first appearance since an appeals court last week overturned his 2020 rape conviction and ordered a new trial.
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
A month after eight Norwegian Cruise Line passengers were stranded in Africa when their ship left without them because they were late getting back, a U.S. couple – ages 84 and 81 – were also left behind by the cruise line in Spain.
The first seniors to register with the new federal dental care plan can now start submitting claims.
A Wisconsin school district said an active shooter was 'neutralized' outside a middle school in Mount Horeb on Wednesday, and no one inside the building was injured.
The highly contagious norovirus is spreading across Canada, with some symptoms overlapping with other viruses. CTVNews.ca spoke with a health expert to find out how you can tell you have norovirus, the most common form of stomach flu, and what to do if you have it.
Defence Minister Bill Blair says he couldn't convince the Liberal cabinet that Canada's government needed to meet NATO's spending target in its recent defence policy update.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.
The lawyer for a residential school survivor leading a proposed class-action defamation lawsuit against the Catholic Church over residential schools says the court action is a last resort.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.