text: Visitors watches a nearly 1,500-year-old carved altar from the Maya site "La Corona," located in the northern Guatemalan department of Peten, at the National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in Guatemala... (Associated Press) 
   
   Visitors watches a nearly 1,500-year-old carved altar from the Maya site "La Corona," located in the northern Guatemalan department of Peten, at the National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in Guatemala City, Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2018. Archaeologists in charge of the investigation say that it is... (Associated Press) 
   
   GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — An altar found at Guatemala's La Corona site suggests the Mayan dynasty of Kaanul, known as the Snake Kings, acted like its namesake in slowly squeezing the rival kingdom of Tikal, archaeologists said Friday. 
   
   A team led by Marcello Canuto of Tulane University uncovered the carved stone altar in the northern Peten region near the Mexico border. 
   
   When it was first found in 2017, the altar was encased in the roots of a tree in a collapsed temple. It took a year to painstaking pry the massive stone slab from the roots, fully excavate it and move it to Guatemala City, where it was presented this week at a museum. 
   
   The altar is dated A.D. 544 and depicts the Tikal ruler Chak Took Ich'aak conjuring two local gods from a shaft in the form of a double-headed snake. 
   
   The same man appears 20 years later as a vassal of the Kaanul dynasty and the ruler of the larger, nearby city of Peru-Waka. But the gods associated with him are different local deities associated with that place. 
   
   Canuto said the altar suggests Kaanul's eventual victory was the result of decades of astute politicking and cultural appropriation, not just battles. 
   
   Chak Took Ich'aak and his son "are trying to show that they are praying or conjuring up gods that were there way earlier to give them that kind of legitimacy," Canuto said. "It's almost like they're setting up franchises, but using the same recipes of local gods, claiming they had access to local deities. There's an attempt to render this whole process legitimate by appealing to local interests." 
   
   A princess from the Kaanul dynasty - based in Dzibanche and later Calakmul, in neighboring Mexico - had been married into the La Corona ruling family two decades before. 
   
   It's unlikely that La Corona could have simply conquered El Peru, which was much more powerful, unless it had backing from someone even more powerful. 
   
   "This would be equivalent to Cuba defeating the United States in a war. They could only have done that ... if they had had the backing of the Soviet Union," Canuto said. 
   
   The enormous city-state of Tikal, whose towering temples still stand in the jungle, battled for centuries for dominance of the Maya world with the Kaanul dynasty. Just a few decades after the altar was carved, Kaanul apparently defeated Tikal by amassing a string of allied cities that encircled and eventually strangled Tikal. The symbol of the Kaanul dynasty were stone masks carved in the form of grinning snakes. 
   
   Francisco Estrada-Belli, a Tulane University archaeologist who was not involved in the La Corona discovery, said: "Its broader significance is that it shows the behind-the-scenes ... machinations of the Snake Kings as they are expanding their empire in the direction of Tikal." 
   
   "Not long ago, we thought the victory over Tikal was the result of a sort of out-of-the-blue blitz," Estrada-Belli said. "It is fascinating to learn more about how Maya empires expanded, just like in the 'Game of Thrones.'" 
   
   Tomas Barrientos, an archaeologist at the University of the Valley of Guatemala noted that "for several centuries during the Classic period, the Kaanul kings dominated much of the Maya Lowlands," until the Maya civilization collapsed for reasons that still aren't clear. 
   
   "This altar contains information about their early strategies of expansion," said Barrientos, co-director of the La Corona project. 
   
   ___ 
   
   This story has been corrected to show Estrada-Belli is a professor at Tulane University. ||||| The 1,500-year-old altar displays an engraving of the Mayan king Chak Took Ich'aak A 1,500 year old Mayan altar discovered in a small archeological site in northern Guatemala is drawing comparisons to popular fantasy drama television series "Game of Thrones" for its descriptions of the Kaanul dynasty's political strategies aimed at bringing entire cities under its control. 
   
   The altar, carved out of limestone and weighing around one ton was found at the La Corona archeological site in the jungle region close to the borders with Mexico and Belize, Tomas Barrientos, co-director of excavations and investigations at the site told journalists. 
   
   Barrientos said the altar was found in a temple and showed King Chak Took Ich'aak, La Corona's ruler, "sitting and holding a scepter from which emerge two patron gods of the city." 
   
   According to studies, the 1.46-meter by 1.2-meter slab contains a hieroglyphic Mayan inscription corresponding to May 12, 544. 
   
   Other discoveries have allowed researchers to determine that King Chak Took Ich'aak also governed the nearby city of El Peru-Waka some 20 years later. 
   
   Barrientos says these pieces of evidence show that the Kaanul dynasty, or Serpent Kingdom, developed a political movement in La Corona that allowed them to defeat their Tikal "arch rivals" in 562 and thereafter rule the Mayan lowlands in southeast Mesoamerica for two centuries. 
   
   Made of limestone, the altar weighs around a ton and was found in the jungle area of northern Guatemala rife with archeological sites 'Mayan Game of Thrones' 
   
   That political movement was based around alliances with small cities surrounding Tikal ahead of the final victory push. 
   
   Alongside those revelations, researchers also found details of a wedding between a princess from the Serpent Kingdom and a King of La Corona, Barrientos said. 
   
   "This altar shows us a part of Guatemala's history and in this case, around 1,500 years ago, I would call this the historical Mayan version of Game of Thrones," he added, comparing the Kaanul kingdom's maneuvering to that in Game of Thrones of noble families competing over control of the seven kingdoms. 
   
   Barrientos said the altar "fills in the gaps" and "pieces together the puzzle" of the Mayan culture's political relationships. 
   
   "It's a high quality work of art that shows us they were rulers entering into a period of great power and who were allying themselves with others to compete, in this case, with Tikal." 
   
   La Corona "was the place where the most important historical Mayan political movement began to take shape." 
   
   The Serpent Kingdom expanded from its capital Dzibanche to present day north Guatemala, Belize and the Mexican state of Campeche but was finally defeated by Tikal. 
   
   The altar's inscriptions reveal a lot about the political machinations of the sixth century Serpent Kingdom Dangerous excavations 
   
   "Having information about what happened next, how they were plotting a political strategy here, teaches us a lot about politics in those times and the fight for territory," said Barrientos. 
   
   Excavating and investigating in the remote Mayan Biosphere Reserve where La Corona lies can be hazardous, though. 
   
   The region is constantly at threat from looting, invasions and incursions by criminal gangs, drug-traffickers and illegal ranchers, accused by environmentalists and authorities of starting forest fires that damage pre-Columbian monuments. 
   
   Culture deputy minister, Gladys Palala, told AFP that authorities are trying to counter encroachment by criminal groups besieging Peten, an area ripe with "archeological remains." 
   
   "Wherever you go and excavate, you find (something). It's an eminently archeological area," she said. 
   
   The Mayan culture reached its apogee during the classical period from 250-900 before going into decline over the next 300 years. 
   
   Explore further: Rare early Mayan portrait is found ||||| A team of archaeologists co-led by Tulane University professor Marcello A. Canuto have discovered a 1,500-year-old carved limestone altar at a site called La Corona located in the jungle of northern Guatemala. 
   
   The discovery was announced on Wednesday (Sept. 12) at the National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in Guatemala City where the altar is now on display. 
   
   The altar allowed the team of archaeologists to identify an entirely new king of La Corona and explain the beginnings of the expansion of the Kaanul Dynasty in the Maya lowlands, Canuto said. Weighing nearly a ton, the altar displays the image of the previously unknown king Chak Took Ich'aak, carrying a double-headed serpent effigy. Researchers said that hieroglyphics on the antiquity likely date back to May 12, 544 A.D. 
   
   "For several centuries during the Classic period, the Kaanul kings dominated much of the Maya lowlands," said Tomas Barrientos, co-director of the project and director of the Center for Archaeological and Anthropological Research at the University of the Valley of Guatemala. "This altar contains information about their early strategies of expansion, demonstrating that La Corona played an important role in the process from the beginning." 
   
   The group of researchers have been working in the region since 2008. Since then they have uncovered a vast network of thousands of ancient Mayan structures hidden for centuries under the thick canopy of the northern Guatemalan jungle. 
   
   The team has used a technology called LiDAR (light detection and range technology) to uncover more than 60,000 ancient structures covering 1,305 square miles. 
   
   The technology uses sensors to pierce through the thick jungle canopy to create high-resolution maps that reveal the man-made structures under the vegetation. 
   
   The team also includes David Stuart, the director of the Mesoamerica Center of the University of Texas at Austin along with Guatemalan archaeologists Maria Antonieta Cajas and Alejandro Gonzalez.
target: – How do you conquer a powerful Mayan city-state? Forge a political dynasty, ally with smaller surrounding cities, and slowly envelop until you become leader of the Serpent Kingdom—at least according to one take on a newly unveiled Mayan altar, the AP reports. Discovered in 2017 at the Guatemalan site of La Corona, the nearly 1,500-year-old engraving depicts a king named Chak Took Ich'aak conjuring gods from a shaft shaped like a snake. Ich'aak later governed the nearby city of El Peru-Waka, suggesting that the so-called Serpent Kingdom or Kaanul dynasty forged a movement that grew until it defeated the towering city-state of Tikal in 562 A.D. "... In this case, around 1,500 years ago, I would call this the historical Mayan version of Game of Thrones," excavation co-director Tomas Barrientos tells Phys.org. Archaeologists already knew that Kaanul kings dominated the Maya lowlands for decades, but the altar—which likely dates to 544 A.D.—shows that La Corona "was the place where the most important historical Mayan political movement began to take shape," says Barrientos. Team leader Marcello Canuto sees the dynasty rising up with a mix of cultural appropriation, like conjuring old gods on the tablet to gain legitimacy; marriage, with a princess from neighboring Mexico; and other alliances with powerful forces. Otherwise, beating Tikal "would be the equivalent to Cuba defeating the United States in a war," says Canuto. "They could only have done that ... if they had had the backing of the Soviet Union." Announced Wednesday, the altar is on display at the National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in Guatemala City, per the Times-Picayune.