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. 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. 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. 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." 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. 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."
– 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.