Mayan Ruler Reincarnated as God of Corn in New Discovery

September 13, 2022

INAH has discovered a stone disc at the Maya site of Tonina in Chiapas. It depicts an ancient ruler embodied by the Mayan god of corn in the underworld.

The figure appears to be seated on a throne and is wearing a jade beaded skirt along with a serpent mask headdress. It is 17 inches in diameter and 3.5 inches thick. It depicts an event in 505 CE, 260 years after the death of an aristocrat in the Maya kingdom of Po’p.

The disk places the governor in the underworld as a reincarnation of the god of maize as he is reportedly represented as dead in a kingdom belonging to a jaguar lord of the underworld.

This is just before the moment of his rebirth in the form of a corn plant accompanied by the sun. The new discovery sheds a light on the cosmic universe and the rituals shared between Po’p, located in Tonina, and the kingdom of Lakamha’ (“Big Waters”), situated in a neighboring zone called Palenque.

The two sites fought a bloody war in 687 AD that lasted for 24 years to gain control of the basin of the Usumacinta river to control the agriculture, economy and way of life in the Maya Lowlands. 

Newsweek has the report here:
https://www.newsweek.com/mayan-ruler-reincarnated-god-corn-new-discovery-1736900