Texas husband-wife team finds 'priceless' royal tomb filled with 1,700-year-old treasures

A Texas archaeologist couple just now unearthed the ancient tomb of a legendary king in Central America a feat that's been over years in the making Arlen Chase and Diane Chase both professors at the University of Houston uncovered the th-century tomb at the Caracol archaeological site in Belize The university shared the discovery on July See the video at the top of this article Caracol was a major Mayan city established in the s A D The tomb belonged to Te' K ab Chaak the earliest ruler of the city and the founder of its royal dynasty and it's the first substantiated royal tomb identified at the site UTILITY WORKERS DIGGING TRENCHES STUMBLE UPON -YEAR-OLD MUMMY WITH INTACT HAIR Now in ruins this metropolis was a major political participant in Maya history dominating the southern part of the Yucatan Peninsula from through AD before its abandonment by AD the University of Houston mentioned in its press release Te K ab Chaak's tomb was filled with treasures including pottery vessels and carved bone tubes Excavators also identified a mosaic death mask made of jadeite along with jewelry made from the same type of gemstone The Chases are the foremost scholars on Caracol and this latest excavation is just one of several they've conducted Their son Adrian is also an archaeologist and discovered Caracol's decentralized water system Judging from the ruler's remains the Chases also located that Te' K ab Chaak was ' in height and died at an advanced age He also had no remaining teeth Speaking to Fox News Digital Arlen Chase called the in recent days unearthed artifacts priceless Professional archaeologists will not put a dollar value on the items they dig up That being revealed the true value of the materials is in what they can tell us about the ancient heritage the expert described ANCIENT CHRISTIAN FIGURINES DISCOVERED IN -YEAR-OLD DESERT GRAVES In this occurrence preponderance of the individual artifacts are unique but together they not only tell a story about the individual who once owned them but also enable us to provide a date for the burial Arlen Chase revealed the artifacts date to A D and include a full range of vessel types for this time period including two from the Highlands of Guatemala and shells from the Pacific Ocean CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTERBoth these types of treasures he noted were the effect of long-distance business Arlen Chase also substantiated that archaeologists identified the burial based on the size of his chamber the presence of jadeite mosaic death mask and earflares and everything being covered in cinnabar Diane Chase explained Fox News Digital that the ceramic vessels in particular really evidenced off Te K ab Chaak's status and wealth The two Pacific spondylus shells near his head the jadeite earflares the carved jadeite tubular beads and the mosaic jadeite death mask also show his ability to obtain long-distance prestige items she noted For more Lifestyle articles visit foxnews com lifestyleA car trip between Teotihuacan and Caracol in current times would take over hours Ancient people would have had to walk at least days to complete the journey making the burial offerings particularly special Above all Diane Chase noted that finding a ruler's burial is extremely atypical and pivotal She commented This is the first one we have discovered within the ancient city of Caracol She added Even more major he is the first ruler of the Caracol dynasty with particular other rulers following him according to the hieroglyphic s before the city was abandoned