The Palenque Stela, evidence of ancient astronauts?
The Palenque Stela, found in the Temple of the Inscriptions, an ancient Maya city located almost at the center of the Yucatan Peninsula, has sparked considerable discussion since its discovery.
The slab was not simply an intriguing archaeological find; it became a true scientific curiosity. The scholars who examined it (including its discoverer, the Mexican archaeologist Alberto Ruz Lhuillier) were all quite perplexed—not so much by the translation of the numerous hieroglyphs but by the interpretation of the bas-relief itself, which dates to around 690 AD.
The strange image has sparked quite an imagination, not only among those interested in so-called ancient astronauts theory but also among well-regarded archaeologists. It seems so symbolically representative that anyone who looks at it finds it hard to doubt that it apparently depicts, in cross-section, an astronaut from ancient times aboard his jet-propelled spacecraft. In this article we will attempt to analyze it in a clear and impartial way, starting with a brief historical context of the temple and tomb where the slab was discovered, followed by a detailed description and the various more or less plausible interpretations of what can visually be perceived.
The Discovery of the Temple of the Inscriptions
In April 1840, John Stephens, an American lawyer, and Frederick Catherwood, an English draftsman, were marching through the dense Yucatan jungle, about 500 kilometers from the ancient city of Copan, another important Mayan settlement. The two (who had only been preceded in the previous century by Spanish military expeditions) lacked sufficient data or maps to accurately locate Palenque. It was almost by chance, then, that they stumbled upon the first paved road through the dense vegetation, which would lead them to the most central and significant part of the ancient city. Astonished, they witnessed a series of buildings cloaked in vegetation, ancient witnesses of a mysterious civilization.
Stephens and Catherwood soon located the Temple of the Inscriptions, but they did not realize the building's actual purpose, which concealed the tomb of a king in its foundations.
In June 1952, precisely 112 years after that expedition, another Mexican archaeologist, Alberto Ruz Lhuillier, during an excavation and restoration campaign among the ruins of Palenque, was able to descend almost to the base of the structure and discover the tomb later named the "True Man" or, more imaginatively, the "Astronaut."
The pyramid was dated to the 7th century AD, making it a construction from the height of the Classic period, the golden age of Mayan civilization.
Until that point, however, the funerary use of American pyramids was almost unknown. Indeed, when compared to Egyptian pyramids, the primary difference noted by scholars was precisely this: temples in the former case and large buildings constructed around the Pharaoh's burial chamber in the latter. This functional interpretation had been persuasive for a long time; none of the known American pyramids had revealed a sepulchral character; certain small chambers had been discovered inside, but they were always empty.
After a long clearing effort that fully revealed the structure (an eight-stepped pyramid topped by a colonnaded or porticoed temple structure), they decided to explore the interior. While Alberto Ruz and others were studying and drawing the flooring inside the temple, they noticed holes in some of the slabs. These holes were just the right size to insert their hands and lift the slabs. Once lifted, the archaeologists discovered access to an exquisitely crafted staircase in excellent condition.
After descending 45 steps, the scientists arrived at a landing with two wells, likely once used to allow light and air entry. After several more steps, the excavators faced a horizontal corridor blocked by a wall. After removing this obstacle, they found, scattered on the ground, vases, jade objects, and even a pearl.
The presence of these artifacts was significant, particularly because they resembled the sacrificial offerings placed before or near Egyptian burial chambers.
The initial hypotheses were almost immediately confirmed when, in the corridor in front of the true burial chamber, the bones of six individuals—five men and one woman, likely young nobles sacrificed or self-sacrificed to guard something significant—were found.
The last obstacle, a kind of sealed door, was removed by rotating it.
The archaeologists then faced a spectacular scene: a true burial crypt adorned by nature itself with elegant stalactites and stalagmites, created over centuries by dripping water that seeped in. The scholars measured the space, marking it as 24 meters below the top of the pyramid and only two meters below the exterior ground level at the base of the structure. The room was nine meters long by four meters wide, with a central height of around seven meters; the walls, decorated with somewhat deteriorated stucco, still displayed figures of the nine Priests of Darkness, the guardians of the nine Underworlds of Mayan mythology.
Some of these priests (three seated and the others standing) held strange objects interpreted as scepters, while another strange rectangular object appeared at their mouths (although no explanation or function has been provided for this object).
The Tombstone
In the center of the crypt was an enormous monument consisting of a burial stone and a monolithic block supported by six monolithic supports, four of which were entirely carved. The well-profiled slab measured 3.8 meters in length by 2.2 meters in width and was 25 centimeters thick, with an estimated weight of around 5 tons. These data may seem dry and not directly relevant to the primary issue, but we consider a general historical and descriptive framework both useful and necessary for a better understanding.
Around the edge of the massive slab ran an almost indecipherable inscription, rich in signs and symbols. From this, they laboriously identified thirteen dates that fixed the piece at 692 AD and identified the deceased as the priest-king Pacal. The stone’s surface was carved with the image of a man (and here things became more complicated beyond the precise limits of knowledge in classical archaeology). That man appeared seated or almost lying forward in a position reminiscent of a modern pilot or astronaut.
From his nostrils (to which a respirator seemed attached) emerged small tubes connected to the rest of the incredible apparatus. The man's hands grasped controls and levers just as we would understand them today. The structure containing him was strikingly similar to the interior of a cross-sectioned spacecraft. Directly behind the presumed “ancient astronaut,” the artist of the bas-relief even carved what appeared to be the fiery exhaust flames that, in a modern jet-propelled vehicle, would provide enough thrust (through jet propulsion) to lift the system into flight.
In an instant, the expedition members seemed to feel that the past, present, and future had merged together. But how could the Maya describe something long time ago a modern technology? Who, then, was this strange figure seemingly piloting a spacecraft? To find out more, they had only to open that sarcophagus and examine its contents closely.
The Mysterious Man
Inside the cavity, they found the skeleton of a man around 40-45 years old and 1.73 meters tall, lying in a normal position without apparent signs of injury. The skull, partially decomposed due to humidity, was partially covered by a green jade mosaic mask that faithfully replicated his facial features. The man wore a jade ring on each finger and tall bracelets on his wrists composed of 200 beads.
His neck and ankles were also adorned with pearls and gemstones. Among other jewelry found in the tomb, a pectoral piqued the archaeologists’ curiosity. It was made up of nine concentric circles, each containing 21 beads, with a large fake pearl created by joining two pearl oysters at the center.
In the mouth, precisely inside the oral cavity, they found a dark jade bead (according to Maya custom, intended for the deceased to purchase food in the afterlife).
The Halah LLinic (as the mysterious figure was called, literally a “true man”) held a spherical pearl in his left hand and a cubic one in his right. The sarcophagus, as a whole, was connected to the crypt threshold by a strange lime molding that became a hollow conduit. This conduit followed the stairs until it connected to the slab removed by the archaeologists on the temple floor when they began exploring the pyramid’s interior—a sort of mystical connection between the buried (likely a deified prince) and the Ah Kin Mai, or high priest. Inside, there was nothing as one might have expected from that incredible bas-relief on the lid. However, the distribution of objects on the body of the deceased took on unusual and particular symbolic meanings.
What he held in his hands, along with the curious pectoral, suggested a hypothesis of a mysterious space castaway, especially to those inclined to interpret the objects as a geometric representation of our solar system in miniature.
Fantasies?
The Official Explanation
The bas-relief on the tomb’s cover slab is usually interpreted as a symbolic-religious representation of the "Earth Monster," a deity resembling a large reptile or dragon that consumes the bodies of the dead, almost as if reabsorbing them into itself (just as it once generated them). The scene is richly adorned with many other allegories symbolizing the Tree of Life, maize, water, lightning, the sun and moon, and the ever-present "quetzal," a type of large parrot considered a sacred bird.
If we observe other numerous examples of Maya symbolic art, we can easily find many of the elements that make up Palenque’s tomb slab—not because the same meanings were expressed elsewhere but because we are looking at a type of “pictorial alphabet” that can be constructed according to the meaning’s needs. However, this does not and should not in any way explain the final result of the composition itself, which, in this case, continues to be at least extremely curious.
There are also other curious figurative representations in Palenque, such as the famous "warrior," a figure carved on a stele, richly adorned and holding a strange object that could easily depict a modern machine gun or flamethrower. The somatic features also appear identical to those of our “astronaut.”
Here the discussion becomes even more complex.
Let remember that it’s part of an art that seems to testify not only to the past but also to our future. If we look again at the bas-relief, another thought arises: the official scientific explanation (in this case, archaeology) often seems not only less credible but also more curiously forced and amusing than that of proponents of so-called "ancient astronaut theory."
Therefore, we cannot resist joining these latter for a moment by adding that Palenque is only the name given by the Spanish during their rule, but the ancient city’s name was "Na Chan Caan," meaning "The House of the Celestial Serpent." Coincidence?
So, who was this men?
