The Europeans had learned kings and wise men and women............and so did the Mesoamericans.........

MYSTERY OF EARLY MAYAN KING 

A stone tablet depicting the reign of a mysterious king in the early days of the Mayan empire has been discovered in ancient ruins in the jungle of Guatemala.

The 1,600-year-old tablet, known as a stela, is covered in hieroglyphic writing and dates from a time of great political upheaval in the central Maya area.

It was discovered at the site of El Achiotal, which dates to the 5th century AD and is about 12 miles (20km) east of the ruins of the Mayan royal palace of La Corona in Peten, Guatemala.

The sites are 40 miles south of the famous Mayan temples at Calakmul in Mexico. 

The archaeologists have dated the stela to between 22AD and 418 AD. During this period many of the great cities of the Maya civilisation were abandoned.

It is a period when there was intense rivalry between two great metropolis of Tikal and and Calakmul.

Experts believe the tablet may be depicting the reign of a new king who was appointed by the Tikal after they came to dominate the area.