Ruz and his assistants worked every season for four years. At last they reached long, vaulted corridor, seventy feet below the bottom of the stairs. After breaking through a rough wall barring the pass they discovered a stone box containing re gious offerings of jad seashells, and a wonderful tear-shaped pearl The men forced their way through another rough stone wall, almost three yards thick. A startling sight then met their eyes. Crammed into the corridor, now only a yard wide, were the dismembered skeletons of six children, five boys and a girl. They lay hud dled before a massive door, a single trian gular piece of stone that fitted perfectly into the wall The door, meant to stay shut forever had to be opened. Ruz discovered that bottom corner of the six-foot-high stone was missing and that the hole had been tightly plugged with broken stone and morta Feverishly, the men drilled away the patch Then the archaeologist bent down to shine his torch through the opening Beyond lay a chamber, its walls covered by carvings of Mayan priests. Down a few stairs was a huge stone slab carved with mysterious designs and hieroglyphics On June 15 1952. the massive stone door was heaved aside. Noted archaeologists squeezed into the damp room. Walls and floors glittered in the torchlight. Over the enturies a film of lime had made the cham ber look like an ice king's palace, Though about twenty-five feet by eleven small the room had a high roof On the carved slab, which took up most of the floor, were various offerings. Two plaster heads, one a masterpiece, lay among the remains of a mosaic made of jade. The heads had the sloping foreheads so much admired by the Mayas that mothers bound their babies' heads to shape them The carved slab lay on a huge block of stone. Was the block an altar, or the lid of a tomb? Raising the slab would be an immense task. It might also damage its carvings. But Ruz decided to take the risk. Small holes
drilled into the massive block proved it was hollow. A wire pushed into a hole came out with traces of red paint on it. Red was the color the ancient Mayas associated with death and resurrection. Perhaps there was tomb! Lifting the stone slab was as difficult as had been feared. Inch by inch, the slab was raised on jacks and blocks of wood Twenty-four hours of ceaseless work by the light of oil lamps, seventy feet down in confined space with dust flying everywhere tested patience and sk Once the slab raised enough for someone to get under it another obstacle appeared. A T-shaped stone cover fitted exactly into the top of the block. Luckily, there were two holes in this econd lid. Ropes passed through these lifted it out of the way The crimson paint on the sarcophagus was as bright and fresh as on the day it had been applied. Inside lay the skeleton of a five feet nine nches ta heavily man built, about forty-five years old. Around i were ornaments and jewels, most of them of jade. The most amazing object was a broken mask, which lay half across the dead man's face. A mosaic likeness of him, it had been made from more than two hundred pieces of jade Besides being a spectacular archaeolog cal discovery, the tomb at Palenque gave the the purpose of solution to one question the pyramid. lt held the remains of a priest ruler. Some inscriptions revealed that he had ruled for twelve years, beginning in A D 650 Scholars know that Palenque was one the great Mayan cities during what is called the classic period. All of them were deserted during the 800s. Though other ancient cu tures have disappeared, there has been little mystery about the cause of their disappeare ance. But nobody knows yet why the ancient Mayan civilization vanished. Perhaps one day, another archaeologist like Alberto Ruz will find the answer