Many ancient peoples have built pyramid Some pyramids honored the dead; others were temples. The pyramids of the Maya Indians in southern Mexico were long thought to be temple sites only, but in 1949 a Mexican archaeologist began an excavation that exploded the temple theory Alberto Ruz had just become director of research for the area that had been the cradle of the Mayan civilization. He had already visited the ruins at Palenque. Like earlier explorers, he had noticed, at the top of the Pyramid of the Inscriptions, a stone slab with holes in it. He wondered what lay beneath. Many pyramids in Central America were built over smaller, older pyramids. Digging into the interior of the Pyramid of the Inscriptions might solve some of the many mysteries still surrounding the origins of the Mayas and Palenque. Once the stone was removed, a day's digging served to uncover a flight of stairs This was an exciting discovery for the archaeologist. He and his men cleared the stairway step by step. The deeper they dug the harder the work became. The rubble filling the passage had compacted to become almost as hard as cement. Lime, which had permeated everything, burned their hands and got into every scratch and cut.