After 40 years of excavations in Belize, husband-and-wife archaeologists Arlen and Diane Chase have finally uncovered a 1,700-year-old Maya royal tomb at Caracol — complete with jade masks, bone carvings and exotic trade goods.
Some couples collect souvenirs; Arlen and Diane Chase collect fragments of the past. After forty years of excavating in the Belizean jungle, the Texas-based husband-and-wife archaeology team made a breakthrough: they unearthed a 1,700-year-old royal tomb complete with jade grave goods, bone carvings and pottery fit for a monarch.
The discovery occurred at Caracol, a major Classic-period Maya city that operated as a political powerhouse between the 6th and 7th centuries AD. Caracol covered a territory far larger than modern Belize City and sustained considerable regional influence. The tomb is associated with the city’s early dynasty: its first known ruler, Te’ K’ab Chaak, who established the royal line that governed Caracol’s growth.
Arlen and Diane Chase, working with a team of archaeologists, recovered jade death masks, fine jewelry, pottery sourced from distant regions and shells from the Pacific Ocean — evidence of long-distance exchange and elite status. The presence of Pacific shells so far inland implies networks reaching well beyond local environs; in the ruler’s day, travel between Guatemala’s highlands and Belize could take months, underscoring the value of such imported goods.
The tomb’s surfaces were coated with cinnabar — a vivid red, mercury-based mineral frequently used in elite Maya burials. While cinnabar’s use gives the burial a striking visual quality, it also means the assemblage contains toxic materials that require careful handling during excavation and conservation.
The Chases are hardly novices: they have worked at Caracol since the early 1980s, and their son Adrian has contributed significant discoveries of his own, including the site’s ancient waterworks. Their decades of continuity at the site have allowed the team to recognise subtle architectural and stratigraphic clues that led to this tomb.
Photographs of recovered artifacts show finely worked jade figurines, painted pottery sherds and elaborately carved bone objects. Conservators and archaeologists are cataloguing the finds, which include items that speak to ceremony and status rather than mere subsistence.
This find is especially significant because it is the first confirmed royal tomb discovered at Caracol. Royal burials act as time capsules: they preserve a curated selection of valuables and ritual paraphernalia that reflect political power, ideological claims and networks of exchange. As such, this tomb offers an unprecedented window into Caracol’s elite life and how rulers displayed status.
Next steps include continued excavation, conservation, and detailed analysis of the materials to better understand chronology, trade connections and ritual practice at Caracol. While the site’s remote, jungle setting limits immediate public access, researchers will study and publish the assemblage so the king’s life — and the city that buried him so elaborately — can be better understood and shared with scholars and the public.
