Tiny jar identifies mighty Maya queen [Guatemala] Alan Boyle –
NBC News – Tuesday, 09 October 2012 (originally published 03
Oct) Glyphs carved into a tiny alabaster jar have led
archaeologists to conclude that the tomb in Guatemala where the
jar was found belonged to one of the greatest queens of the
Classic Maya civilization, known as Lady K’abel. “She was not
only a queen, but a supreme warlord, and that made her the most
powerful person in the kingdom during her lifetime,” David
Freidel, an archaeologist at Washington University in St. Louis,
said in a report released today. That description would put Lady
K’abel in the same class as other ruling women of the ancient
world, ranging from the biblical Queen of Sheba to Egypt’s
Hatshepsut and Cleopatra. Like Cleopatra, Lady K’abel held her
own in the midst of powerful men — including her husband,
K’inich Bahlam II, with whom she ruled the Wak kingdom for at
least 20 years in the late 7th century (672 to 692). Because
K’abel held the additional title of milita