A Tiny Camera Entered Palenque's Sealed Tomb — Why Were Nine Figures Painted Inside

In 2011, archaeologists lowered a 94-gram camera through a hole just 15 centimeters wide into a sealed tomb beneath Temple XX at Palenque, Mexico. On red walls, it revealed nine human figures outlined in black. Who were they, and why were they painted inside a tomb no one was meant to see? This documentary follows the investigation from the tomb's first detection in 1999, through the 2011 camera footage, to the 2012 excavation that changed how the figures were read. We compare the two leading hypotheses — royal ancestors versus the Nine Lords of the Night — examine the pottery, the scattered bones, and the amazonite beads from far to the north, and explore the link to the nine stucco figures around King Pakal. We also lay out what remains unknown, including who was buried there. SOURCES AND FURTHER READING • INAH / UNAM — Note on the 2011 micro-camera exploration of Temple XX • Arnoldo González Cruz & Joshua Balcells González — "The Funerary Complex of Temple XX," Maya Archaeology 3 (2015) • David Stuart — "The Temple XX Tomb," Maya Decipherment (Sept. 20, 2012) • David Stuart — "Palenque's Tomb 'News'," Maya Decipherment (June 26, 2011) • NBC News — "Archaeologists spy on an intact 1,500-year-old Maya tomb" (2011) • Institute of Maya Studies — Newsletter, February 2013 • Historical MX — "Alberto Lhuillier and Pakal's Tomb" • Christian Gronemeyer — "Glyphs G and F," Wayeb Notes 22 (2006) Some scenes are illustrations or reconstructions and are not footage from the 2011 exploration. #Palenque #MayaHistory #Archaeology