In Photos: How Ancient Sharks and 'Sea Monsters' Inspired Mayan Myths

Sharks, each actual and imagined, had an essential place within the mythology of the traditional Maya, based on Sarah Newman, an archaeologist at James Madison College and writer of a brand new archaeological research into shark stays and shark-based artwork discovered at Mayan websites in Central America.

Shark tooth and different marine objects akin to seashell, stingray spines and coral are sometimes present in buried choices at Maya sacred websites, the place they have been used to symbolize the oceans in a ceremonial mannequin of the Mayan idea of the universe.

The cache of sacred artifacts proven right here was buried at a Maya pyramid at El Zotz in Guatemala between 725 A.D. and 800 A.D. It consists of 47 tooth from the higher jaw of what was in all probability a single requiem shark. [Read full story about how giant sharks may have influenced Mayan monster myths]