Deep in the rain forest of Guatemala, archaeologist  and National Geographic grantee William Saturno has discovered a Mayan art gem.

Buried for centuries in the Mayan city of Xultún, where tens of thousands are believed to have lived -- is what may have been a Mayan home or workspace.

Inside on the walls: a well-preserved mural and some mysterious astronomical and calendar symbols.

The rocks chipped away by Saturno were apparently placed there by the Maya as a common practice to fill in structures that were no longer needed.

One wall features a seated king wearing blue feathers-- seen on the far right.

And on the far left, you can see one of three male figures wearing uniform mitre-style head dresses.  Such a display of a group has not been seen that way before in Mayan art.

And a third preserved wall, though badly eroded, is dominated by numerical figures, including columns of numbers representing counting and calendar calculation.



Saturno and his team say the symbols reflect a certain world view: that the Maya predicted the world would continue.

While some keep looking for endings in the Mayan calendar, he says the Maya were looking for a guarantee that nothing would change- an entirely different mindset.

The findings are reported in the May 11 issue of the journal Science, and the June issue of National Geographic magazine.