100).

This story told by the sarcophagus is an important one because of the way it provides us with insights into Maya religion and history. However, it is also important because it has become one of the artifacts that 20th-century writers have used to spin fantastic stories about how the earth has been visited by extraterrestrial creatures, whose images appear on the sarcophagus lid of Pacal, in addition to other places.

As Feder (2010) writes (he is only one of many critics who take up this subjects), there is absolutely no truth to claims that the images on this sarcophagus lid that represent anything but the religion of classical Maya civilization. So why should people think that there are? This question is related to a timely one, which is why many people (many of whom should certainly know better) believe that the Maya calendar says that the end of the...
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