La Corona

La Corona is the name given by archaeologists to an ancient Maya court residence in Guatemala's Petén department that was discovered in 1996, and later identified as the long-sought "Site Q", the source of a long series of unprovenanced limestone reliefs of exceptional artistic quality.

"La Corona was located[5] in February 1996 when a jaguar poacher and looter turned eco-tourism promoter named Carlos Catalán[6][7] led Santiago Billy,[8][9] a researcher on a Conservation International campaign to protect scarlet macaws, to the heavily looted site"[10][11]Ian Graham[10] and David Stuart from Harvard University's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology investigated the site the following year, naming the new site La Corona.

In 2005 Marcello A. Canuto,[13] then a Yale professor, found a panel in situ at La Corona that mentioned two Site Q rulers.

Since 2008, the site has been investigated by the La Corona Archaeological Project co-directed by Marcello A. Canuto (Director, Middle American Research Institute at Tulane University and Tomás Barrientos, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala.

[14] A famous sculpted panel (now in the Dallas Museum of Art) depicts two large palanquins each carrying a royal woman from Calakmul, one standing in a temple pavilion, the other overshadowed by a supernatural protector; the text, however, refers to three women who came from Calakmul's ruling dynasty to marry the kings of La Corona.

A limestone staircase riser showing a ball game scene. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] La Corona, 8th century. Height: 25.1 cm; length: 43.2 cm Chicago Art Institute
Two palanquins, Dallas Museum of Art
SMU graduate student Stanley Guenter cleans a panel of Maya glyphs discovered at La Corona. [ 3 ] This particular panel helped point to La Corona as the long-sought "Site Q". The panel's left side depicts king K'inich Yook of Sak Nikte' .