Leyden plaque

[5] He was part of a team employed by a lumber company to dig a canal near present-day Puerto Barrios, in the lower Motagua Valley, a border area of Guatemala and Honduras.

[6] It is remarkable for being the oldest known usage of a Maya ordinal zero,[9] which symbol (graphically derived from the drawing of a sitting man, typically representing a king's crowning) appears two times, one to form the date "0 Yaxkin" from the first day of the seventh month of the festive year in Haab' calendar, and one to denote the Moon-Bird king accessing its throne on the other side of the plaque.

While it was found far from its possible original location of Tikal in a post-classic archeological context,[12] it dates from the Early Classic era.

[13] It represents a victorious lord, possibly an otherwise-unknown ruler of Tikal,[11] wearing six celts and some trophy heads around his waist, standing with bound captives he vanquished.

[13][5] The motif of the inauguration of a ruler depicted on the Leiden Plate is a common one, similar carvings being found on stelae and other celts around the Maya world.

[10] The plaque's posterior face has been engraved with an inscription bearing traces of cinnabar, documenting the crowning of a king on 15 September 320 (Gregorian) in the Long Count calendar, one of the earliest registered dates of the Maya Classic period.

[22] It is highly doubtful, however, if the object could legitimately and legally be classified as "looted art"; in the opposite case, 2020 Dutch policy guidelines would make its repatriation to Guatemala almost inescapable.

Éric Taladoire & Brigitte Faugère-Kalfon, Archéologie et art précolombiens: la Mésoamérique, École du Louvre, 1995