The skeleton of a Maya Queen - with her head mysteriously placed between two bowls - is just one of the treasures found in a 2,000-year-old rodent-infested tomb.
Priceless jade gorgets, beads, and ceremonial knives were also discovered in the cavern - which was found underneath a younger 1,300-year-old tomb which also contained a body - in the Guatemalan ruins of Nakum.
The two royal burials are the first to be discovered at the site, which was once a densely packed Maya centre.
Wiesław Koszkul and colleagues from the Jagiellonian University Institute of Archaeology in Krakow, Poland, have been investigating Nakum's surroundings, known as the Cultural Triangle, for decades.
Koszkul said: 'We think this structure was something like a mausoleum for the royal lineage for at least 400 years.'
The upper tomb's corpse had been badly destroyed by rodents over the intervening centuries, but researchers said it was clearly the body of another Maya ruler.
Ancient: Signet rings, such as this one, were among artifacts deposited directly above the 1,300-year-old ruler at least a hundred years after their burial:
Excavation: Priceless jade gorgets, beads, ceremonial knives and another body were also discovered in the cavern - which was found underneath a younger 1,300-year-old tomb - in the Guatemalan ruins of Nakum:
They also believed it could be of a woman because of a small size of a ring found in the tomb.
Excavations started on the site, which had been completely overtaken by the jungle, in 2006.
Once inside the first level of the tomb, the scientists noticed cracks in the floor and when they cut through the floor, they found the second, older crypt.
Koszkul said: 'I think we could find some more burials beneath the level we excavated, [but] our excavations – our test pits – are very narrow.'
He said he did not know exactly why the body had been buried with bowls.
But that he had seen 'similar patterns' in the Guatemalan site of Tikal.
And he admitted that the royal figure's gender had also taken them by surprise. 'It’s surprising to me – we were expecting a male,' he said.
'What was really amazing was that the tomb was unlooted, despite the fact that we found looters' trenches around the side,' said project director Jaroslaw Zralka.
Discovery: Jade and ceremonial knives have also been found in the tombs:
