Ancient Maya king shows his foreign roots

Dynastic founder may have been installed by kingdom to the north

A man’s skeleton found atop a stone slab at Copán, which was the capital of an ancient Maya state, contains clues to a colonial expansion that occurred more than 1,000 years before Spanish explorers reached the Americas.

ROYAL FOREIGNER A tomb excavated at Copán, ancient capital of a Maya state, contains the bones of the site’s first king, researchers say.