The pendant is in the shape of a T. Its front is also

carved with a T. This is the Mayan glyph "ik" which stands for "wind and breath."

It was buried,in a curious, T-shaped platform. One of the pots discovered with it, a vessel with a beaked face, probably depicts a Maya god of wind.

Wind was seen as vital by the Maya. It brought annual monsoon rains that made the crops grow. And Maya kings - as divine rulers responsible for the weather - performed rituals according to their sacred calendar, burning and scattering incense to bring on the wind and life-giving rains.

According to the inscription on its back, the pendant was first used in AD 672 in just such a ritual, Braswell said.

Two relief sculptures on large rock slabs at Nim Li Punit also corroborate that use.

In both sculptures, a king is shown wearing the T-shaped pendant while scattering incense, in AD 721 and 731, some 50 and 60 years after the pendant was first worn.

By the year AD 800, the pendant was buried, not with its human owner, it seems, but just with other objects. Braswell believes that it was buried as a dedication to the wind god.

Maya kingdoms were collapsing throughout Belize and Guatemala around AD 800, Braswell said. Population levels plummeted. Within a generation of the construction of the tomb, Nim Li Punit itself was abandoned.

"A recent theory is that climate change caused droughts that led to the widespread failure of agriculture and the collapse of Maya civilisation," Braswell said.

"The dedication of this tomb at that time of crisis to the wind god who brings the annual rains lends support to this theory, and should remind us all about the danger of climate change," he said.

The inscription on the back of the pendant is perhaps the most intriguing thing about it, Braswell said.

The text is still being analysed by researchers, and the Mayan script itself is not yet fully deciphered or agreed upon.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)