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ByMarkStevenson The Associated Press MEXICO CITY A Mexican archaeologist said his team has found a tunnel-like pas- sageway that apparently leads to two sealed cham- bers, the latest chapter in the search for the as-yet un- discovered tomb of an Az- tec ruler. The Aztecs are believed to have cremated the re- mains of their leaders dur- ing their 1325-1521 rule, but the final resting place of the cremains has never been found. Outside experts said Tuesday the find at Mexico City's Templo Mayor ruin complex would be signifi- cant. The National Institute of Anthropology and History said Monday that a team led by archaeologist Leonardo Lopez Lujan had discov- ered an 8.4-meter (27-foot) long tunnel leading into the center of a circular platform where dead rulers were be- lieved to be cremated. The mouth of the tunnel was sealed by a 3-ton slab of rock. When experts lifted it in 2013, they found a hol- low space marked by offer- ings by both rich and grisly. Gold ornaments and the bones of eagles and in- fants were found in an of- fering box. Two skulls of children between five and seven years old were found with the first three verte- brae, suggesting they may have been decapitated. The kind of stone knives used in human sacrifices were also found, as well as a hand and bones from two feet. But one researcher de- tected signs that a pas- sageway appeared to lead deeper into the ceremo- nial platform, known as the Cuauhxicalco (kwow- she-KAL-koh), where writ- ten accounts from after the 1521 Spanish conquest indi- cated that rulers' remains were burned. The passageway proved to be about 18 inches (45 centimeters) wide and 5 feet (1.5 meters) high. "Once the rocks and dirt were dug out, we saw that it led directly into the heart of the Cuauhxicalco," Lopez Lujan said. "At the end (of the passageway), there are what appear to be two old entrances that had been sealed up with masonry." It would be a logical place for rulers remains to lie — the Templo Mayor site was the most significant temple complex in the Aztec capi- tal, known as Tenochtitlan — but Mexican archaeolo- gists have been searching in vain for the tombs for years. In 2007, archaeologists using ground-penetrat- ing radar detected under- ground chambers directly below a huge stone mono- lith carved with a repre- sentation of Tlaltecuhtli (tlahl-tay-KOO-tlee), the Aztec god of the earth. At the time, Lopez Lujan sus- pected that an emperor's tomb might lie beneath. But none was found, despite the presence of rich offerings. Any artifacts linked to an emperor would bring tremendous pride to Mex- ico. The country has sought unsuccessfully to recover Aztec artifacts like the feather-adorned "shield of Ahuizotl" and the "Monte- zuma headdress" from the Ethnology Museum in Vi- enna, Austria. But Lopez Lujan is being cautious, saying the pres- ence of graves at the end of the newly found passageway is simply a theory that could be wrong. The blocked-up entrances will be excavated starting in 2016. "What we are speculat- ing is that behind these sealed-up entrances there could be two small cham- bers with the incinerated remains of some rulers of Tenochtitlan, like Moct- ezuma I and his succes- sors, Axayacatl and Tízoc, given the relative dating of the surrounding construc- tions," Lopez Lujan said. Moctezuma I, the second Aztec emperor, ruled from about 1440 to 1469. Mocte- zumaIIwastheemperorwho first confronted — and suc- cumbed to — Hernan Cortes. Dr. Michael E. Smith, a professor of anthropology at Arizona State University who was not involved in the dig, said "Leonardo knows the archaeology and ethno- history better than any- body, and he is not one to grandstand or make fantas- tic claims to garner public- ity. Thus I would think his prediction is reasonable." "The lack of any royal burials in Tenochtitlan is a long-standing mystery," Smith said. "But the proof is in the pudding. What will they find when excavation continues?" University of Florida ar- chaeologist Susan Gillespie, who also was not involved in the project, wrote that the find "could be quite sig- nificant." "We have pictures from the 16th century documents of the wrapped corpses of kings. Their "cremains" should be somewhere in the Templo Mayor vicin- ity according to the docu- ments, but one cannot ex- pect a great tomb chamber as was the case of the ear- lier Maya kings," wrote Gil- lespie . Some Mayan lead- ers, like the Palenque ruler Pakal, were buried in sump- tuous crypts or stone cof- fins. TUNNEL Mexico experts: passageway ma y le ad t o Az tec r ul er 's t om b EDUARDOVERDUGO—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Tourists visit the Templo Mayor archaeological site in Mexico City, on Tuesday. By Niniek Karmini The Associated Press JAKARTA, INDONESIA A rudder control system problem that had occurred nearly two dozen times in the previous 12 months coupled with the pilots' re- sponse led to last year's crash of an AirAsia plane in Indonesia that killed all 162 people on board, inves- tigators said Tuesday. In releasing their re- port, the country's National TransportationSafetyCom- mittee said an analysis of Flight 8501's data recorder showed the rudder control system had sent repeated warnings to the pilots dur- ing the Dec. 28 flight from the Indonesian city of Sura- baya to Singapore. Aircraftmaintenance re- cords for the Airbus A320 showed that similar prob- lems with the rudder sys- tem had occurred 23 times during the year prior to the crash, including nine times in December. The investi- gators said the fault was caused by cracked solder- ing on an electronic card. Investigator Nurcahyo Utomo said the malfunc- tion by itself should not have been dangerous. But after the fourth time an alarm went off during the flight, a crew member ap- parently went outside of handbook recommenda- tions and removed a cir- cuit breaker to try to re- set the system, he said. The autopilot then be- came disengaged, and the aircraft began to roll, but no movement was detected on the plane's manual con- trol stick for nine seconds, hesaid.Itthenbeganclimb- ing rapidly before stalling and plummeting into the Java Sea. Utomo said the voice re- cordershowedthepilotsaid "pull down," but in fact the plane was ascending. "Itseemedthattherewas a miscommunication be- tween the pilot and co-pi- lot after the fourth fault," he said. The same warnings had occurred three days before the crash with the same pi- lot, who witnessed a tech- nician on the ground ad- dressing the problem by re- moving the circuit breaker and then replacing it, ac- cording to Utomo and the investigation report. The data recorder showed the circuit breaker was appar- ently removed during the flight, they said. Ruth Simatupang, a for- mer Indonesian aviation investigator who was not involved with the report, questioned how the rud- der system problems could havecontinuedwithoutany proper action by AirAsia or the government. "It should be a big ques- tion for the airline," she said, adding that if the plane had been properly maintained, the problem would have been flagged and repaired. "With the 23 faults, there should have been a strong warning about the plane issued by the Transportation Minis- try." ACHMAD IBRAHIM — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee Chief Investigator Marjono Siswosuwarno explains the movement of AirAsia Flight QZ8501before it crashed into the Java Sea on Dec. 28, l2014, during a news conference in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Tuesday. 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