GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala (AP) -- Guatemalan archaeologists have uncovered evidence of the first human remains discovered at an important Mayan archaeology site, a scientist said.

Archaeologist Christa Schieber, one of the project's directors, told The Associated Press on Monday that the tomb was found during the excavation of a building constructed in the pre-Classic period.

The Tak'alik Ab'aj site dates back 1,800 years and is located 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Guatemala City.

Scientists believe the tomb belonged to a Mayan king because it was located in the middle of the site's most important building and filled with jewelry, including a jade necklace and an ornate dressing decorated with semiprecious stones.

There were also hundreds of offerings, including plates and earthen pots.

Scientists believe the remains dissolved because no bones were found in the tomb. However, the earth had a high level of phosphorous, and X-rays of the spot indicated the outline of a head that had once rested there.

Schieber said the discovery elevates the site, which she says was "always treated as an ugly duckling (because) it is small, and the temples aren't large."

Excavations at Tak'alik Ab'aj began in the late 1800s and scientists have uncovered more than 250 buildings and monuments from the Mayan and Olmec cultures in the area since then. The site had been known for more than a century as Ab'aj Tak'alik, but the Culture Ministry recently determined that was grammatically incorrect and switched the order of the words in the title, which are now Mayan for "standing stones."

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press.