New Discoveries are happening every year under the excavations of the Cancuen project. In May, 2004, a Panal was uncovered.

cancuen
The Royal Palace found at the site of Cancuen is the largest in Mesoamerica. The three story building has only minimally been uncovered as the 10 year excavation project lead by Dr. Arthur Demarest and Lic. Tomas Barrientos is digging in the perimeters of the entire site while they raise funds to reconstruct the Palace at the same time of excavation. The perimeters have brought up some fascinating finds. Among them is a Jade workshop with thousands of jade pieces, over 20 pounds worth, and a limestone polishing rock with various different impressions for different size and types of jade ear flanges. Although Cancuen used jade as an alliance trade item the jade workshop is not of the elite. It is 500 meters from the center of the site. The artisans who work there have objects, which show they are wealthy, however, they are not elite. Not part of the noble class. This is a possible different pattern of jade production that is found at other sites.
They have also found various ceramics that possibly are associated with the Palenque wetlands of the Usumacinta area as well as ceramic from Uaxactun and the Alta Verapaz area by Cobán. The Passion trade route was most certainly controlled by the Cancuen / Machaquila jointly ruled Kingdom.
Another interesting feature of Cancuen is there are no religious temples at the site. The few shrines that have been excavated were small and built for a small attendance. A very different pattern from any other Maya site. One of the theories for this difference is the close proximity of the Sacred Caves of Candelaria and temple like mountains in the Alta Verapaz region about 2-5 miles from Cancuen. Could it be that the rulers of Cancuen allowed the people of Cancuen unsupervised religious rituals in the natural setting of the area?? It is the hopes of the Vanderbilt/Del Valle University archaeology project to find the answers to some of these mysteries.