We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings. SearchBrowseServicesOpen researchInstitution LoginSearchMenu links Too many automated requests from this network - No HTML tags allowed- Web page URLs will display as text only- Lines and paragraphs break automatically- Attachments Your email address will be used in order to notify you when your comment has been reviewed by the moderator and in case the author(s) of the article or the moderator need to contact you directly shared ownership in or any close relationship with any organisation whose interests may be affected by the publication of the response Please also list any non-financial associations or interests (personal religious or other) that a reasonable reader would want to know about in relation to the submitted work This pertains to all the authors of the piece buried near the center of the ancient Maya city of Tikal is shedding new light on the 1,600-year-old tensions between Tikal and the central Mexican capital of Teotihuacan [Brown University] — Just steps from the center of Tikal a 2,400-year-old Maya city in the heart of modern-day Guatemala a global team of researchers including scholars from Brown University have unearthed a buried altar that could unlock the secrets of a mysterious time of upheaval in the ancient world is decorated with four painted panels of red black and yellow depicting a person wearing a feathered headdress and flanked by shields or regalia It closely resembles other depictions of a deity dubbed the “Storm God” in central Mexico In a study released on Tuesday along with co-authors from across the United States and Guatemala argue that the painted altar wasn’t the work of a Maya artist they believe it was created by a highly skilled artisan trained at Teotihuacan — the formidable ancient power whose seat was located 630 miles west “It’s increasingly clear that this was an extraordinary period of turbulence at Tikal,” said Stephen Houston and history of art and architecture at Brown “What the altar confirms is that wealthy leaders from Teotihuacan came to Tikal and created replicas of ritual facilities that would have existed in their home city It shows Teotihuacan left a heavy imprint there.” Houston and colleagues knew the Maya interacted with Teotihuacan for centuries before their relationship became closer Tikal existed for generations as a small city with little influence before ballooning into a dynasty around 100 A.D Archaeologists have evidence that Tikal and the much more powerful Teotihuacan began interacting regularly about two centuries later What seemed at first to be a casual trading relationship “It’s almost as if Tikal poked the beast and got too much attention from Teotihuacan,” Houston said “That’s when foreigners started moving into the area.” scholars have collected mounting evidence of a less-than-friendly relationship when archaeologists found a cut and mutilated stone with well-preserved text describing the conflict in broad terms.  Teotihuacan was essentially decapitating a kingdom,” Houston said “They removed the king and replaced him with a quisling a puppet king who proved a useful local instrument to Teotihuacan.” Decades later, using light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology, the Brown scholars and several colleagues discovered a scaled-down replica of the Teotihuacan citadel just outside the center of Tikal buried under what archaeologists believed were natural hills The discovery suggested that in the years leading up to its overthrow Teotihuacan’s presence in the Maya city probably involved an element of occupation or surveillance Co-author Andrew Scherer, a professor of anthropology and of archaeology and the ancient world at Brown and director of the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World said the altar was built right around the time of the coup He said the altar’s meticulously painted exterior isn’t the only evidence of the capital’s heavy-handed presence: Inside the altar the archaeologists found a child buried in a seated position a rare practice at Tikal but common at Teotihuacan They also found an adult interred with a dart point made of green obsidian; Scherer said the material and design of the dart point are distinct to Teotihuacan The fact that the altar and the area around it was later buried cements the research team’s theory that Teotihuacan’s presence left Tikal forever changed and even scarred “The Maya regularly buried buildings and rebuilt on top of them,” Scherer said they buried the altar and surrounding buildings and just left them even though this would have been prime real estate centuries later They treated it almost like a memorial or a radioactive zone It probably speaks to the complicated feelings they had about Teotihuacan.” “Complicated” is an apt way to describe Tikal’s collective memory of the Teotihuacan coup The event may have shaken Tikal to its core but it ultimately made the kingdom more powerful: Over the next few centuries becoming a nearly unmatched dynasty before eventually declining around 900 A.D. along with the rest of the Maya world.“There’s a kind of nostalgia about that time when Teotihuacan was at the height of its power and taking increasing interest in the Maya,” Houston said “It’s something exalted for them; they looked back on it almost wistfully they were still thinking about local politics in context of that contact with central Mexico.” Layout of relevant sector and architectural groups at Tikal Brown scholars and their colleagues have used light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology to find Tikal's ancient infrastructure much of it having long been buried under dense tropical vegetation Archaeologists uncovered the buried altar in a building complex just outside the center of Tikal which is known for striking limestone temples As they uncover more details about the contentious story of Teotihuacan and Tikal Houston and Scherer said they’re both struck by how familiar it sounds: An all-powerful empire spots paradise and decides to plunder its riches “Everyone knows what happened to the Aztec civilization after the Spanish arrived,” Houston said “Our findings show evidence that that’s a tale as old as time These powers of central Mexico reached into the Maya world because they saw it as a place of extraordinary wealth authors of the study include Edwin Román Ramírez Piedrasanta Castellanos of the Proyecto Arqueológico del Sur de Tikal; Angelyn Bass of the University of New Mexico; Thomas G Garrison and David Stuart of the University of Texas at Austin; and Heather Hurst of Skidmore College Funding for the research came in part from the PACUNAM Lidar Initiative and the Hitz Foundation About  .  Contact  .  Donation features intricate painted panels in yellow depicting a figure with almond-shaped eyes The imagery is extremely close to central Mexican depictions of the “Storm God,” a god who was worshipped in Teotihuacan The altar was likely constructed not by Maya hands but by a Teotihuacan-trained artisan, says a study published on April 8 in Antiquity and co-authored by researchers from Brown University and Guatemalan institutions “It’s increasingly clear that this was an extraordinary period of turbulence at Tikal,” says Stephen Houston a professor of anthropology and history of art and architecture at Brown University “What the altar confirms is that wealthy leaders from Teotihuacan came to Tikal and created replicas of ritual facilities that would have existed in their home city.” head of the South Tikal Archaeological Project explained that the find demonstrates intense sociopolitical and cultural interaction between the two civilizations during the CE 300 to 500 period Román added that the find verifies Tikal’s position as a cosmopolitan center at that time hosting visitors and influences from distant regions a two-yard-by-one-yard structure covered in limestone had other features typical of Teotihuacan ritual practice as well Human remains were present along with the altar such as a child burial in a posture unusual for the Maya but common at Teotihuacan A green obsidian dart point found with an adult buried nearby also matched Central Mexican weapon styles a Brown professor of archaeology and co-director of the project stated that the altar was intentionally buried and the surrounding area was never reused “The Maya regularly buried buildings and rebuilt on top of them,” Scherer said It probably speaks to the complicated feelings they had about Teotihuacan.” The discovery of the altar also lends weight to long-standing speculation of a coup that reshaped Tikal’s leadership around CE 378 Decades of research show that Teotihuacan forces overthrew the local king and installed a puppet ruler in his stead “They removed the king and replaced him with a quisling a puppet king who proved a useful local instrument to Teotihuacan.” Additional proof of this theory is offered by earlier LiDAR (light detection and ranging) surveys taken by the Brown University team that revealed what appears to be a scaled-down replica of Teotihuacan’s central citadel buried near Tikal’s center which had been mistakenly identified as natural hills implies an extended and potentially permanent occupation or surveillance presence Despite the disruptive record of Teotihuacan’s intervention Houston posited that the event might have paradoxically increased Tikal’s regional power in the long run “There’s a kind of nostalgia about that time,” he said they were still thinking about local politics in the context of that contact with central Mexico.” and website in this browser for the next time I comment Δdocument.getElementById("ak_js_1").setAttribute("value",(new Date()).getTime()) Learn how to describe the purpose of the image (opens in a new tab) Leave empty if the image is purely decorative Discovery of nearly 200 animals remains is among the most abundant mass cases of animal sacrifices found in ancient metropolis The remains of nearly 200 animals found in Mexico’s Teotihuacán are helping reconstruct history The unearthing and significance of these remains, found in four chambers within the Moon Pyramid — dating back nearly 2,000 years — are central in Nawa Sugiyama’s new book, “Animal Matter: Ritual, Place, and Sovereignty at the Moon Pyramid of Teotihuacan,” published by Oxford University Press.  Teotihuacán, one of the first megacities of the Western Hemisphere and now a UNESCO World Heritage site, is situated about 30 miles northeast of Mexico City. It is home to one of the most important ceremonial landscapes in Mesoamerica and was once the most influential metropolis in the region. Nearly 2,000 years later, Sugiyama, an assistant professor of anthropology at UC Riverside joined the team that uncovered four dedicatory chambers with nearly 200 animal remains.  measuring approximately 16-feet by 14-feet and known as burial 6 the team found 12 human remains along with over 100 animals This is believed to be one of the most abundant cases of mass animal sacrifice ever found in Teotihuacán and comparable only to those conducted by the Aztec empire over 1000 years later.  Animals were major protagonists in Teotihuacán since they were gifted meaning top predators within the food chain “That’s really interesting from the zooarchaeology standpoint because there’s a fundamental shift in the ways we know Indigenous communities understood these potent apex predators as active agents and mediators of the sky realm “They were also in conversation with and interacting with the human communities that were trying to make connections to — and have power over —these natural sources of power themselves.” Studying the bones using multi-archaeometric methodologies including zooarchaeology and isotopes (bone chemistry) Sugiyama uncovered many details of these animal’s lives and whether they were sacrificed dead or alive One common denominator she found in their diet was maize or corn; in addition to maize serving as the primary staple food in Mesoamerica many civilizations believed humans were created from maize and the crop served an important process in cultural and religious practices they were part of that process of creating a new politics in which animals and humans coordinated one of the most ambitious ceremonial landscape constructions in ancient Mesoamerica,” Sugiyama said.  Analyzing animal matter has allowed Sugiyama to recreate parts of the lives of animals such as golden eagles must have once been a “State spectacle,” witnessed by thousands of people Sacrifices were government-sanctioned ritual performances staged at the heart of the Moon Pyramid more than 1,000 years before the eminent Aztec civilization settled in One of the stories lifted from the soils of ancient Teotihuacán is the importance of the golden eagle an animal still held in high regard today.  Sugiyama’s unearthing of 18 golden eagles in burial 6 representing one for each of the 18 months in Teotihuacán’s 365-day calendar allows her to reimagine what the dedicatory ceremony would have looked like nearly 2,000 years ago Sugiyama suggests the birds were carried by State officials on their forearm or shoulder (or some in captivity) through Teotihuacán’s main corridor leading to the endpoint known as the Calzada de los Muertos or Avenue of the Dead.  golden eagles are still incorporated in national customs such as the annual Mexican Independence Parade when a Mexican cadet parades to the city’s federal building with a golden eagle standing on his forearm.  “We are able to see the matter in which ancient Teotihuacanos materialized and understood their cosmos directly through the messages that are provided to us archeologists through the material remains of the bones that are speaking to us 2,000 years later,” Sugiyama said More on Nawa Sugiyama’s summer excavation work in Teotihuacán (story tel: (951) 827-1012 email: webmaster@ucr.edu You don't have permission to access the page you requested What is this page?The website you are visiting is protected.For security reasons this page cannot be displayed A recently unearthed altar in Tikal holds the burial of a child and adult it appears foreigners from Teotihuacan built it Archaeologists in Guatemala have discovered an altar that holds the burial of a child and adult in the Maya city of Tikal a finding that could help researchers discern the nature of the city's relationship with one of its neighbors "What the altar confirms is that wealthy leaders from Teotihuacan came to Tikal and created replicas of ritual facilities that would have existed in their home city It shows Teotihuacan left a heavy imprint there." The city began interacting with Teotihuacan around A.D but the relationship quickly turned contentious researchers uncovered a stone carving from A.D 378 that described the probable conquest of Tikal by Teotihuacan Other ruins near the city suggest an extended period of conflict between the two in the following centuries Related: Copy of famous Teotihuacan structure discovered in Maya city through a series of excavations beginning in 2019 It was discovered inside a Teotihuacan-style house suggesting that Teotihuacan elites maintained a presence in Tikal during this period (Image credit: Heather Hurst)This artistic rendering of a centuries-old altar was likely painted by an artist from Teotihuacan (Image credit: Courtesy of Brown University)A map made with lidar (light detection and ranging) technology reveals the centuries-old infrastructure of Tikal (Image credit: Courtesy of Brown University)Archaeologists discovered the burial altar in a building complex just outside the center of Tikal a historic place known for its striking limestone temples Its four decorative panels each depict a figure wearing a nose-bar and a headdress resembling a deity known as the "Storm God" in central Mexico during that time closely match techniques seen in Teotihuacan murals Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox Archaeologists also found multiple human remains within the altar including a child buried in a seated position and an adult buried alongside a dart point made of green obsidian — both traditions that are distinct to Teotihuacan —Why did the Maya civilization collapse? —Sustainable Tech Saw Ancient Maya Through Drought —Lasers reveal Maya city, including thousands of structures, hidden in Mexico an archaeologist and anthropologist at Brown "The Maya regularly buried buildings and rebuilt on top of them," Scherer said in the statement It probably speaks to the complicated feelings they had about Teotihuacan." Editor's note: This story was first published on April 10 Skyler WareSocial Links NavigationLive Science ContributorSkyler Ware is a freelance science journalist covering chemistry She was a 2023 AAAS Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellow at Science News Her work has also appeared in Science News Explores you will then be prompted to enter your display name Ancient jawbone dredged off Taiwan seafloor belongs to mysterious Denisovan Secret 'drug room' full of psychedelic 'snuff tubes' discovered at pre-Inca site in Peru Earth may not have gotten its water how we thought Sponsored by: Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology one of the largest cities in the world over 1,500 years ago stands today as a premier archaeological site and a powerful symbol of Mexico’s precolonial heritage Despite its enduring fame and millions of annual visitors much remains misunderstood about the Teotihuacanos who built and inhabited this extraordinary city This lecture delves into the intricate history of Teotihuacan exploring its rise as a multiethnic metropolis and a center of innovation David Carballo will examine the city’s immediate antecedents and urbanization its unique architectural hallmark of apartment-style living and the dynamic networks of migration and cultural exchange that shaped its identity By connecting the iconic pyramids to the daily lives of the city’s inhabitants this talk offers a deeper understanding of one of the ancient world’s most fascinating urban centers Free event parking at the 52 Oxford Street Garage Advance registration recommended for in-person and online attendance Presented by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology and Harvard Museums of Science & Culture in collaboration with the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies Copyright © 2025, Archaeological Institute of America. All Rights Reserved. | Privacy Policy | Yelling Mule - Boston Web Design the altar wasn’t made by artisans trained in Tikal it was made by artisans trained in Teotihuacan an ancient city around 630 miles away that had a heavy influence — and a heavy hand — over Tikal in the fourth century C.E “It’s increasingly clear that this was an extraordinary period of turbulence at Tikal,” said Stephen Houston, a study author and an archaeologist and anthropologist at Brown University, according to a press release the altar is a testament to the tensions within the ancient world and reveals important insights into the Maya’s response to Teotihuacan influence in Tikal Read More: 5 Important Artifacts From Ancient Maya Civilization The Maya city of Tikal arose in modern-day Guatemala around 850 B.C.E Tikal had grown in size and in influence and had started interacting consistently with the city of Teotihuacan in modern-day Mexico Though the relationship between the two communities was initially commercial and centered on trade it gradually turned contentious by the late 300s C.E. with the people of Teotihuacan overthrowing and potentially occupying the city of Tikal Over the years, researchers have gathered a good amount of evidence on the movement of elites from one city to the other. In 2021 researchers reported that they had found a citadel in Tikal which indicated that people from Teotihuacan had arrived in the city — and had probably occupied it — in the lead-up to its overthrow researchers found an inscription in Tikal suggesting that elites from Teotihuacan had removed the city’s ruler around 378 C.E and had replaced him with a ruler “who proved a useful local instrument to Teotihuacan,” Houston said The authors of the new study say that the ancient altar at Tikal adds to this tale of political takeover Constructed in the same time period as the coup the altar seems to have appeared at the center of the city as a part of its overthrow Read More: Why Did the Maya Abandon Their Once-Bustling Cities? the altar’s painted panels resemble depictions of the “Storm God,” a deity seen in art from Teotihuacan But this paneling isn’t the only indication that the altar was made by an artist trained in Teotihuacan the altar’s contents — the body of a child placed in a sitting position — bear a stronger similarity to Teotihuacan’s traditions of ritual sacrifice and burial than Tikal’s the altar testifies to the Teotihuacan influence in Tikal But it also testifies to the aftermath of that influence as the altar and its surrounding area were later buried “The Maya regularly buried buildings and rebuilt on top of them,” said Andrew Scherer another study author and archaeologist and anthropologist at Brown University Tikal’s relationship to Teotihuacan and to the Teotihuacan takeover was certainly “complicated,” as the tensions in the fourth century C.E though the Maya always remembered their rivalry with Teotihuacan “There’s a kind of nostalgia about that time when Teotihuacan was at the height of its power and taking increasing interest in the Maya,” Houston said in the release “It’s something exalted for them; they looked back on it almost wistfully.” Read More: The 3 Secrets Behind Ancient Maya's Super Strong Architecture Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards Review the sources used below for this article: Antiquity. A Teotihuacan Altar at Tikal, Guatemala: Central Mexican Ritual and Elite Interaction in the Maya Lowlands Antiquity. A Teotihuacan complex at the Classic Maya city of Tikal, Guatemala Sam Walters is a journalist covering archaeology Before joining the Discover team as an assistant editor in 2022 Sam studied journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston Register or Log In Want more?Keep reading for as low as $1.99 Subscribe Save up to 40% off the cover price when you subscribe to Discover magazine Teotihuacan Research Laboratory uses modern technology to uncover ancient stories School of Human Evolution and Social Change campus-immersion students meet with ASU Online students from the school to discuss ongoing research projects Every Thursday, a large group of students gathers in the Teotihuacan Research Laboratory (TeoLab) in the basement of the School of Human Evolution and Social Change building on Arizona State University’s Tempe campus.  Despite the sterile connotations of laboratories, the TeoLab is brightly lit, covered in colorful posters and filled with energy as the students gather to discuss updates about their Research Apprenticeship Program. On a large computer screen, additional ASU Online students join the meeting via Zoom For the past 50 years, archaeologists at ASU have been conducting field research at Teotihuacan in partnership with Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia About 30 miles northeast of modern Mexico City the archaeological site is home to one of the largest ancient cities in the world and offers an unprecedented opportunity to uncover the story of ancient urban life Under the direction of Michael Smith, a professor at the School of Human Evolution and Social Change research within the TeoLab has taken on a new digital approach a registration error admitted 10 ASU Online students into the lab’s research programs and Smith had to scramble to find work for them there's this digital project checking the original field records against the database I thought it was sort of a busy-work project the students were doing really useful things to advance the lab’s research,” Smith said a professor at the School of Human Evolution and Social Change shows Research Apprenticeship Program students hand-drawn maps of Teotihuacan from the 1960s Original paperwork for recording site details by hand from the Teotihuacan Mapping Project carried out by Rene Millon and George Cowgill in the 1960s Photo courtesy of the Teotihuacan Research Laboratory an ASU Teotihuacan Research Laboratory administrative associate and archaeology PhD student conducts a Research Apprenticeship Program meeting with ASU Online and in-person students Both campus-immersion and ASU Online students collaborate on Teotihuacan Research Laboratory projects via online platforms like Discord The pottery shards will then be uploaded into a database for online researchers to conduct further analyses As a PhD student in archaeology and the Teotihuacan Research Laboratory administrative associate Jennifer Minish is applying her experience as an online researcher to continue to integrate online students into research projects One ASU Online student in particular, Jennifer Minish helped Smith see how archaeology research could not only be bolstered but made more accessible by modern technology Her first project was orchestrating a collaborative effort to scan and upload 1960s hand-drawn maps of Teotihuacan Online students then used Adobe Photoshop to create digital overlays of the architectural and terrestrial features of the site “Teotihuacan is cool because it's one of the few large ancient cities where you actually can reconstruct thousands of buildings from the surface terrain we now have a scan of the original surface and a digital architectural map marked with key findings,” Smith said Now a PhD student in archaeology and the TeoLab administrative associate Minish is applying her experience as an online researcher to continue to integrate online students into research projects “Archaeology is transitioning into a digital space It’s both high-tech programs and drawing and sketching and digging in the dirt I think that’s where combining both in-person and online research teams becomes important,” Minish said “It’s about giving students the tools to be successful professionals when they graduate.” there are of course some hiccups to applying new technologies From Bluetooth headsets not connecting on Zoom to time differences and learning new platforms like Discord sometimes research meetings don’t always go as planned She cites obstacles common to online education anywhere such as difficulty making connections both with fellow students and with professors a key step in getting references for graduate school “The TeoLab RAPs give online students a chance to work in small groups and get to know professors personally,” Harrison said The increased accessibility for research opportunities within the TeoLab has also contributed to attracting a diverse group of students “We have students as old as 55 and as young as 18 with a wide range of interests and learning styles We also have visiting researchers and graduate students Inclusivity is something we pride ourselves on,” Minish said “There are opportunities for every interested student.” the lab hopes to attract more interdisciplinary students who want to put their theoretical knowledge into practice “I would love to have some art students or some architecture students So much of what we do is interdisciplinary in nature and I could see many of our projects being of interest to students outside of the School of Human Evolution and Social Change,” Minish said He will graduate from Arizona State University in May with a Doctor of Musical Arts in wind band conducting and a graduate… In a digital world where stories are easily shared but not always protected Alycia de Mesa (Apache of Chihuahua) asked: How can Indigenous traditional knowledge be preserved without losing community… dancers with their faces wrapped in red fabric or a ceiling full of balloons Arizona State University student Valkyrie Yao brings stunning visuals to her… LBV Magazine English Edition a Maya city more than 2,400 years old located in the heart of present-day Guatemala an international team of researchers — including scholars from Brown University — has unearthed an altar that could offer revealing clues about an enigmatic and tumultuous period in Mesoamerican history whose construction dates back approximately to the late 4th century AD was buried underground and features rich decoration composed of four panels painted in shades of red On them appears the figure of a person adorned with an elaborate feathered headdress flanked by shields or other ritual emblems The figure’s face is characterized by almond-shaped eyes and double earspools—features that bear a notable resemblance to known depictions of a central Mexican deity detailed in a study published in the journal Antiquity has been interpreted by the researchers as clear evidence of the influence of Teotihuacan — the powerful city-state located about 1,000 kilometers to the west near what is now Mexico City — in the very heart of the Maya world Far from attributing the altar’s authorship to local Maya artists the study’s authors argue that the piece was crafted by a highly skilled artisan trained in the techniques and styles specific to Teotihuacan This interpretation is supported by both the iconographic elements and the quality of the painted work which differs from traditional Maya artistic conventions and history of art and architecture at Brown University and one of the co-authors of the article emphasizes the significance of the discovery within the historical and political context of the period it is increasingly evident that this was an extraordinary period of turmoil in Tikal the altar constitutes tangible evidence that wealthy leaders from Teotihuacan not only visited Tikal but also replicated ritual installations on Maya soil similar to those in their city of origin this material presence of Teotihuacan in Tikal goes beyond mere cultural or commercial exchange The altar not only embodies a foreign aesthetic but also suggests a deliberate exercise of symbolic power through which the Teotihuacano elite may have sought to assert their influence in a foreign territory by establishing their own ritual codes The location of the altar — buried near the central core of Tikal — reinforces this hypothesis suggesting that it was not a peripheral or marginal display but a centralized act possibly sanctioned by the local authorities of the time The discovery also raises new questions about the nature of political and religious relations between Teotihuacan and Maya centers during the Classic period especially at a time marked by internal conflicts conducted in collaboration with specialists from various academic institutions in the United States and Guatemala thus opens a unique window into a time when the ties between two of the great Mesoamerican civilizations were not limited to the trade of goods or the exchange of ideas but also extended into the realms of ritual representation and symbolic control of sacred space Brown University Román Ramírez E, Paiz Aragón L, Bass A, et al. A Teotihuacan altar at Tikal, Guatemala: central Mexican ritual and elite interaction in the Maya Lowlands. Antiquity. 2025;99(404):462-480. doi:10.15184/aqy.2025.3 Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email Archaeologists from universities in the United States and Denmark found deep within the Actun Uayazba Kab cave in Belize two small stone tools dated between 250 and 900 AD that… men and women gathered to play a game called Cuju A team of researchers has succeeded in recreating for the first time in a laboratory experiment a phenomenon that until now only existed as a theory in the realm of… the Cantonal Archaeology of Aargau carried out a rescue excavation between early May 2024 and the end of March 2025 The Egyptian archaeological mission affiliated with the Supreme Council of Antiquities announced the discovery of a group of defensive structures and a system of moats that could indicate… In the southeastern area of the city of Rome archaeologists excavating inside the Triton Baths within the monumental complex of the Villa di Sette… Why did some animals from ancient eras become fossils while others simply disappeared without a trace A recent study on the cave paintings of the Altamira Cave in Santillana del Mar Cantabria (Spain) has concluded that some of the artworks it contains could be much older… A team of paleontologists from the University of Leicester has managed to decipher one of the many enigmas of the dinosaur era—the exact moment when pterosaurs Rome achieved numerous military victories that allowed it to grow and dominate nearly the entire known world in Antiquity Receive our news and articles in your email for free You can also support us with a monthly subscription and receive exclusive content In a groundbreaking archaeological discovery, researchers in Guatemala have unearthed a Teotihuacan altar in the ancient Maya city of Tikal shedding new light on the deep cultural and political ties between these two great Mesoamerican civilizations was found alongside the remains of three children suggesting a possible ritual sacrifice—a practice associated with both Teotihuacan and Maya traditions Historical records and previous excavations have hinted at a dramatic intervention by Teotihuacan in Tikal’s politics around 378 CE when a ruler named Sihyaj K’ahk’—possibly a Teotihuacan envoy—ascended to power The newly discovered altar adds weight to the idea that Teotihuacan’s presence in Tikal was not merely diplomatic or commercial but also deeply ceremonial with rituals serving to consolidate authority The remains of the three children found near the altar raise haunting questions about the nature of these rituals While child sacrifices were not uncommon in Mesoamerica their association with this Teotihuacan-style artifact suggests a deliberate fusion of cultural practices Researchers speculate that the offering may have been part of a dedication ceremony for a significant structure or a political event tied to Teotihuacan’s hegemony This discovery not only deepens our understanding of the interconnectedness of ancient Mesoamerican societies but also underscores the complexity of their religious and political systems As archaeologists continue to analyze the altar and its context the story of Teotihuacan’s reach into the Maya world grows ever more compelling—a testament to the enduring mysteries of the past waiting to be uncovered a collaborative effort between Guatemalan and international researchers highlights the importance of preserving and studying these ancient sites the narrative of pre-Columbian civilizations becomes richer revealing a world where distant cities were linked by trade and shared beliefs—centuries before the arrival of Europeans Teotihuacan was one of the largest and most influential cities in ancient Mesoamerica located about 30 miles northeast of modern-day Mexico City known for its massive pyramids—the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon—as well as its well-planned grid layout The city had a diverse population and strong trade networks, influencing other civilizations like the Maya. Around 550 CE, Teotihuacan mysteriously declined, possibly due to internal unrest, environmental factors, or invasions. Its legacy endured, however, as later cultures, including the Aztecs revered this Teotihuacan altar as a sacred site Senior Editor Carlos Rosado van der Gracht is a Mexican expedition/Canadian photographer and translation degrees from universities in Mexico The exquisitely preserved ruins of the ancient city of Acatitlán are just a short drive from Mexico City Image above displays an INAH restoration specialist at work at El Meco Archaeological site Photo: Carlos Rosado van der Gracht / Yucatán Magazine Over the past couple of weeks hundreds of media outlets worldwide have reported on the discovery of the ancient Maya city nicknamed Valeriana in Mexico’s Campeche state.  Several headlines The Maya are renowned for many achievements but arguably their most enduring legacy is the remains of their architectural feats Most folks associate Maya architecture with temples and pyramids astronomical observatories and elite residential palaces are often just as impressive.  When we throw around the term Maya architecture One of the least-known urban archaeological sites is a cluster of Mayan structures located just behind a pair of gleaming luxury condo towers in the Altabrisa neighborhood Anyone with even the faintest interest in history or archaeology surely knows of Yucatán’s archaeological sites and maybe even some lesser-visited sites like Chacmultún and even entirely unrestored or vaguely documented remains of Prehispanic cities and towns in the bush — archaeology in… The Great Museum of the Maya World is a must-visit for lovers of antiquity and curious souls alike when in Mérida Advertise With Us Clip: Episode 1 | 3m 4sVideo has Closed Captions | CC John Leguizamo journeys into the tunnels beneath the great pyramids of Teotihuacán Teotihuacán was the great capital of Mesoamerica and one of the cradles of Western Civilization Alongside archaeologist Sergio Gómez Chávez John Leguizamo explores the network of tunnels beneath the great pyramids of Teotihuacán that was unearthed in 2003 – originally built two thousand years ago without the use of machinery or power tools Problems with Closed Captions? Closed Captioning Feedback The WNET Group’s Chasing the Dream initiative Embed VideoVOCES American Historia: The Untold History of Latinos Link Copied to ClipboardHow to Watch VOCES American Historia: The Untold History of LatinosVOCES American Historia: The Untold History of Latinos is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and Vizio. the original scientists and rulers of Teotihuacan built this series of tunnels without the use of machinery or power tools These tunnels connected chamber holding treasures long forgotten until they were unearthed in 2003 It was a groundbreaking discovery that changed our perception of the civilization that once thrived here And I'm here to meet the man who uncovered these wonders: archaeologist Sergio Gomez Estamos en frente del Templo de la Serpiente Emplumada donde hace varios años descubrimos un tunel que nos conduce hasta casi el centro de la pirámida Es problamente uno de los descubriementos mas importantes que se han hecho en los ultimos años en Teotihuacán Tenemos una gran cantidad de objetos importados de la zona Maya muchas cosas increíbles traídas desde Central America Y también tenemos pequeños fragmentos de turquesa This monumental discovery of turquoise all the way from Arizona prove that the people of Teotihuacan had significant trade relationships with societies as far away as Arizona to the north their network extended almost as far as the Roman Empire at about the same time Esto es el hueco donde yo baje la primera vez I can feel how deep I a below the surface of the earth Estamos llegando a la parte finale del túnel La percepción que tienen del tiempo es distinta No importa si no la vi se terminada -- la proyectaste y tal vez tres o cuatro generaciones después and it's so special to see this sacred space The Complicated Story of La Malinche Clip: Ep1 | 3m 36s | John Leguizamo and historians explore the complex story of La Malinche Copyright © 2025 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization Sign in with EmailNew to PBS? Create an account Are you sure you want to remove null from My List This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page A 1,600-year-old altar discovered in the heart of Tikal, Guatemala, offers striking evidence of the intricate and often contentious relationship between Maya society and the ancient metropolis of Teotihuacán. According to a study published this week in the journal Antiquity but rather by “foreigners” from Teotihuacán located 1,500 kilometers away in what is now central Mexico Teotihuacán, known as “The City of the Gods,” was a sprawling area northeast of modern Mexico City renowned for its monumental pyramids, vibrant murals and influential cultural and economic reach across Mesoamerica during its peak between 100 B.C before ballooning into a dynasty around A.D Guatemala’s Culture and Sports Ministry also announced the findings this week detailing an altar adorned with vividly painted murals and linked to ritual sacrifices — which researchers say reshapes understanding of Mesoamerican power dynamics Buried beneath a residential complex in Tikal National Park the 1-meter tall limestone altar features talud-tablero architecture (one inward-sloping panel topped by a perpendicular rectangular panel) and painted panels depicting a deity resembling Teotihuacán’s “Storm God” or “Great Goddess.” The national park is located in northern Guatemala less than 100 kilometers from the Mexican state of Campeche a fanged nose bar and a feathered headdress flanked by shields can be seen on four sides of the square piece Archaeologists used advanced imaging technology to reveal its original red “What the altar confirms is that wealthy leaders from Teotihuacán came to Tikal and created replicas of the ritual facilities that would have existed in their home city,” said Stephen Houston, a professor at Brown University who was part of a global team of researchers who studied the altar. “This shows that Teotihuacán left a heavy imprint there.” In an interview on National Public Radio (NPR), Andrew Scherer said a central tenet of the research was trying to figure out just how heavy that imprint was “The growing sense of things is that rather than just a few folks coming down from central Mexico to sort of trade or interact at Tikal, they were more deeply embedded in the politics and the daily life to the point that there were actually settlers who were sort of living permanently at Tikal,” said Scherer archaeology and the ancient world at Brown and director of the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology Built around A.D. 378, the altar coincides with a pivotal coup in Tikal’s history, when Teotihuacán elites deposed Tikal’s king, Chak Tok Ich’aak, and installed Yax Nuun Ahiin whose father Spearthrower Owl was at least a noble His installation is seen as a high point in Teotihuacán influence at Tikal Another sign was revealed in a Lidar scan in 2016: a scaled-down replica of Teotihuacán’s citadel near Tikal’s center suggesting prolonged occupation before the coup “Teotihuacán saw the Maya region as a land of wealth — jade cocoa — and sought to control it,” said Houston and the history of art and architecture at Brown Hoy presentamos el Altar de estilo Teotihuacano de Tikal. Mañana saldrá la publicación en la revista científica Antiquity. https://t.co/Q0NHfeY53m — Edwin Roman-Ramirez (@eroman378) April 7, 2025 led by Guatemalan archaeologist Lorena Paiz One was interred in a seated position — a practice common in Teotihuacán but rare among the Maya — alongside a green obsidian dart point Paiz said the altar was believed to have been used for sacrifices Radiocarbon dating indicates the site was abandoned around A.D ADVERTISE WITH MND COMMUNITY GUIDELINES Subscription FAQ's Privacy Policy Mexico News Daily - Property of Tavana LLC Home → Science → News What were these outsiders doing so far away from home archaeologists brushed away centuries of soil to uncover a small altar that shouldn’t have been there its four painted faces worn but unmistakable in style in the heart of the ancient Maya site of Tikal stood an altar built and painted in the style of Teotihuacan This altar may be the clearest evidence yet of how deeply Teotihuacan’s rituals and artists penetrated the Maya world during the fifth century AD Archaeologists have long puzzled over the relationship between the Maya and Teotihuacan these two civilizations flourished around the same time and often traded goods But the nature of their contact has been fiercely debated Or something murkier — an elite entanglement that blurred the lines between home and abroad The newly discovered altar may provide some answers — or something resembling them Set in the ruins of a residential courtyard called Group 6D-XV and black faces wearing feathered headdresses and shield-like ornaments a signature architectural feature of Teotihuacan Its mural technique — layered brushstrokes and frontal deity imagery — also adheres closely to Teotihuacan’s artistic traditions This is not a Mayan take on a Teotihuacan altar These are murals made by people well-versed in highly standardised Teotihuacan painting Radiocarbon dating places the altar’s use around AD 400–550 right in the thick of a dramatic period known as the “Entrada,” when a figure from Teotihuacan known today by his Maya name “Spearthrower Owl,” appears to have helped install a new dynasty at Tikal It stood in the center of a private courtyard surrounded by four buildings likely occupied by elite Maya families It was small and easily overlooked — except for its remarkable artistry and the mysteries buried beneath it There were four infant burials and ritual deposits around the altar Their arrangement and style mirror mortuary practices in Teotihuacan’s own residential compounds One child’s remains were burned and seated arms curled to the chest — a posture eerily consistent with Teotihuacan funerary norms “The remains of three children not older than 4 years were found on three sides of the altar,” Lorena Paiz “The Teotihuacan were traders who traveled all over the country (Guatemala),” Paiz said “The Teotihuacan residential complexes were houses with rooms and in the center altars; that’s what the residence that was found is like with an altar with the figure representing the Storm Goddess.” Ceramic offerings from these burials included fluted vessels and pinched rims that One adult grave included a green obsidian blade — made from material known to come from central Mexico The altar itself also bore a circular socket where a disc — possibly a mirror — had once been inserted Its absence today suggests it was removed before the altar was deliberately buried under a layer of rubble an act archaeologists interpret as ritual termination This burial event coincides with the decline of Teotihuacan itself a possible sign of waning influence in the Maya region To understand why a Mexican altar would appear in a Maya city you have to think beyond modern ideas of borders Teotihuacan was one of the largest cities in the world home to more than 100,000 people (that would have secured its place among the top 10 largest cities in the world at the time) and filled with monumental pyramids and wide avenues Its influence stretched across Mesoamerica — from Honduras to western Mexico Previous discoveries — such as the famous “Tikal Marcador,” a carved stela referencing Teotihuacan’s arrival in AD 378 — had hinted at a foreign elite presence But the altar in Group 6D-XV shows that this influence seeped into everyday residential life and offerings point to a profound immersion in the mural practice of that distant metropolis some of the altar’s features evoke the so-called “Storm God” and “Great Goddess” of Teotihuacan iconography — figures believed to embody rain framed by feathered headdresses and flanked by shields possibly representing the cardinal directions and a vision of cosmic order Whether these figures were worshipped as deities or served more as symbols of identity and legitimacy remains unclear What is certain is that someone at Tikal had access to knowledge and perhaps even artisans from Teotihuacan itself Could this altar point to an entire Teotihuacan community living at Tikal other Teotihuacan-style structures were built in Tikal’s southern sector including a plaza modeled after Teotihuacan’s massive Ciudadela complex The discovery of thousands of incense burner fragments and elite tombs with exotic grave goods all suggest more than fleeting contact It’s possible we’re looking at a foreign enclave — a kind of diplomatic or military outpost But it may have also been something more hybrid: Maya elites adopting Teotihuacan styles to express a new kind of power Foreign fashion may have been trendy then as it is now tangible link between two ancient superpowers in Mesoamerica It captures not only the reach of Teotihuacan but the subtle ways that influence took root — in ceremonies and in the brushstrokes of a long-buried mural The findings were reported in the journal Antiquity © 2007-2025 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science © 2007-2025 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science MEXICO – Every historical site and landmark our team came across in Mexico was stunning in its own unique way and the pyramids of Teotihuacán were no exception past the vendors selling Mexican souvenirs we were met with the Quetzalpapálotl complex that spanned across the land as far as the eye could see The ruins were situated lower than the pathway we came from so we made our way down into the depths of the UNESCO World Heritage site It was disappointing to hear that most of the walls were reconstructed with the small stones embedded into the walls as evidence of this restoration process But the colorful murals and pre-Hispanic narratives made up for the initial dissatisfaction One major takeaway from the guided tour was that all aspects of the site from the clever drainage system to the excellent preservation of the murals was living proof that past civilization thought meticulously about their values and mastered their lifestyle accordingly This realization came once again while examining the unnecessarily steep steps leading down to the Avenue of the Dead which our guide said was intentionally done so that people climbing them would naturally mimic the movement of a snake because they had to move sideways to safely make their way down As soon as we made it past the Courtyard of Quetzalpapálotl Palace we were able to see the two pyramids in the distance which were the Pyramid of the Sun located straight ahead from the exit of the palace and the Pyramid of the Moon The pyramids were so big that it felt as if they were much further away in the distance we were able to comprehend how monumental the structures were It was amazing that people of the past could be so intricate with the details in the murals and also be bold and enlarge the scale to build such grandiose structures We were also lucky to watch a demonstration of how the murals were painted using natural substances A woman selling souvenirs pulled out an envelope and began rubbing various natural substances such as insect eggs into the paper resulting in bright colors ranging from red to indigo Our tour guide explained to us that certain colors of the mural were well preserved because the natural paints were resistant to sunlight and other external factors that could cause erosion The pyramids of Teotihuacán were an eye-opening experience the deep cultural context encompassing every detail was mesmerizing to examine With enough background information to supplement understanding of these treasures I am confident many visitors will find the experience both educational and enjoyable Damian Nam is a Reporter with Youth Journalism International from Seoul He wrote this article and contributed photos Anjola Fashawe is a Correspondent with Youth Journalism International from London Holly Hostettler-Davies is an Associate Editor with Youth Journalism International from Wales “This incredibly important, worthwhile organization should be supported by everyone who cares about quality, ethical journalism.” — Nat Hentoff, First Amendment expert, in 2016 Consider making a recurring monthly donation Youth Journalism International / 30 Taylor St All donations in the USA are tax-deductible – This year’s top honors in Youth Journalism.. Pope Francis admonished us to humility and simplicity Anjola Fashawe is a Senior Correspondent with Youth Journalism International from London Holly Hostettler-Davies is an Associate Editor with Youth Journalism International from South Wales Youth Journalism International connects student writers artists and photographers with peers around the globe and promotes and defends a free youth press “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” – Article 19 Youth Journalism International works all over the world. Click here to view a map of our impact You can find Youth Journalism International on Facebook Copyright © 2025 Youth Journalism International | Crafted by Cornershop FROM AFP NEWSTeotihuacan Altar Found At Guatemala Maya SiteBy AFP - Agence France Presse ShareResizeReprintsThe Barron's news department was not involved in the creation of the content above. This article was produced by AFP. For more information go to AFP.com.© Agence France-Presse Near the 2,400-year-old Maya city of Tikal in modern-day Guatemala a team of researchers unearthed an altar that reveals more about Mayan and Teotihuacan culture and was decorated with four panels painted red and black depicting a person wearing a feathered headdress and flanked with shields The person’s face contains almond-shaped eyes It looks similar to other portrayals of a deity known as the “Storm God” in central Mexico The painted altar was the work of an artist at Teotihuacan Teotihuacan was a large city located in northern Mexico that covered about eight square miles and housed more than 100,000 inhabitants it was one of the largest cities in the world it was abandoned before the rise of the Aztecs in the 14th century It is believed that the Teotihuacan altar was used for sacrifices The remains of three children no older than the age of four were found on three sides of the altar It took one and a half years for the archaeologists to uncover the altar and analyze it thoroughly The discovery supports the idea that Tikal was a major hub at the time People from other cultures visited the city “What the altar confirms is that wealthy leaders from Teotihuacan came to Tikal and created replicas of ritual facilities that would have existed in their home city It shows Teotihuacan left a heavy imprint there,” said Stephen Houston a co-author of the study and a professor at Brown University It existed as a small city for many years before it blossomed into a dynasty around 100 A.D the Teotihuacan and the Maya at Tikal began interacting with each other Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox. The Teotihuacan were traders who traveled all over the country Their relationship with Tikal started out as a casual trading one but quickly became less than friendly archaeologists found a cut stone with text describing the conflict the Teotihuacan removed the king of Tikal and replaced him with a puppet figure around A.D The presence of the Teotihuacan in the Maya city changed Tikal forever The Maya usually buried buildings and rebuilt on top of them they buried it and the surrounding structures This pointed to how they felt about Teotihuacan Tikal rose to greater power over the next few centuries The research was published in the journal Antiquity More About: Home › Historical News By StudyFinds Studies Reviewed by Steve Fink altar found buried under the Mayan city of Tikal with murals photographed from the south-west (Credit: Antiquity/Cambridge University Press; Photograph by E –– Archaeologists have found a smoking gun in the ancient rivalry between two Mesoamerican powers A newly discovered painted altar found buried under the Maya city of Tikal bears the unmistakable artistic style of distant Teotihuacan revealing that people from central Mexico weren’t just trading with the Maya – they were living among them and wielding real power archaeologists have debated the nature of interactions between Teotihuacan (located near modern-day Mexico City) and Maya cities like Tikal in Guatemala but the question remained: was this merely trade influence shows that Teotihuacan artists were working directly in the Maya heartland For comparison, imagine finding a perfectly executed Japanese temple in the middle of medieval England complete with authentic calligraphy and precise architectural details It would require Japanese builders and artists on site – not just English craftsmen copying foreign styles they’d seen in imported goods sits at the center of a residential compound in Tikal’s southern sector Though small (just 1.8 × 1.33m and 1.1m tall) it packs tremendous historical significance The structure features the distinctive “talud-tablero” profile characteristic of Teotihuacan architecture and previously unknown in the Maya region before contact with central Mexico Each side displays the frontal image of a deity with a feathered headdress The researchers note these figures resemble what’s often described in central Mexico as the “Storm God,” with variations in color suggesting they represent deities associated with the four cardinal directions The artistic style matches painting techniques documented at Teotihuacan itself: preparatory drawing Everything from the execution to the subject matter screams Teotihuacan “It’s increasingly clear that this was an extraordinary period of turbulence at Tikal,” says co-author Stephen Houston and history of art and architecture at Brown University Edwin Román Ramírez of the Proyecto Arqueológico del Sur de Tikal led the team that made this remarkable find after lidar surveys in 2016 revealed previously unknown structures The altar came to light during excavations of Group 6D-XV a residential compound that had been intentionally buried around AD 550-645 The timing aligns perfectly with historical texts that mention a conquest of Tikal by Teotihuacan in AD 378 – an event scholars call the “Entrada” or “Arrival.” The altar and its containing compound were built and used during the following century when Teotihuacan influence was at its peak. Around the altar, archaeologists found infant burials and evidence of burning rituals that match practices documented at Teotihuacan The compound was eventually buried after a ceremony that left burnt material spread over 3 meters with radiocarbon dating suggesting this occurred between AD 550-645 – roughly when Teotihuacan itself began to decline “This departure from the hybridity of other examples” where Teotihuacan and Maya elements mix shows “Structure 6D-XV-Sub3 incorporates Central Mexican artistic practice The altar discovery joins other Teotihuacan-linked finds in Tikal’s southern sector, including a complex called Group 6D-III that resembles a miniature version of Teotihuacan’s “Ciudadela” (Citadel) complex. Excavations there yielded over 5,000 fragments of incense burners that were locally produced but Teotihuacan in style dart points recovered from excavations were “probably crafted at Teotihuacan or by people trained at the metropolis,” according to expert analysis cited in the study Beyond simply confirming Teotihuacan presence at Tikal the altar’s existence helps explain the power dynamics between these ancient superpowers we now have physical evidence of what was likely a foreign enclave established after military conquest – a potential ancient colony nestled within one of the most powerful Maya cities By looking closely at this remarkable find, we’ve uncovered the footprint of an ancient foreign occupation that marked a turning point for Maya civilization “Everyone knows what happened to the Aztec civilization after the Spanish arrived,” Houston says Researchers from the Proyecto Arqueológico del Sur de Tikal conducted excavations at Group 6D-XV at Tikal after lidar surveys in 2016 revealed previously unknown structures in the area They uncovered a residential compound with a central painted altar (Structure 6D-XV-Sub3) that displays distinctive Teotihuacan characteristics The team documented the altar using photogrammetry and enhanced the faded paintings with dStretch software which uses decorrelation stretch algorithms to make faint pigments more visible They also collected samples for radiocarbon dating to establish the chronology of the structure and surrounding complex The excavations revealed a small talud-tablero altar with paintings on all four sides that display frontal deity figures with features consistent with Teotihuacan artistic conventions The altar was surrounded by infant burials and evidence of ritual burning Radiocarbon dating placed the residential compound to the fifth century AD with a range of cal AD 360-540 for the construction of the buildings around the altar The complex was eventually buried after a ceremony that occurred between cal AD 550-645 researchers found other Teotihuacan-related objects including a ceramic drum-shaped earspool that is unique to the Maya area but common at Mexican sites affiliated with Teotihuacan The researchers note that the precarious condition of the murals meant they could not excavate within the altar structure limiting their understanding of its construction details while the evidence strongly suggests Teotihuacan artists created the altar they acknowledge they cannot definitively determine whether it was made by Teotihuacan artists at Tikal or by Maya artists thoroughly trained in Teotihuacan style especially since Teotihuacan itself had artists who were literate in Maya writing The excavations and research were funded by PACUNAM-Fundación Patrimonio Cultural y Natural Maya and the Hitz Foundation Additional support for radiocarbon dating came from Brown University’s Dupee Family Professorship of Social Sciences with travel support from Skidmore College and the University of Texas The study “A Teotihuacan altar at Tikal, Guatemala: central Mexican ritual and elite interaction in the Maya Lowlands” appears in Antiquity (Volume 99 Piedrasanta Castellanos from multiple institutions including Brown University transparent research summaries that are intended to inform the reader as well as stir civil educated debate. We do not agree nor disagree with any of the studies we post we encourage our readers to debate the veracity of the findings themselves. All articles published on StudyFinds are vetted by our editors prior to publication and include links back to the source or corresponding journal article ©2025 Study Finds. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy • Disclosure Policy • Do Not Sell My Personal Information it’s hard for me to predict beforehand when I’ll take these weeks off What I thought I knew about Mesoamerica when the Spaniards arrived was mostly wrong. Hernán Cortés didn’t conquer Tenochtitlan with a handful of Spanish soldiers but rather with a bigger army and the help of alliances with indigenous city-states local politics were a major reason why the Spaniards took control of the region to the point where it's unclear who played whom the most between the Conquistadors and Mesoamerican kings and officials Some agreements that the Spanish made with the indigenous people still apply to this day It was reasonable for the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II to invite the Spaniards into Tenochtitlan Before and at the same time as the Aztec and Maya there were dozens of other similarly accomplished civilizations and kingdoms all of whom were connected to each other via trade and diplomacy I thought the Maya had mostly disappeared by the time of the Aztec and the arrival of the Spanish but they were still around then and even are today There’s an important difference between Mexica and Aztec Tenochtitlan was not built on a lake because it was great The history of the region gives us many clues about how the ancients viewed inequality we’re also going to learn some amazing facts like why cenotes and caves form in Yucatan why the magnificent city of Teotihuacan had toilets and why it disappeared I find the easiest way to understand all of this is to go back to the root: What is the history of the region and why were the Aztecs the way they were when the Spaniards arrived we’re starting with this premium article on Mesoamerican history before Columbus Why does this matter? Because their cultivation is what allowed local civilizations to flourish. Without these crops, no civilization would have been possible there. Remains of agriculture appear across the region, showing that these crops circulated throughout. But the first place where they created some sort of civilization is here: The Olmecs were the true OG. There had been some proto-cultures around 2500 BC, but by 1200 BC, the Olmecs had truly emerged. To give you a sense of how ancient this was, the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the early Chinese, and the very early Greeks (Mycenaeans) lived at the same time. Super early! Notice how this is just at the fall line of the mountains there, and always close to some rivers: Depiction of San Lorenzo from Arqueología MexicanaSan Lorenzo is famous for these big fat heads: Also, you can see that some of these altars were hacked. Did people try to recarve them and stopped, or were they just hacking at them for some reason? Source.Here’s something surprising: The city didn’t have walls or other defenses so the goal of these cities was not mainly one of protection A clue comes from its heads, its altars, its palaces, underground drains, water channels… The public works were so extensive that locals moved an insane amount of dirt: The core of San Lorenzo covers 55 hectares (140 acres) that were further modified through extensive filling and leveling. By one estimate 500,000 to 2,000,000 cubic metres (18,000,000 to 71,000,000 cu ft) of earthen fill were needed, moved by the basketload. It would have taken tens of millions of trips to make it happen! People left for La Venta, either because of war, uprising, or more likely some geographic changes like the riverbed moving. This foreshadowed later events, as around 400-350 BC, the Olmec population dropped precipitously and there would be little population in the area until the 19th century! The cause is unknown, but geography is the main suspect—maybe tectonic shifts or heavy volcanic activity. After these changes, it might well be that people just left for another, better land. One thing that’s interesting to realize is that Olmec items appear across the region, from CDMX to Guatemala, which proves two things: The Olmecs were not the only emerging civilization in Mesoamerica.  Olmec items appeared across Mesoamerica. Source.Soon after the Olmecs emerged, other civilizations started appearing everywhere in the region, probably because the elites of other developing civilizations adopted Olmec styles. The small circles are sites where Olmec-style items have been discovered. Source.Here you can see some sites where Olmec stylistic influence has been recorded, including the Texcoco lake where the Aztecs eventually appeared (the lake is where you see Tlatilco and Tlapacoya on the map). Tlatilco figurine, 1200-900 BCSoon, Cuicuilco emerged on the lakeshore, with its famous cylindrical pyramid, built around 800-600 BC. I mean, not famous enough for me to know it before I studied this! But apparently famous… It’s in the middle of CDMX today. Source.The city was bigger than the Olmec centers—20,000 people. It also had defensive walls, which means that unlike cities in the Olmec region, it had to defend itself against its neighbors. It was built around pools and streams, and crucially, at the feet of the Xitle volcano, which erupted around 300 BC and destroyed the city. SourceThis is around the time that Teotihuacan emerged (not to be confused with Tenochtitlan). Teotihuacan is among the most visited archeological sites in all of the American Continent. It’s on the opposite side of Lake Texcoco from Cuicuilco: SourceIn fact, Teotihuacan became the dominant center in the Lake Texcoco basin—the Valley of Mexico—due to eruptions displacing people from Cuicuilco and other sites, who then migrated into Teotihuacan. At its height between AD 200-500, it had ~100,000 denizens, around the 6th largest in the world.   But Teotihuacan grew so large because it attracted immigration from all around Mesoamerica, not just the Valley of Mexico. We know this for many reasons, one of which is that it had ethnic neighborhoods! There was a Mayan neighborhood, a Zapotec one, and many others, the way we have Chinatowns in Western cities today. SourceThis grid layout was so important that the locals even changed the course of rivers through the grid, some aligned to appear to erupt out of specific structures. Sunrise from a hot air balloon over the Teotihuacan pyramidsAnother crazy fact about the city is that a huge part of the population lived in well-built multi-family apartment compounds. View of Teotihuacan from the West Plaza compound, next to the Avenue of the Dead. Most of the population lived in high quality apartment compounds comparable to the palaces of other Mesoamerican cities. . Source for the image.I didn’t realize how rich the city was until I dug into it. Many houses had lavishly-decorated walls. SourceAnd some even had toilets! It used to have superb monuments and sumptuous palaces along its main thoroughfare But most of its monuments and the buildings of the ruling class were sacked and systematically burned around 600 AC There is now a complete lack of symbols of power Maybe an invading force killed and replaced the ruling class But Teotihuacan was like the Olmec civilization—and many other cities in Mesoamerica: It had no defenses and no military buildings No traces of foreign invasion can be found According to David Graeber in The Dawn of Everything, this was due to an uprising that eliminated the inequalities forced down by the elites and ushered in a much more egalitarian period in Teotihuacan history which lasted until the 700s as it continued decaying no city in the Texcoco Lake area predominated for centuries Cultures like Toltecs and Chichimecas influenced the area but none prevailed… until the Aztecs emerged let’s have a look at the other civilizations in Mesoamerica at the time Red outline: Maya. Black outline: Mesoamerica.The Mayan culture is world famous, for its stelae: SourceFor its paintings: Tikal-Calakmul wars. Source.And for its pyramids: Chichen ItzaPyramids again! They are everywhere, which makes sense since all these peoples were trading and interacting with each other.  Calakmul, YucatanThere are tens of thousands of Maya sites, some of which are being discovered to this day thanks to novel methods. Aguada Fenix, for example, discovered with laser tech, shows how the Maya developed complex sites earlier than previously thought—maybe during the heyday of Olmec sites like San Lorenzo and La Venta! We have a good understanding of the Maya because they recorded a lot of what they did, mostly through their architecture and inscriptions in stelae, but also through books. Dresden codexHere’s something to make your blood boil: The Church burned thousands of Mesoamerican books like this one. As someone4 said the Church’s book-burning in Mesoamerica is the reason we talk about the region in archaeology classes and not history classes The largest Maya cities like Tikal and Calakmul only matched Teotihuacan’s population when including their extended sprawl of suburbs and the nearby sites they connected. Indeed, the bigger cities confronted each other by forming coalitions with smaller cities, like Tikal vs Calakmul: How do we know these cities were less dense, and so connected to central Mexico? Through archaeology, records of trade, and inscriptions. For example, there were political marriages across long distances, and even wars. For example, there is even evidence that Teotihuacan, 1200km away, invaded Maya cities and replaced local rulers around AD 400! Why was Maya civilization like this? Why did it have hundreds of smallish cities that rose and fell, instead of one strong city that could dominate? I haven’t found a clear-cut answer, but from what I can gather, it comes down to geography.  As I mentioned, the Yucatan Peninsula is flat and has no rivers. This means that every waterhole could sprout a town. There’s no river to control, nor a huge advantage in controlling it. No river and thick jungle also means massive limits to mobility, which make it difficult to control vast swaths of territory. This was made worse by a lack of draft animals to help carry supplies and transport people. (Even in Central Mexico, without jungles, this plus the mountainous terrain limited long distance administration) No mountains also means little mining, so fewer materials available to develop civilization, less trade, and less concentrated resources to fuel the emergence of a prevailing state. The Yucatan Peninsula is flat AF.Few rivers also means no alluvial plains fertilized with sediments, so land could be exhausted of its nutrients, and local cities would disappear.  It’s also easier for flatter lands to change substantially with climate change events. Maybe the volcanoes that cooled the world in the 500s AD also affected the Maya. Maybe other local climate events did the same, like with the Olmecs before them. This begs the question of why the Yucatan is so flat and full of holes? Because it used to be seabed! You can see today that it’s not just the land that is flat. It’s also the seabed: The Yucatan Tectonic PlatformFor tens of millions of years, marine animals died and accumulated at the bottom of the sea, creating huge flat layers of shells that eventually became limestone. Except limestone dilutes more easily in water than other types of soil—especially if the water is somewhat acidic.  As the Yucatan Peninsula rose above the sea, it remained flat and covered in layers of limestone when rain started hitting it. But rain captures CO2 in the atmosphere, which increases its acidity. Acid dilutes limestone and creates holes in the ground.  This is what causes the cenotes and the underwater caves that I discussed in a previous article. These were important sources of freshwater and sacred sites to the Maya, viewed as underworld portals. Since the Yucatan is so flat, water can’t easily flow into rivers, so instead it forms lakes. Their size depends on the balance between rain and the (very intense) heat that evaporates it. This flat land also provides no defense against hurricanes. And hurricanes are common here! SourceI speculate that constant hurricanes don’t help civilization building, or for cities to remain at the same spot for millennia.  So all these reasons that might have caused a decentralized Maya civilization might also have caused its demise. It’s unclear why it started disintegrating around AD 800—, though it was likely a combination of warfare, environmental changes and droughts.  However, this was not the end of Maya civilization: the Classic Collapse mostly impacted the large sites in the Southern and Central Maya regions. Many smaller sites as well as larger cities to the North survived, or even grew! The famous site of Chichen Itza was populated into the 1200s, and the League of Mayapan, perhaps the largest Maya political network ever, nearly survived to Spanish contact.  The League of Mayapan was a large Maya political network from ~1000 to 1450AC. Source.When the Spainards arrived, there were still many towns and some cities. In fact, the last Maya city-state did not fall until 1697—after the Salem Witch Trials in colonial America! Today, there are ~8 million Maya people, many of whom still speak Maya language and retain some traditional practices.  Here’s another civilization I knew nothing about. The same way as the Aztecs were centered around the Mexico Valley, the Zapotecs were centered around the Oaxaca Valley. You’ll notice this valley has a Y shape. Each of the arms hosted a different society, and they competed with each other. Eventually, a city emerged perched on a hill in the middle of the valley—Monte Alban. Artistic reconstruction of Monte Alban. Note that the suburbs around the hilltop core extended past what is shown here. Source.Monte Alban was one of the first major cities to come to power in Mesoamerica and may have even become Mesoamerica’s first formal bureaucratic state society The hill it was located on provided it with a defensive location but it suffered a decline around 600-700AC around the time of Teotihuacan’s decline and the Classic Maya Collapse As with the Mayas, many Zapotec people still exist today!7  The Toltecs are perhaps the most debated subject in Mesoamerican history and archeology: They are described by the Aztecs as creators of high culture and a utopian civilization from ~AD 700-1100, but experts don’t know whether they actually existed or they were mythical! The Toltec allegedly ruled from their city of Tollan, which might have been Teotihuacan, Cholula, or more probably on the site of Tula. Tula was indeed a sizable city in Central Mexico after the fall of Teotihuacan but before the rise of the Aztec and similarities between it and the Maya site of Chichen Itza seemingly bolstered the idea of Aztec and Maya  accounts of a wide Toltec Empire Toltecs were based in yet another place in Mesoamerica showing how many of these valleys and geographical regions hosted different civilizations They show how connected all these different cultures were The Aztecs considered themselves to be the offspring of the Toltecs Share Civilizations have emerged and developed in Mexico in a similar fashion as in Eurasia They just started somewhat later and developed more slowly which makes sense given Jared Diamond’s hypothesis that Eurasia had many more lands and peoples to mix But that doesn’t mean Central America only gave rise to the Aztecs and the Maya There were nearly 3,000 years of civilizational development before the Spaniards arrived Each ecological niche sprung a different civilization But the special conditions of Mexico also created an interesting situation: One where a new state could emerge in a matter of decades to become a massive power It’s time to dive into the meteoric rise and fall of the Aztecs Wikipedia mentions about 5,000 for San Lorenzo, and up to 13,000 including the surroundings. A paper gives a median population of a bit under 8,000.Iit's not clear if that's in reference to just the core .4-.5 km2 plateau or the wider ~ 7 km2 settlement. This apogee of the Maya civilization is referred to as the “Classic period”. I believe it’s  /u/snickeringshadow in Reddit, a professional archeologist in West Mexico. The reservoirs were even connected via canals with switching mechanisms and had filtration systems! And the group that replaced them, the Mixtec. ReplyShare1 reply by Tomas Pueyo24 more comments...TopLatestDiscussionsNo posts it\u2019s hard for me to predict beforehand when I\u2019ll take these weeks off I suspect I\u2019ll take another one in August This week, I\u2019m looking at the long-term past of Mexico. And aside from the consistent and incredibly useful support of your editors and Heidi, today I also wanted to thank MajoraZ for their amazing support editing, correcting, and adding to this article. Go look at their content if you want to know more about Mesoamerican history! Hern\u00E1n Cort\u00E9s didn\u2019t conquer Tenochtitlan with a handful of Spanish soldiers There\u2019s an important difference between Mexica and Aztec we\u2019re also going to learn some amazing facts we\u2019re starting with this premium article on Mesoamerican history before Columbus Cacao, maize, beans, tomato, avocado, vanilla, squash and chili were all domesticated in Mesoamerica starting around 7000 BC. They also kept turkeys, dogs, and peccaries, most likely for companionship and ceremonial purposes as well as food.1  Depiction of San Lorenzo from Arqueolog\u00EDa MexicanaSan Lorenzo is famous for these big fat heads: Also, you can see that some of these altars were hacked. Did people try to recarve them and stopped, or were they just hacking at them for some reason? Source.Here\u2019s something surprising: The city didn\u2019t have walls or other defenses A clue comes from its heads, its altars, its palaces, underground drains, water channels\u2026 The public works were so extensive that locals moved an insane amount of dirt: People left for La Venta, either because of war, uprising, or more likely some geographic changes like the riverbed moving. This foreshadowed later events, as around 400-350 BC, the Olmec population dropped precipitously and there would be little population in the area until the 19th century! The cause is unknown, but geography is the main suspect\u2014maybe tectonic shifts or heavy volcanic activity. After these changes, it might well be that people just left for another, better land. One thing that\u2019s interesting to realize is that Olmec items appear across the region, from CDMX to Guatemala, which proves two things: The Olmecs were not the only emerging civilization in Mesoamerica.  Olmec items appeared across Mesoamerica. Source.Soon after the Olmecs emerged, other civilizations started appearing everywhere in the region, probably because the elites of other developing civilizations adopted Olmec styles. The small circles are sites where Olmec-style items have been discovered. Source.Here you can see some sites where Olmec stylistic influence has been recorded, including the Texcoco lake where the Aztecs eventually appeared (the lake is where you see Tlatilco and Tlapacoya on the map). I mean, not famous enough for me to know it before I studied this! But apparently famous\u2026 It\u2019s in the middle of CDMX today. Source.The city was bigger than the Olmec centers\u201420,000 people. It also had defensive walls, which means that unlike cities in the Olmec region, it had to defend itself against its neighbors. SourceThis is around the time that Teotihuacan emerged (not to be confused with Tenochtitlan). It\u2019s on the opposite side of Lake Texcoco from Cuicuilco: SourceIn fact, Teotihuacan became the dominant center in the Lake Texcoco basin\u2014the Valley of Mexico\u2014due to eruptions displacing people from Cuicuilco and other sites, who then migrated into Teotihuacan. At its height between AD 200-500, it had ~100,000 denizens, around the 6th largest in the world.   SourceThis grid layout was so important that the locals even changed the course of rivers through the grid, some aligned to appear to erupt out of specific structures. View of Teotihuacan from the West Plaza compound, next to the Avenue of the Dead. Most of the population lived in high quality apartment compounds comparable to the palaces of other Mesoamerican cities. . Source for the image.I didn\u2019t realize how rich the city was until I dug into it. Many houses had lavishly-decorated walls. SourceAnd some even had toilets! But Teotihuacan was like the Olmec civilization\u2014and many other cities in Mesoamerica: It had no defenses and no military buildings According to David Graeber in The Dawn of Everything, this was due to an uprising that eliminated the inequalities forced down by the elites and ushered in a much more egalitarian period in Teotihuacan history which lasted until the 700s as it continued decaying.  but none prevailed\u2026 until the Aztecs emerged let\u2019s have a look at the other civilizations in Mesoamerica at the time SourceFor its paintings: Tikal-Calakmul wars. Source.And for its pyramids: Chichen ItzaPyramids again! They are everywhere, which makes sense since all these peoples were trading and interacting with each other.  Calakmul, YucatanThere are tens of thousands of Maya sites, some of which are being discovered to this day thanks to novel methods. Aguada Fenix, for example, discovered with laser tech, shows how the Maya developed complex sites earlier than previously thought\u2014maybe during the heyday of Olmec sites like San Lorenzo and La Venta! We have a good understanding of the Maya because they recorded a lot of what they did, mostly through their architecture and inscriptions in stelae, but also through books. Dresden codexHere\u2019s something to make your blood boil: The Church burned thousands of Mesoamerican books like this one. As someone4 said the Church\u2019s book-burning in Mesoamerica is the reason we talk about the region in archaeology classes and not history classes The largest Maya cities like Tikal and Calakmul only matched Teotihuacan\u2019s population when including their extended sprawl of suburbs and the nearby sites they connected. Indeed, the bigger cities confronted each other by forming coalitions with smaller cities, like Tikal vs Calakmul: Why was Maya civilization like this? Why did it have hundreds of smallish cities that rose and fell, instead of one strong city that could dominate? I haven\u2019t found a clear-cut answer, but from what I can gather, it comes down to geography.  As I mentioned, the Yucatan Peninsula is flat and has no rivers. This means that every waterhole could sprout a town. There\u2019s no river to control, nor a huge advantage in controlling it. The Yucatan Peninsula is flat AF.Few rivers also means no alluvial plains fertilized with sediments, so land could be exhausted of its nutrients, and local cities would disappear.  It\u2019s also easier for flatter lands to change substantially with climate change events. Maybe the volcanoes that cooled the world in the 500s AD also affected the Maya. Maybe other local climate events did the same, like with the Olmecs before them. You can see today that it\u2019s not just the land that is flat. It\u2019s also the seabed: The Yucatan Tectonic PlatformFor tens of millions of years, marine animals died and accumulated at the bottom of the sea, creating huge flat layers of shells that eventually became limestone. Except limestone dilutes more easily in water than other types of soil\u2014especially if the water is somewhat acidic.  As the Yucatan Peninsula rose above the sea, it remained flat and covered in layers of limestone when rain started hitting it. But rain captures CO2 in the atmosphere, which increases its acidity. Acid dilutes limestone and creates holes in the ground.  This is what causes the cenotes and the underwater caves that I discussed in a previous article. These were important sources of freshwater and sacred sites to the Maya, viewed as underworld portals. Since the Yucatan is so flat, water can\u2019t easily flow into rivers, so instead it forms lakes. Their size depends on the balance between rain and the (very intense) heat that evaporates it. SourceI speculate that constant hurricanes don\u2019t help civilization building, or for cities to remain at the same spot for millennia.  So all these reasons that might have caused a decentralized Maya civilization might also have caused its demise. It\u2019s unclear why it started disintegrating around AD 800\u2014, though it was likely a combination of warfare, environmental changes and droughts.  However, this was not the end of Maya civilization: the Classic Collapse mostly impacted the large sites in the Southern and Central Maya regions. Many smaller sites as well as larger cities to the North survived, or even grew! The famous site of Chichen Itza was populated into the 1200s, and the League of Mayapan, perhaps the largest Maya political network ever, nearly survived to Spanish contact.  The League of Mayapan was a large Maya political network from ~1000 to 1450AC. Source.When the Spainards arrived, there were still many towns and some cities. In fact, the last Maya city-state did not fall until 1697\u2014after the Salem Witch Trials in colonial America! Today, there are ~8 million Maya people, many of whom still speak Maya language and retain some traditional practices.  Here\u2019s another civilization I knew nothing about. You\u2019ll notice this valley has a Y shape. Each of the arms hosted a different society, and they competed with each other. Eventually, a city emerged perched on a hill in the middle of the valley\u2014Monte Alban. Artistic reconstruction of Monte Alban. Note that the suburbs around the hilltop core extended past what is shown here. Source.Monte Alban was one of the first major cities to come to power in Mesoamerica and may have even become Mesoamerica\u2019s first formal bureaucratic state society around the time of Teotihuacan\u2019s decline and the Classic Maya Collapse.  As with the Mayas, many Zapotec people still exist today!7  The Toltecs are perhaps the most debated subject in Mesoamerican history and archeology: They are described by the Aztecs as creators of high culture and a utopian civilization from ~AD 700-1100, but experts don\u2019t know whether they actually existed or they were mythical! and similarities between it and the Maya site of Chichen Itza seemingly bolstered the idea of Aztec and Maya  accounts of a wide Toltec Empire Share which makes sense given Jared Diamond\u2019s hypothesis that Eurasia had many more lands and peoples to mix But that doesn\u2019t mean Central America only gave rise to the Aztecs and the Maya It\u2019s time to dive into the meteoric rise and fall of the Aztecs Subscribe now Wikipedia mentions about 5,000 for San Lorenzo and up to 13,000 including the surroundings A paper gives a median population of a bit under 8,000.Iit's not clear if that's in reference to just the core .4-.5 km2 plateau or the wider ~ 7 km2 settlement This apogee of the Maya civilization is referred to as the \u201CClassic period\u201D I believe it\u2019s  /u/snickeringshadow in Reddit a professional archeologist in West Mexico The reservoirs were even connected via canals with switching mechanisms and had filtration systems A family altar in the Maya city of Tikal offers a glimpse into events in an enclave of the city’s foreign overlords in the wake of a local coup Archaeologists recently unearthed the altar in a quarter of the Maya city of Tikal that had lain buried under dirt and rubble for about the last 1,500 years The altar—and the wealthy household behind the courtyard it once adorned—stands just a few blocks from the center of Tikal one of the most powerful cities of Maya civilization But the altar and the courtyard around it aren’t even remotely Maya-looking; their architecture and decoration look like they belong 1,000 kilometers to the west in the city of Teotihuacan The altar reveals the presence of powerful rulers from Teotihuacan who were there at a time when a coup ousted Tikal’s Maya rulers and replaced them with a Teotihuacan puppet government It also reveals how hard those foreign rulers fell from favor when Teotihuacan’s power finally waned centuries later The altar stands in the courtyard of what was once a wealthy spanning nearly 2 meters in length and 1.3 meters wide the altar is clearly the centerpiece of the limestone patio space It’s made of carved stone and earthen layers Murals adorn recessed panels on all four sides the paintings all depict the face of a person in an elaborate feathered headdress All four versions of the face stare straight at the viewer through almond-shaped eyes The figure wears the kind of facial piercings that would have marked a person of very high rank in Teotihuacan: a nose bar and spool-shaped ear jewelry (picture a fancy ancient version of modern earlobe plugs) Proyecto Arqueológico del Sur de Tikal archaeologist Edwin Ramirez and his colleagues say the faces on the altar look uncannily like a deity who often shows up in artwork from central Mexico Archaeologists have nicknamed this deity the Storm God since they haven’t yet found any trace of its name It’s a distinctly Teotihuacan-style piece of art from the architecture of the altar to the style and color of the images and even the techniques used in painting them Tikal was one of the biggest and most important cities of the Maya civilization. Founded in 850 BCE, it chugged along for centuries as a small backwater until its sudden rise to wealth and prominence around 100 CE. Lidar surveys of Guatemala have revealed Tikal’s links with other Maya cities And Tikal also traded with the city of Teotihuacan “These powers of central Mexico reached into the Maya world because they saw it as a place of extraordinary wealth and chocolate,” says Brown University archaeologist Stephen Houston Trade with Teotihuacan brought wealth to Tikal but the Maya city seems to have attracted too much attention from its more powerful neighbor A carved stone unearthed in Tikal in the 1960s describes how Teotihuacan swooped in around 378 CE to oust Tikal’s king and replace him with a puppet ruler Spanish-language sources call this coup d’etat the Entrada The stone is carved in the style of Teotihuacan but it’s also covered with Maya hieroglyphs there are traces of Teotihuacan’s presence all over Tikal from royal burials in a necropolis to distinctly Mexican architecture mixed with Maya elements in a complex of residential and ceremonial buildings near the heart of the city And the newly unearthed altar seems to have been built shortly after the Entrada based on radiocarbon dates from nearby graves in the courtyard and from material used to ritually bury the altar after its abandonment (more on that below) Ramirez and his colleagues write that the altar is “likely evidence of the direct presence of Teotihuacan at Tikal as part of a foreign enclave that coincided with the historic Entrada.” The buildings surrounding the courtyard would have been a residential compound for wealthy elites in the city; it’s not far from the city's center with its temples and huge public plazas Residents had used the courtyard as a private family ceremonial space for decades or even a couple of centuries before its owners installed the altar And Ramirez and his colleagues say it’s no coincidence that archaeologists have found many such courtyards in Teotihuacan which people also used as a space for household ceremonies like burials and offerings to the gods It shows Teotihuacan left a heavy imprint there,” says Houston ceremonial spaces usually come with skeletons included Ramirez and his colleagues unearthed the grave of an adult buried beneath the patio in a tomb with limestone walls and a stucco floor a child had been buried in a seated position—something rare in Tikal but very common in Teotihuacan The child’s burial radiocarbon-dated to decades before the Entrada It looks like someone buried both of these people beneath the floor of the courtyard of their residential compound not long after they moved in; it’s a good bet that they were members of the family who once lived here These kinds of burials would have been exactly the sort of household ritual the courtyard was meant for based on radiocarbon dating—the people living in the compound buried the courtyard beneath a layer of dirt and rubble This is when Ramirez and his colleagues say someone built and painted the altar It’s also when someone buried three babies in the courtyard each near a corner of the altar (the fourth corner has a jar that probably once contained an offering Each burial required breaking the stone floor and then filling in the hole with crushed limestone That’s not the way most people in Tikal would have buried an infant but it’s exactly how archaeologists have found several buried in very similar courtyards in faraway Teotihuacan the people who lived in this compound and used this courtyard and painted altar were probably from Teotihuacan or raised in a Teotihuacan enclave in the southern sector of Tikal The compound is practically in the shadow of a replica of Teotihuacan’s Feathered Serpent Pyramid and its walled plaza where archaeologists unearthed Teotihuacan-style incense burners made from local materials the foreign enclave in Tikal closed up shop That's around the time distant Teotihuacan’s power was starting to collapse But it wasn’t enough to just leave; important buildings had to be ritually “killed” and buried That meant burning the area around the altar but it also meant that people buried the altar and most of southern Tikal’s Teotihuacan enclave beneath several meters of dirt and rubble Whoever did the burying went to the trouble of making the whole thing look like a natural hill Ramirez and his colleagues say that’s unusual because typically once a building had been ritually killed and abandoned something new would be built atop the remains “The Maya regularly buried buildings and rebuilt on top of them,” Brown University archaeologist Andrew Scherer It probably spoke to the complicated feelings they had about Teotihuacan.” Antiquity, 2017. DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2025.3 (About DOIs) but more likely came from the city-state Teotihuacan over 630 miles away putting their artistic skills in the service of an occupying force Construction of the altar dates back to the late 300s A.D The four panels around the altar were painted red and yellow and emblazoned with a human head The figure was rendered with almond-shaped eyes It wore a feathered headdress and was flanked by shields scholars could reproduce its original appearance with the aid of dStretch software which was originally designed to study rock art “It’s increasingly clear that this was an extraordinary period of turbulence at Tikal,” said Stephen Houston It shows Teotihuacan left a heavy imprint there.” Maya scholars knew of a long-lasting relationship with Teotihuacan Tikal was just a small city with little power for almost a millennium After transforming into a dynasty around 100 A.D. the city eventually came to the notice of the powerful Teotihuacan roughly 200 years later beginning a trading partnership that soon became coercive “It’s almost as if Tikal poked the beast and got too much attention from Teotihuacan,” Houston said “That’s when foreigners started moving into the area.” scholars began discovering evidence of a stormy relationship between Tikal and Teotihuacan Text carved into a well-preserved stone shed light on the troubles today referred to as “Entrada,” a Spanish word translated into English as “Arrival.” Known as the “Tikal Marcador,” the stone carving symbolizes victory in Teotihuacan style while bearing Mayan hieroglyphs Teotihuacan was essentially decapitating a kingdom,” Houston said “They removed the king and replaced him with a quisling a puppet king who proved a useful local instrument to Teotihuacan.” Scholars believe that to maintain their control Teotihuacan likely established an occupation or surveillance Evidence for this comes from a LiDAR scan of what appeared to be natural hills outside of Tikal Buried beneath the earthen mounds was a scaled-down replica of the Teotihuacan Ciudadela including a proxy of the Feathered Serpent Pyramid Radiocarbon dating indicates the altar was constructed close to the coup and the researchers identify the artwork as a tool of influence the altar contains a child buried in a seated position the altar also interred an adult struck with a uniquely Teotihuacan-style green obsidian dart the people of Tikal burned the altar and its surroundings suggesting a desire to forget the Teotihuacan occupation the Tikal inhabitants buried the area in a “non-uniform fill to create the impression of a natural hill,” the authors state the Tikal Ciudadela appears to have been intentionally buried in an abandonment ritual close to when Teotihuacan entered a significant decline “The Maya regularly buried buildings and rebuilt on top of them,” said co-author Andrew Scherer and the ancient world at Brown and director of the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World even though this would have been prime real estate centuries later,” Scherer said “They treated it almost like a memorial or a radioactive zone It probably speaks to the complicated feelings they had about Teotihuacan.” ultimately making the kingdom much more powerful despite undergoing a period of subservience Tikal continued growing in power to become one of the region’s greatest dynasties before the broader Mayan society began declining around 900 AD “There’s a kind of nostalgia about that time when Teotihuacan was at the height of its power and taking increasing interest in the Maya,” Houston said “It’s something exalted for them; they looked back on it almost wistfully they were still thinking about local politics in context of that contact with central Mexico.” The story of a strong power plundering a beautiful but weaker civilization carries universal relevance “Everyone knows what happened to the Aztec civilization after the Spanish arrived,” Houston concluded “Our findings show evidence that that’s a tale as old as time The paper “A Teotihuacan Altar at Tikal, Guatemala: Central Mexican Ritual and Elite Interaction in the Maya Lowlands” appeared on April 8 Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf surrounded by children's bonesChild sacrifice was thought to be rare in their culture This chilling discovery suggests foreign invaders played a role.  Archaeologists excavating the ruins of the Maya city of Tikal have unearthed a 1,600-year-old altar likely used for human sacrifices The grim discovery adds weight to the idea that Tikal was ruled at this time by overlords from the non-Maya city of Teotihuacan more than 600 miles west in what’s now Mexico; and some of the sacrifices may have been efforts to ensure Teotihuacan’s power over the local people The find challenges the idea that Teotihuacan’s influence at Tikal was gentle and mainly through trade: “This has a highly intrusive and violent nature to it,” Houston says and Guatemala recently announced the discovery of an altar buried in the ancient ruins of Tikal along with human remains that may belong to sacrificial victims. Photograph by Edwin Román RamírezTikal and Teotihuacan foreign relationsThe painted altar was once located within a sacred precinct near the center of Tikal where powerful people from Teotihuacan are thought to have lived Studies of the overgrown ruins with lidar (Laser Detection and Ranging) show the precinct featured buildings modelled on those at Teotihuacan The altar was found during excavations of a plaza north of the temple that Houston and other archaeologists from Guatemala and the United States have been investigating since 2019 The discovery strengthens the theory that the Teotihuacan regime instigated a coup or conquest of Tikal in the late 4th century Initially, Tikal and Teotihuacan seem to have traded with each other and the “Teotihuacanos” — as experts call them — may have used this trade as cover to spy on the Maya chocolate…  this was a ‘Land of milk and honey’ to them,” Houston says A rendering of what the altar may have originally looked like shows painted panels of red depicting a person wearing a feathered headdress and flanked by shields or regalia. Image by Heather HurstTikal was then one of the most important cities in the “Maya lowlands,” in present-day Yucatan and Chiapas in Mexico (A 1,700-year-old sacrificial monkey may have been a diplomatic gift to Teotihuacan.)   The idea of a Teotihuacan coup or conquest at Tikal originated in the 1960s, notes Penn Museum’s Mexico and Central America gallery curator Simon Martin an expert on Maya writings who was not involved in the latest study Archaeologists found Mayan petroglyphs at the site that reported the A.D 378 arrival of a “foreigner” called Siyaj K’ak’ a warlord whose Mayan name meant “Fire is Born.” but the Tikal petroglyphs record many Teotihuacan names in his entourage They also record that the previous Maya king of Tikal “died” on the same day that Siyaj K’ak’ arrived; after which a new king was installed named Nun Yax Ayin (Mayan for “First Lord Crocodile”) who may have been the son of Teotihuacan’s ruler Tulane University archaeologist and National Geographic Explorer Francisco Estrada-Belli, who was also not involved in the new study, says some scholars have proposed Tikal was ruled after this by a social class of Teotihuacan priests. But the nature of the occupation isn’t clear, he says: “It may have been an oligarchy, or some form of corporate form of government, but we don’t know.” Martin thinks the Teotihuacan occupation of Tikal may have featured alliances with local people opposed to the previous regime. He says it seems the precinct at Tikal was “mainly ceremonial” and there are no signs of a major Teotihuacan military presence there. The new study also describes the remains of six people that were found during the excavations Four of the sets of remains were from young children including one who was between two and four years old when they died—presumably by being sacrificed—and then buried in a pit directly in front of the altar in a seated position with their legs drawn-up under their chin The study notes this type of sacrificial burial was rare at Tikal Lidar scans allowed researchers to see beneath dense jungle vegetation to Tikal's ancient foundations below. Image by BrownThe other dead were buried around the plaza or in small tombs nearby archaeologists found a green obsidian dart made in a Teotihuacan style and isotopic analysis of the bones suggests that only people from Teotihuacan had been sacrificed there—but just why that would be is not known The fact many were so young may be a sign they were sacrificed to establish the growth of Teotihuacan’s power in Tikal (This ancient society tried to stop El Niño—with child sacrifice.) The newfound altar itself is about six feet wide It was built from layers of earth and lime and was finished with coats of lime plaster The sides of the altar were then painted in red on top of designs that were first sketched out in pale red paint The final paintings depict the face of Teotihuacan’s god of storms and war whose name is unknown—although the Aztecs or Mexica called him Tlaloc when they adopted him centuries later the god can be identified from the stylized fangs in his mouth an ornament below his nostrils known as a nose-bar His face is painted on the four sides of the altar and an elaborate headdress made with feathers Houston says the ancient paintings are badly degraded after their centuries underground but the altar’s Teotihuacan influence is still clear: “It’s not done remotely in the Maya style.” Several technical aspects of the altar paintings indicate they were created by a highly skilled artisan who had been trained at Teotihuacan and later traveled to Tikal They include the fact that the paintings were sketched out first as well as their “flat” color fields and the well-defined lines on the figures that had been highlighted in red The Maya civilization thrived at Tikal and in other cities until it declined after about A.D. 900, for reasons that are much debated Before that, Teotihuacan had also declined, from about the sixth century; and Houston says the Teotihuacan precinct at Tikal was deliberately abandoned after that. “It’s just left as a wasteland,” he says. “It’s almost as though it had some taboo over it, because [the Tikal Maya] had very bad recollections of the past.” Teotihuacan’s influence remained at Tikal for centuries, however, especially in the Maya city’s artistic traditions, Houston says. And he adds that the Teotihuacan occupation of Tikal, whatever its nature, has helped archaeologists better understand that mysterious city in what became the Aztec lands. Among the new finds are Mayan glyphs that make the earliest-known mention of what’s now central Mexico, where Teotihuacan was located. “The inscriptions found near the altar refer to ‘the land of the five snow-covered volcanoes’,” Houston says — apparently a reference to the volcanoes Popocatépetl, Iztaccíhuatl, Nevado de Toluca, Ajusco, and Xitle that surround modern Mexico City. “Teotihuacan does not have a clearly understood writing system, but the Maya do, and they’re writing about Teotihuacan in a way that Teotihuacan never does itself,” he says. “We can use the Maya glyphs to understand what was going on back at the center of Teotihuacan’s empire.” “It’s almost as though it had some taboo over it because [the Tikal Maya] had very bad recollections of the past.”"},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html37","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Teotihuacan’s influence remained at Tikal for centuries especially in the Maya city’s artistic traditions And he adds that the Teotihuacan occupation of Tikal has helped archaeologists better understand that mysterious city in what became the Aztec lands."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html38","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Among the new finds are Mayan glyphs that make the earliest-known mention of what’s now central Mexico “The inscriptions found near the altar refer to ‘the land of the five snow-covered volcanoes’,” Houston says — apparently a reference to the volcanoes Popocatépetl and Xitle that surround modern Mexico City."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html39","cntnt":{"mrkup":"“Teotihuacan does not have a clearly understood writing system and they’re writing about Teotihuacan in a way that Teotihuacan never does itself,” he says Teotihuacan god of storms and war","lg":"https://assets-cdn.nationalgeographic.com/natgeo/static/default.NG.logo.dark.jpg","pblshr":"National Geographic","abt":"Maya","sclDsc":"Child sacrifice was thought to be rare in their culture This chilling discovery suggests foreign invaders played a role.","sclImg":"https://i.natgeofe.com/n/18860b66-dbcd-4b6f-b4ac-3dbf9c9a4742/3A1TAB6_16x9.jpg?w=1200","sclTtl":"Archaeologists have discovered a 1,600-year-old Maya altar surrounded by children's bones"},"sctn":"History","wrdcnt":1544,"dt":"2025-04-18T17:38:09.453Z","prismData":{"mainComponents":[{"name":"Byline","props":{"contributors":[{"name":"Tom Metcalfe","role":"writer","labelOverride":"By"}],"logoRadius":true,"publishedDate":{"date":"2025-04-18T17:38:09.453Z","postFormat":"MMMM D YYYY"},"shareProps":{"title":"Archaeologists have discovered a 1,600-year-old Maya altar surrounded by children's bones","url":"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/maya-tikal-altar-child-sacrifice-teotihuacan","pageType":"Story","source":"NatGeo","shareButton":"inline","size":"l","networks":["facebook","twitter","email","link"],"description":"Child sacrifice was thought to be rare in their culture This chilling discovery suggests foreign invaders played a role. "}},"config":{},"usesArticleObject":true},{"name":"Divider","props":{"className":"natgeoDivider"},"config":{},"usesArticleObject":true},{"name":"Body","props":{"body":[[{"type":"p","content":["Archaeologists excavating the ruins of the Maya city of Tikal have unearthed a 1,600-year-old altar likely used for human sacrifices surrounded by the bones of children."]},{"type":"p","content":["The grim discovery adds weight to the idea that Tikal was ruled at this time by overlords from the non-Maya city of Teotihuacan more than 600 miles west in what’s now Mexico; and some of the sacrifices may have been efforts to ensure Teotihuacan’s power over the local people."]},{"type":"p","content":["“The local dynasty but under the heel of a foreign group,” says Brown University archaeologist ",{"type":"a","content":["Stephen Houston"],"attrs":{"href":"https://vivo.brown.edu/display/shouston","target":"_blank"}}," In a ",{"type":"a","content":["new study"],"attrs":{"href":"http://dx.doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2025.3","target":"_blank"}}," in the journal ",{"type":"i","content":["Antiquity"]}," Houston and his colleagues describe the altar and human remains unearthed from the ruins in what’s now Guatemala The researchers think the altar was used for sacrificial rituals and that the buried people were probably victims along with human remains that may belong to sacrificial victims. ","lines":3,"showMoreText":"Read More","showLess":false},"image":{"id":null,"showCopyright":"Please be respectful of copyright Unauthorized use is prohibited.","alt":"a buried mayan altar made a light including a huge pyramidal temple."]},{"type":"p","content":["The altar was found during excavations of a plaza north of the temple that Houston and other archaeologists from Guatemala and the United States have been investigating since 2019."]},{"type":"p","content":["The discovery strengthens the theory that the Teotihuacan regime instigated a coup or conquest of Tikal in the late 4th century."]},{"type":"p","content":["Initially Tikal and Teotihuacan ",{"type":"a","content":["seem to have traded with each other"],"attrs":{"href":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7560/709140","target":"_blank"}}," and the “Teotihuacanos” — as experts call them — may have used this trade as cover to spy on the Maya."]},{"type":"p","content":["“Tikal had lots of resources chocolate…"," "," this was a ‘Land of milk and honey’ to them,” Houston says."]},{"type":"inline","content":{"name":"Image","props":{"link":{},"caption":{"title":"","credit":"Image by Heather Hurst","source":"","text":"A rendering of what the altar may have originally looked like shows painted panels of red depicting a person wearing a feathered headdress and flanked by shields or regalia. ","lines":3,"showMoreText":"Read More","showLess":false},"image":{"id":null,"showCopyright":"Please be respectful of copyright Unauthorized use is prohibited.","alt":"A rendering of an ancient mayan altar illustrates the painted panels of red notes Penn Museum’s ",{"type":"a","content":["Mexico and Central America gallery"],"attrs":{"href":"https://www.penn.museum/on-view/galleries-exhibitions/mexico-central-america-gallery","target":"_blank"}}," curator Simon Martin a warlord whose Mayan name meant “Fire is Born.”"]},{"type":"p","content":["Siyaj K’ak’s ethnicity isn’t known who was also not involved in the new study or some form of corporate form of government The new study also describes the remains of six people that were found during the excavations."]},{"type":"p","content":["Four of the sets of remains were from young children but common at Teotihuacan."]},{"type":"inline","content":{"name":"Image","props":{"link":{},"caption":{"title":"","credit":"Image by Brown","source":"","text":"Lidar scans allowed researchers to see beneath dense jungle vegetation to Tikal's ancient foundations below. ","lines":3,"showMoreText":"Read More","showLess":false},"image":{"id":null,"showCopyright":"Please be respectful of copyright Unauthorized use is prohibited.","alt":"An aerial view of a landscape of varied shades of yellow and isotopic analysis of the bones suggests that only people from Teotihuacan had been sacrificed there—but just why that would be is not known."]},{"type":"p","content":["All of the children were under four Houston says."]},{"type":"p","content":["(",{"type":"a","content":[{"type":"i","content":["This ancient society tried to stop El Niño—with child sacrifice"]}],"attrs":{"href":"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/premium/article/ancient-peru-el-nino-child-sacrifice","target":"_blank"}},".)"]},{"type":"h2","content":["An iconic Teotihuacan style"]},{"type":"p","content":["The newfound altar itself is about six feet wide and a little over three feet high."]},{"type":"p","content":["It was built from layers of earth and lime on top of designs that were first sketched out in pale red paint."]}],{"type":"inline","content":{"name":"Ad","props":{"ad":{"type":"fitt-article-inline-box","className":"fitt-article-inline-box"},"className":"natgeo-ad","placeholders":{"compact":{"size":[300,250]},"regular":{"size":[300,250]}},"initSelf":true},"context":{},"config":{"gridDisplayMode":"none"}}},[{"type":"p","content":["The final paintings depict the face of Teotihuacan’s god of storms and war whose name is unknown—although the Aztecs or Mexica called him Tlaloc when they adopted him centuries later."]},{"type":"p","content":["According to the study and an elaborate headdress made with feathers."]},{"type":"p","content":["Houston says the ancient paintings are badly degraded after their centuries underground but the altar’s Teotihuacan influence is still clear: “It’s not done remotely in the Maya style.”"]},{"type":"p","content":["Several technical aspects of the altar paintings indicate they were created by a highly skilled artisan who had been trained at Teotihuacan and later traveled to Tikal the study says."]},{"type":"h2","content":["Telltale petroglyphs"]},{"type":"p","content":["The Maya civilization thrived at Tikal and in other cities until it declined after about A.D from ",{"type":"a","content":["about the sixth century"],"attrs":{"href":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0278416519302119","target":"_blank"}},"; and Houston says the Teotihuacan precinct at Tikal was deliberately abandoned after that."]},{"type":"p","content":["“It’s just left as a wasteland,” he says because [the Tikal Maya] had very bad recollections of the past.”"]},{"type":"p","content":["Teotihuacan’s influence remained at Tikal for centuries has helped archaeologists better understand that mysterious city in what became the Aztec lands."]},{"type":"p","content":["Among the new finds are Mayan glyphs that make the earliest-known mention of what’s now central Mexico and Xitle that surround modern Mexico City."]},{"type":"p","content":["“Teotihuacan does not have a clearly understood writing system This chilling discovery suggests foreign invaders played a role. ","disableForMobile":true,"enableBackgroundColor":true,"focalPointX":"right","focalPointY":"center","hasByline":false,"image":{"caption":{"credit":"Photograph by Martin Bache Alamy Stock Photo","source":"","text":"New archaeological finds add to evidence that the Maya city of Tikal in Guatemala was once ruled by people from Teotihuacan in modern Mexico over 600 miles away. ","title":null,"lines":3,"showMoreText":"Read More"},"image":{"alt":"An ancient temple peaking through the trees of a thick The rainforest extends into the background and the sky is blue.","src":"https://i.natgeofe.com/n/18860b66-dbcd-4b6f-b4ac-3dbf9c9a4742/3A1TAB6.jpg","fetchPriority":"high","loading":"eager","showCopyright":"Please be respectful of copyright Unauthorized use is prohibited."},"ratio":"2048x1366","type":"xHigh","priority":"xHigh","colorMode":"light"},"isRedesignNav":true,"leadX":"left","leadY":"top","logo":{},"mediaType":"image","showDownArrow":false,"ratio":"2048x1366","tags":[{"label":"HISTORY & CULTURE","href":"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history"}],"tint":2,"title":"Archaeologists have discovered a 1,600-year-old Maya altar surrounded by children's bones","type":"immersive","video":null,"contributors":[{"name":"Tom Metcalfe","role":"writer","labelOverride":"By"}],"shareData":{"networks":["facebook","twitter","email","link"],"title":"Archaeologists have discovered a 1,600-year-old Maya altar surrounded by children's bones","description":"Child sacrifice was thought to be rare in their culture surrounded by children's bones","publisher":{"name":"","logo":{"url":"","width":0,"height":0,"@type":"ImageObject"},"@type":"Organization"}},"video":{}}},"layoutOptions":{"top":{"colorMode":"dark","hasByline":false},"sidebar":{"isSticky":true,"isStackable":true},"main":{"spacing":{"top":40,"compactTop":24,"bottom":32,"childBottom":24}}},"analyticsData":{"storyTitle":"Archaeologists have discovered a 1,600-year-old Maya altar YYYY"}},"layoutOptions":{"top":{"colorMode":"dark","hasByline":false},"sidebar":{"isSticky":true,"isStackable":true},"main":{"spacing":{"top":40}}},"Divider":{"className":"natgeoDivider"},"Body":{"inlines":[{"type":"image","data":{"disableFullscreen":false,"articleConfig":{"alignXxs":"full","align":"full"},"image":{"id":null,"showCopyright":"Please be respectful of copyright along with human remains that may belong to sacrificial victims. ","lines":3,"showMoreText":"Read More","showLess":false}}},{"type":"image","data":{"disableFullscreen":false,"articleConfig":{"alignXxs":"full","align":"full"},"image":{"id":null,"showCopyright":"Please be respectful of copyright all of which appear unclothed; the first three are taller while two appear with wider hips; the other two are smaller and smaller in size akin to children of different ages.","crdt":"Photograph Courtesy Julia Przedwojewska-Szymańska PASI","dsc":"Five figurines from the San Isidro deposit Scale in centimeters","ttl":"Figure_3_FINAL","rchDsc":{"markup":"Five figurines from the San Isidro deposit Scale in centimeters"},"rchTtl":{"markup":"Figure_3_FINAL"}},"sections":[{"name":"History & Culture","id":"b0c8dd52-23a8-34c0-a940-f46792bc9e70","type":"sources","uri":"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history"}],"headline":"Who made these unusual ancient ‘puppets’?","link":"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/puppet-figurines-pyramid-el-salvador"},{"description":"Power struggles The 187-foot-high structure stands to the south of the Central Acropolis and was built around A.D 600.","crdt":"Brian van Tigehm/Alamy/ACI","dsc":"Above the thick tree roots of the Petén jungle rises Temple V of the ancient Maya city of Tikal 600.","ttl":"Temple in Tikal","rchDsc":{"markup":"Above the thick tree roots of the Petén jungle rises Temple V of the ancient Maya city of Tikal 600."},"rchTtl":{"markup":"Temple in Tikal"}},"sections":[{"name":"History Magazine","id":"9e8034f6-2e16-3b86-998b-56f8ff9dffb7","type":"sources","uri":"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/magazine"}],"headline":"What really caused the collapse of the Maya civilization?","link":"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/premium/article/mayan-empire-collapse-mystery"},{"description":"Excavations on unpromising mounds in the Iraqi desert revealed Sumer’s earliest city in 2022.","rchDsc":{"markup":"Archaeologists excavate the site of the ancient Sumerian city of Eridu in 2022."},"rchTtl":{"markup":""}},"sections":[{"name":"History & Culture","id":"b0c8dd52-23a8-34c0-a940-f46792bc9e70","type":"sources","uri":"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history"}],"headline":"How archaeologists found one of the oldest cities on earth","link":"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/eridu-sumer-ancient-city-discovery"},{"description":"Several tombs in the necropolises of Egypt depict figures dancing across the walls and playing instruments dance was a huge part of daily life","link":"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/dance-ancient-egyptians"},{"description":"Vases found in Guatemala offer rare physical proof of tobacco use among ancient Maya smoking tobacco was more common than liquid consumption shown by this smoking figure painted on a Maya vessel from the seventh or eighth century.","rchDsc":{"markup":"Among the Maya shown by this smoking figure painted on a Maya vessel from the seventh or eighth century 17th century witch bottle found in Rochester The "Pyramid of the Moon" at Teotihuacán the site of an ancient city near modern-day Mexico City is aligned with the sun on the summer and winter solstices Teotihuacán flourished between roughly 100 B.C 800 and had a population of around 100,000 people The "Pyramid of the Moon" was built in stages between roughly A.D 1 and 350 and is located at the end of the "Causeway of the Dead," a long street that runs through the center of the city.  The summer-solstice alignment involving the volcano is particularly interesting as there is evidence that the people of Teotihuacán used the volcano as an astronomical observatory of sorts.  "On the slopes of the El Xihuingo volcano is the Xihuingo archaeological site a place where petroglyphs known as dotted crosses were created [and] whose function has been proposed as astronomical markers," Aarón González Benítez an archaeoastronomer at the National School of Anthropology and History in Mexico and a member of the research team The pyramid's alignment with the solstice sun appears to have affected the orientation of the entire city "The city of Teotihuacan stands out among other things for its magnificent reticular design and if the solar orientations of the Pyramid of the Moon determined the orientation of the city the other monuments that are parallel to this great building would be following and replicating the same canonical orientation," González Benítez said.  and they didn't name the pyramid until sometime after the city was abandoned We don't actually know what the inhabitants of Teotihuacán would have called the structure a time when the moon appears at its highest or lowest points in the sky.  Some of the team's results also turned up in previous research, Steven Gullberg a professor of cultural astronomy at the University of Oklahoma "I don't disagree with the orientations that they found and this will make for an interesting debate among those who specialize in the astronomy of this area —Copy of famous Teotihuacan structure discovered in Maya city —2,000-year-old flower offerings found under Teotihuacan pyramid in Mexico Ivan Sprajc head of the Institute of Anthropological and Spatial Studies at the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts said it is difficult to believe that the city was built with a solstice alignment involving the Pyramid of the Moon in mind He noted that the Pyramid of the Moon was modified during its construction and its earliest phase had a different orientation than it does today.  Owen JarusSocial Links NavigationLive Science ContributorOwen Jarus is a regular contributor to Live Science who writes about archaeology and humans' past He has also written for The Independent (UK) The Canadian Press (CP) and The Associated Press (AP) Owen has a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Toronto and a journalism degree from Ryerson University.  Archaeologists discover hundreds of metal objects up to 3,400 years old on mysterious volcanic hilltop in Hungary the remains of 2,000-year-old flower offerings were discovered within an underground tunnel The pyramid is in the ancient city of Teotihuacan which is located just northeast of what is now Mexico City making it taller than ancient Egypt’s Sphinx of Giza It is part of the Temple of the Feathered Serpent a serpent deity who was worshipped in Mesoamerica Archaeologists found four flower bouquets 59 feet below the ground in the deepest part of the tunnel They were laid under a pile of wood that was set on fire It was the first time that well-preserved plant materials were uncovered in the city’s ruins there were pottery pieces and a sculpture of Tlaloc a god associated with fertility and rainfall The bouquets were likely part of a ritual that was performed in the tunnel Each bouquet varies in the number of flowers Alexandra Lande – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only The archaeologists also found evidence of a large bonfire with several pieces of burnt wood It appeared that the people set the bouquets on the ground and covered them with large quantities of wood The tunnel where the finds were made was originally discovered in 2003 after heavy rain opened a sinkhole near the temple the site has yielded thousands of artifacts researchers stumbled upon a miniature landscape with tiny mountains and pools of liquid mercury The tunnel’s walls were adorned with pyrite which reflected firelight to create the illusion of a starry sky The archaeologists are still trying to understand why ancient Teotihuacan people made this tunnel and to what extent they used it They plan to investigate the species of the flowers so they can determine when they were collected and learn more about the ritual activities Teotihuacan was one of the largest cities in the world eight centuries before the rise of the Aztec Empire it reached a population of 125,000 to 200,000 trading with faraway parts of Mesoamerica and spreading its cultural influence across the region Teotihuacan maintained both hostile and friendly relationships with nearby Maya cities the ruins of Teotihuacan are a UNESCO World Heritage site The Temple of Quetzalcoatl and the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon are the site’s best features Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox. Notifications can be managed in browser preferences. The remains of three children were found at the altar in Tikal National Park in Guatemala I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A Teotihuacan altar, which archaeologists believe was used for sacrifices, has been unearthed in Tikal National Park in Guatemala, the centre of Mayan civilisation shedding new light on the interactions between the two ancient cultures announced by Guatemala’s Culture and Sports Ministry was made within the ancient city of Tikal - an enormous city-state which battled for centuries with the Kaanul dynasty for dominance of the Maya world Far to the north in Mexico, just outside present-day Mexico City Teotihuacan - “the city of the gods” or “the place where men become gods” - is best known for its twin Temples of the Sun and Moon It was actually a large city that housed over 100,000 inhabitants and covered around eight square miles (20 square kilometres) The still mysterious city was one of the largest in the world at its peak between 100 B.C. and A.D. 750. However, it was abandoned before the rise of the Aztecs in the 14th century said that the Teotihuacan altar was believed to have been used for sacrifices It took archaeologists one and a half years to uncover the altar in a dwelling and analyse it before the announcement “The remains of three children not older than four years were found on three sides of the altar,” Paiz said “The Teotihuacan were traders who traveled all over the country (Guatemala),” Paiz said “The Teotihuacan residential complexes were houses with rooms and in the centre altars; that’s what the residence that was found is like with an altar with the figure representing the Storm Goddess.” who leads the South Tikal Archaeological Project within the park said the discovery shows the sociopolitical and cultural interaction between the Maya of Tikal and Teotihuacan’s elite between 300 and 500 A.D Román said the discovery also reinforces the idea that Tikal was a cosmopolitan centre at that time a place where people visited from other cultures affirming its importance as a centre of cultural convergence an archaeologist who was not involved with the project said the discovery confirms “that there has been an interconnection between both cultures and what their relationships with their gods and celestial bodies was like.” “We see how the issue of sacrifice exists in both cultures It was a practice; it’s not that they were violent it was their way of connecting with the celestial bodies,” she said The altar is just over a yard (1m) wide from east to west and nearly 2 yards (2m) from north to south It is about a yard (1m) tall and covered with limestone The dwelling where it was found had anthropomorphic figures with tassels in red tones Tikal National Park is about 325 miles (525 kilometres) north of Guatemala City, the site is guarded and there are no plans to open it to the public. Temple I, or Temple of the Great Jaguar, in northern Tikal National Park, in Peten, Guatemala A man attends an event to welcome the Spring Equinox at the Pyramid of the Sun in the archaeological zone of Teotihuacan, Mexico, March 21, 2025. Every Spring Equinox, people gather to "gather energy" at the Pyramid of the Sun here. (Xinhua/Li Muzi) People bask in the sunshine during the Spring Equinox at the Pyramid of the Sun in the archaeological zone of Teotihuacan, Mexico, March 21, 2025. Every Spring Equinox, people gather to "gather energy" at the Pyramid of the Sun here. (Photo by Francisco Canedo/Xinhua) An aerial drone photo taken on March 21, 2025 shows people basking in the sunshine during the Spring Equinox at the Pyramid of the Sun in the archaeological zone of Teotihuacan, Mexico. Every Spring Equinox, people gather to "gather energy" at the Pyramid of the Sun here. (Photo by Francisco Canedo/Xinhua) People bask in the sunshine during the Spring Equinox at the Pyramid of the Sun in the archaeological zone of Teotihuacan, Mexico, March 21, 2025. Every Spring Equinox, people gather to "gather energy" at the Pyramid of the Sun here. (Xinhua/Li Muzi) Clear skies. Low 48F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. The Teotihuacan altar was found in what used to be a house in an elite residential complex at Tikal in Guatemala, situated in the jungle near the Mexico border A 1,000-year-old altar from Mexico's ancient Teotihuacan culture has been discovered in the erstwhile Mayan city of Tikal in Guatemala, providing further proof of ties between the two pre-Hispanic societies, archaeologists said Monday. In recent years, several artifacts found at Tikal, Guatemala's biggest archaeological site, testify to the influence of Teotihuacan -- an important site of cultural exchange and innovation in Classic Mesoamerica -- on Mayan civilization. Dated to between 400 and 450 AD, during the Classic Mayan period, the altar was found in what used to be a house in an elite residential complex at Tikal, situated in the jungle near the Mexico border. It represents the Teotihuacan storm goddess, archaeologist Lorena Paiz of the Southern Tikal Archaeological Project told reporters. The rectangular structure 1.1 meters high and 1.8 meters wide (3.6 feet by 5.9 feet) is made of earth, covered either with stucco or plaster.  It shows a painted face with a tasseled headdress, a necklace, and other Teotihuacan elements. Paiz said it contained "a multitude" of characteristics that were reminiscent of central Mexican influences. "It is the strongest evidence we have to date, possibly of (Mayan) people who were deeply familiar with Teotihuacan culture," said fellow archaeologist Edwin Roman.  The residential complex where the altar was found was uncovered in 2019 after a search of the dense jungle using laser beam technology, said Ana Claudia Monzon, an official with the Guatemalan Ministry of Culture. Tikal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, reached its peak between 200 and 900 AD when Mayan culture encompassed parts of what are now Guatemala, Mexico, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras.  Teotihuacan, famous for its pyramids of the Sun and the Moon, is located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Mexico City. That culture reached its peak between 100 and 600 AD. there are no recent results for popular commented articles Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.We recommend switching to one of the following browsers: The Teotihuacan altar was found in what used to be a house in an elite residential complex at Tikal in Guatemala situated in the jungle near the Mexico border A 1,000-year-old altar from Mexico's ancient Teotihuacan culture has been discovered in the erstwhile Mayan city of Tikal in Guatemala providing further proof of ties between the two pre-Hispanic societies testify to the influence of Teotihuacan -- an important site of cultural exchange and innovation in Classic Mesoamerica -- on Mayan civilization the altar was found in what used to be a house in an elite residential complex at Tikal It represents the Teotihuacan storm goddess archaeologist Lorena Paiz of the Southern Tikal Archaeological Project told reporters The rectangular structure 1.1 meters high and 1.8 meters wide (3.6 feet by 5.9 feet) is made of earth It shows a painted face with a tasseled headdress Paiz said it contained "a multitude" of characteristics that were reminiscent of central Mexican influences "It is the strongest evidence we have to date possibly of (Mayan) people who were deeply familiar with Teotihuacan culture," said fellow archaeologist Edwin Roman The residential complex where the altar was found was uncovered in 2019 after a search of the dense jungle using laser beam technology an official with the Guatemalan Ministry of Culture reached its peak between 200 and 900 AD when Mayan culture encompassed parts of what are now Guatemala famous for its pyramids of the Sun and the Moon is located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Mexico City That culture reached its peak between 100 and 600 AD Account processing issue - the email address may already exist Get quarterly updates Check here to sign up Be a WNC insider with The Guide’s e-newsletter and you’ll always have plans Invalid password or account does not exist Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account