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Archaeologists who work in an old Maya city have discovered a mysterious 1,700 year old altar, the bright decorations and dark content of which have the key to escape the complex geopolitics of time.
Although archaeologists found the altar in Tikal, a ruined Maya city in modern Guatemala, they are not decorated by Mayas. Instead, they say that it was the work of artists who were 630 miles away in Teotihuacan-one mighty city near today’s Mexico city, which exerts a strong influence on the region.
Before this discovery, which was published in Antique on Tuesday, archaeologists already knew that the two cultures interacted, although the nature of the relationship was controversial.
But the artistically decorated altar with two committees confirms that “wealthy leaders from Teotihuacan came to Tikal and had created replica of ritual facilities that existed in their hometown,” said co-author Stephen Houston, a professor at Brown University who specialized in Maya culture.
“This is a story of empire – how important kingdoms have made others control,” he said. “This new find gives the view that this was not an easy contact or mere trade. It was warlike forces that built an enclave near the local royal palace.”
Houston and his co-authors from the USA and Guatemala began to dig out the site in 2019 after scans of the area unveiled structures under one they previously held a natural hill.
“Only a little of this palace is visible on the surface. The rest and especially the deeper layers are only accessible by tunnels that were excavated by archaeologists,” Houston told CNN by e -mail. “Usually we find a floor and a wall and follow them, which reveals buried buildings.”
As the researchers, they examined this altar, which still bears the weak outline of a person who wore a feathered headdress on every table and traces of bright red, black and yellow colors. Such a design is similar to other representations of a deity, which is referred to as a “storm god” and is more common in Teotihuacan than Maya Art.
Two corpses were buried under the altar – one probably an adult man and the other a small child between the ages of 2 and 4, who was buried in Tikal in a seated position in Teotihuacan.
The bodies of three other infants were discovered around the altar, which was buried in a similar way to other infant trenches in Teotihuacan. The authors did not state what caused their death.
“The altar confirms that Teotihuacan rituals were used in the center of Tikal, on which people who used extremely foreign, Teotihuacan painting styles to present foreign gods,” said Houston CNN by e -Mail.
Some of the remains may have belonged to Maya, said Houston, “But the grave will find close contact with and perhaps an origin in Teotihuacan. The victims of infants fit Mexican practices.”
These cultural practices indicate the increasing influence of Teotihuacan in Tikal, the researchers said in their work.
And the fact that these buildings were later buried and never rebuilt “probably speaks for the complicated feelings (the Maya) about Teotihuacan,” said co-author Andrew Scherer, professor of anthropology and archeology at Brown.
“The Maya regularly buried buildings and rebuilt it again,” he said in a statement. “But here they burial the altar and the surrounding buildings and simply left them, although this centuries later it would have been first class. They almost treated it like a monument or a radioactive zone.”
This latest discovery reveals another layer of the complicated relationship between the two cultures that have resulted in the latest research.
In the 1960s, the researchers found a stone with an inscription that described a conflict between Maya and Teotihuacan and learned that “around 378 AD contained a kingdom in Teotihuacan,” said Houston.
“They removed the king and replaced him with a quisling, a Marionetten king that proved Teotihuacan as a useful local instrument.”
This altar was probably built at a similar time to the coup, said Scherer, who finally drove the Mayaa kingdom to its most powerful point before taking back around 900 AD.
The results of this excavation show “a story like old like the time”, added Houston and referred to rich, the sparring and competed for cultural influence.
“Everyone knows what has happened to the Aztec civilization after the Spaniards have arrived. These powers of Central -Mexico went to the Maya world because they saw it as a place of exceptional wealth of special feathers of tropical birds, jade and chocolate,” he said. “As far as Teotihuacan is concerned, it was the land of milk and honey.”
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