In an urban housing complex dating back to the 4th century AD in the middle of the jungle of Guatemalaarchaeologists found An ancient altar Particularly rich in decorations that clearly differs from the aesthetic and constructive models typical of the Mayan tradition. According to the team that made the discovery, the altar was used for sacrifices, “especially of children“: Lorena Paizthe archaeologist at the head of the exploratory expedition, confirmed this deduction to Associated Press, because the remains of two children of age not exceeding 4 years were found on three sides of the altar.
The discovery, which took place in the city of Tikalwas recently published in the magazine Antiquityand could rewrite the history of relations between the ancient Mayan civilization and those of central Mexico. Long before the Aztec civilization, which flourished between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, central Mexico was in fact dominated by the powerful city of Teotihuacanstill famous today for the size of his pyramids.
The city of Tikal was one of the most important among those founded by the Mayans. Before it reached its maximum splendor in the second half of the first millenniumhistorians hypothesized that the center had ended up within the political orbit of the city of Teotihuacanwhich at that time dominated the plateau of the central Mexico, more than 1200 km away. Still today We don’t know which people chose Teotihuacan as its capitalalso because the name with which we know it today was given by the Aztecs to the city in ruins many centuries later.
An American-jailed research group that refers to various American universities and the archaeological park of Tikal has recently published the results of new archaeological research which would seem to endorse the theory of one Strong interference by Teotihuacan in the political life of the Mayan of Tikal. In a residential building in the city, dated to the 4th century. d. C., archaeologists have found a very elaborate altar, which He detaches himself strongly from the artistic and architectural canons of the Mayan civilizationwithin an environment that was deliberately underground and then forgotten.
The altar, both because of the processing techniques and for the pictorial reasons that decorated it, would seem to have been made by workers from Teotihuacan or who had formed in that city. No typical element of Mayan iconography is represented, but the “God of storms“, Well attested to Teotihuacan.
Among the offers close to the altar there are also the bones of a child, perhaps sacrificedand nearby have also been found two burials (perhaps also sacrificial victims), dated between the III and the 6th century. DC the first, belonging to an adult male individual, included one in its equipment Green Obidiana bladetypical of Teotihuacan; The second burial, belonging to a 2-4 year old boy, presented an anomaly: the child he had been buried sitting. Both particular characteristics belong to the culture of Teotihuacan and, moreover, the obliteration of this sacred area, which took place through interro, was dated between the 6th and seventh centuriesin conjunction with the mysterious end of the nameless civilization that lived it.
In light of this new discovery, archaeologists believe that for a period the city of Tikal has hosted some people who they practiced religious rites unrelated to the Mayan culture but close to that of Teotihuacan. Hypothesis endorsed by the excavations that occurred in the 1980s, during which archaeologists discovered an inscription in Mayan characters that told how in the year 378 AD A sort of “had occurred in Tikalcoup“Which had brought a faction close to Teotihuacan to power.
