Archaeologists have discovered a 1,600-year-old Maya altar, surrounded by children’s bones

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.

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 local dynasty, which was Maya, was allowed to continue, but under the heel of a foreign group,” says Brown University archaeologist Stephen Houston. In a new study in the journal 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. And several clues—child sacrifice, grave artifacts, and altar paintings—point back to Teotihuacan.   

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.

Tikal and Teotihuacan foreign relations

The 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, including a huge pyramidal temple.

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, based in a distant city in a foreign land, 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.

“Tikal had lots of resources, beautiful plumes of feathers, chocolate…  this was a ‘Land of milk and honey’ to them,” Houston says.

Tikal was then one of the most important cities in the “Maya lowlands,” in present-day Yucatan and Chiapas in Mexico, Belize and Guatemala.

(A 1,700-year-old sacrificial monkey may have been a diplomatic gift to Teotihuacan.)  

Was it a coup or a conquest?

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.”

Siyaj K’ak’s ethnicity isn’t known, 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.

Human sacrifices

Radiocarbon analysis of incense burners and other burned material found throughout the plaza where the altar was unearthed indicate it was built about the time of the Teotihuacan takeover. 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, but common at Teotihuacan.

The other dead were buried around the plaza or in small tombs nearby. In one of the adult graves, 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.

All of the children were under four, and one was less than a year old. The fact many were so young may be a sign they were sacrificed to establish the growth of Teotihuacan’s power in Tikal, Houston says.

(This ancient society tried to stop El Niño—with child sacrifice.)

An iconic Teotihuacan style

The newfound altar itself is about six feet wide, four feet deep, and a little over three feet high.

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, orange, yellow and black, 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.

According to the study, the god can be identified from the stylized fangs in his mouth, an ornament below his nostrils known as a nose-bar, and his oval eyes. His face is painted on the four sides of the altar, wearing necklaces, “ear spools” in his earlobes, 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 study says.

Telltale petroglyphs

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.”

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.

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 local dynasty, which was Maya, was allowed to continue, but under the heel of a foreign group,” says Brown University archaeologist Stephen Houston. In a new study in the journal 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. And several clues—child sacrifice, grave artifacts, and altar paintings—point back to Teotihuacan.   

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.

Tikal and Teotihuacan foreign relations

The 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, including a huge pyramidal temple.

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, based in a distant city in a foreign land, 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.

“Tikal had lots of resources, beautiful plumes of feathers, chocolate…  this was a ‘Land of milk and honey’ to them,” Houston says.

Tikal was then one of the most important cities in the “Maya lowlands,” in present-day Yucatan and Chiapas in Mexico, Belize and Guatemala.

(A 1,700-year-old sacrificial monkey may have been a diplomatic gift to Teotihuacan.)  

Was it a coup or a conquest?

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.”

Siyaj K’ak’s ethnicity isn’t known, 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.

Human sacrifices

Radiocarbon analysis of incense burners and other burned material found throughout the plaza where the altar was unearthed indicate it was built about the time of the Teotihuacan takeover. 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, but common at Teotihuacan.

The other dead were buried around the plaza or in small tombs nearby. In one of the adult graves, 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.

All of the children were under four, and one was less than a year old. The fact many were so young may be a sign they were sacrificed to establish the growth of Teotihuacan’s power in Tikal, Houston says.

(This ancient society tried to stop El Niño—with child sacrifice.)

An iconic Teotihuacan style

The newfound altar itself is about six feet wide, four feet deep, and a little over three feet high.

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, orange, yellow and black, 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.

According to the study, the god can be identified from the stylized fangs in his mouth, an ornament below his nostrils known as a nose-bar, and his oval eyes. His face is painted on the four sides of the altar, wearing necklaces, “ear spools” in his earlobes, 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 study says.

Telltale petroglyphs

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.”