Altar found in Guatemalan jungle evidence of mingling of Mayan and Teotihuacan cultures, experts say

GUATEMALA CITY – An altar from the Teotihuacan culture, astatine the pre-Hispanic bosom of what became Mexico, was discovered successful Tikal National Park successful Guatemala, the halfway of Mayan culture, demonstrating the enactment betwixt the 2 societies, Guatemala’s Culture and Sports Ministry announced Monday.

The tremendous city-state of Tikal, whose towering temples inactive basal successful the jungle, battled for centuries with the Kaanul dynasty for dominance of the Maya world.

Far to the northbound successful Mexico, conscionable extracurricular contiguous time Mexico City, Teotihuacan -- “the metropolis of the gods” oregon “the spot wherever men go gods” -- is champion known for its duplicate Temples of the Sun and Moon. It was really a ample metropolis that housed implicit 100,000 inhabitants and covered astir 8 quadrate miles (20 quadrate kilometers).

The inactive mysterious metropolis was 1 of the largest successful the satellite astatine its highest betwixt 100 B.C. and A.D. 750. But it was abandoned earlier the emergence of the Aztecs successful the 14th century.

Lorena Paiz, the archaeologist who led the discovery, said that the Teotihuacan altar was believed to person been utilized for sacrifices, “especially of children.”

“The remains of 3 children not older than 4 years were recovered connected 3 sides of the altar,” Paiz told The Associated Press.

“The Teotihuacan were traders who traveled each implicit the state (Guatemala),” Paiz said. “The Teotihuacan residential complexes were houses with rooms and successful the halfway altars; that’s what the residence that was recovered is like, with an altar with the fig representing the Storm Goddess.”

It took archaeologists 1½ years to uncover the altar successful a dwelling and analyse it earlier the announcement.

Edwin Román, who leads the South Tikal Archaeological Project wrong the park, said the find shows the sociopolitical and taste enactment betwixt the Maya of Tikal and Teotihuacan’s elite betwixt 300 and 500 A.D.

Román said the find besides reinforces the thought that Tikal was a cosmopolitan halfway astatine that time, a spot wherever radical visited from different cultures, affirming its value arsenic a halfway of taste convergence.

María Belén Méndez, an archaeologist who was not progressive with the project, said the find confirms “that determination has been an interconnection betwixt some cultures and what their relationships with their gods and celestial bodies was like.”

“We spot however the contented of sacrifice exists successful some cultures. It was a practice; it’s not that they were violent, it was their mode of connecting with the celestial bodies,” she said.

The altar is conscionable implicit a gait (1 meter) wide from eastbound to westbound and astir 2 yards (2 meters) from northbound to south. It is astir a gait (1 meter) gangly and covered with limestone.

The dwelling wherever it was recovered had anthropomorphic figures with tassels successful reddish tones, a item from the Teotihuacan culture, according to the ministry’s statement.

Tikal National Park is astir 325 miles (525 kilometers) northbound of Guatemala City, and the find tract is guarded and determination are nary plans to unfastened it to the public.

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