Translated by Mintina A 1,700-meter monkey skeleton in the ruins of the city of Teotihuacan shows that the animal became a gift during the Mayan period.

Compilation: Mintina

A 1,700-meter monkey skeleton in the ruins of Teotihuacan, Mexico shows that the animal became a gift during the Maya period.

Archaeologists saw a complete skeleton of a spider monkey (right) at the bottom of the ancient city of Teotihuacan, buried with an eagle (left) and other animals
Photo provided by: Sugiyama/Project Plaza of The Culumns Complex

A spider monkey who was sacrificed provides a little evidence for people to understand the relationship between ancient Central American .

Researchers found a 1,700-year-old monkey remains in the ancient city of Teotihuacan, a suburb of present-day Mexico. This shows that primates were diplomatic gifts from the Mayan culture period. On November 21, scientists wrote in the " Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" that this is the earliest evidence of capturing primates in the Americas.

In 2018, animals were dug out from the bottom of the pyramid of Teotihuacan City, and the monkey's skeleton was piled with the remains of some other animals - including a hawk and several rattlesnakes - which is an area where the visiting Mayan nobles in the city may be inhabited.

Evidence of animal sacrifice, including predators, such as leopard , was previously discovered in this ancient city. But "up to this moment, we have not seen any primate sacrifice cases in Teotihuacan City," said Nawa Sugiyama, an archaeologist at the Riverside area of ​​, the University of California, , anthropology , said.

demonstrated by chemical analysis of spider monkey bones and teeth, it is very likely that a young female captured in a humid environment about in the third century. The monkey was then locked up and lived for several years, and then the final moment came from 250 to 300 AD.

The highlands around Mexico City have long been not the survival range of spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroy), which thrived in tropical rainforests. Based on this fact, there are Mayan murals and the ships they built to make Sugiyama and her guess at the same time that the Spider Monkey was a gift from the Mayan nobles to the Teotihuacan tribe.

This discovery is an example of diplomatic relations between two civilizations that may sometimes have fierce conflict. The Mayan hieroglyphic records show that the Teotihuacan military forces occupied the Mayan city in 378 AD, Tikal, which was about 70 years, the beginning of the Teotihuacan ethnic group intervention in Mayan politics (SN: October 22, 2021).

's "stunning discovery" of monkeys shows the intersection between the two civilizations long before this siege, David Stuart, an archaeologist and epigrapher at the University of Texas in Austin, said, but he was not involved in the study.

"The long history led to the war in 378 AD," he said. "The monkey is indeed a surprising confirmation of this protracted connection."

citation

N. Sugiyama et al. Primate capture and transfer locations are the earliest evidence of diplomatic gifts for Teotihuacan and Maya groups. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Published online on November 21, 2022. Unique identifier for digital object: 10.1073/pnas.2212431119.


Information source: Freda Kreier