Copy of famous Teotihuacan structure discovered in Maya city

By Stephanie Pappas - Live Science Contributor about 19 hours ago

Who built a copy of a famous Teotihuacan Citadel in Tikal?



Lidar data over a map of the Maya city of Tikal reveals an unexcavated structure, the hook-shaped object below the Mundo Perdido, that bears an eerie resemblance to a pyramid hundreds of miles away. (Image credit: Pacunam LiDAR Initiative/Thomas Garrison)

A pyramid and courtyard unearthed in the Maya city of Tikal may have once been an embassy of sorts for visitors or ambassadors from the megapolis of Teotihuacan, more than 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) away.

The apparently peaceful outpost may have represented a period of cooperation between Tikal, in what is today Guatemala, and Teotihucan, which is near modern-day Mexico City. A century or so after the structure was built, invaders — quite possibly from Teotihuacan — would take over Tikal.

The enclosed courtyard and stair-step pyramid look like a miniature version of a structure called La Ciudadela, or The Citadel, in Teotihuacan. That citadel contained a temple known as the Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent and a 38-acre (15.2 hectare) courtyard large enough to accommodate 100,000 people. The smaller version in the Maya city of Tikal not only has the same layout, but it also has the same orientation and is full of artifacts with links to Teotihuacan, including a Teotihuacan-style grave.

"That means there is a really long occupation of people associated with Teotihuacan" in Tikal, said excavation leader Edwin Román Ramírez, an archaeologist at the Foundation for Maya Cultural and Natural Heritage (PACUNAM) who announced the finding in a press conference April 8.

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