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Teotihuacán is considered to be the primal mother of the pre-Columbian cultures of Central America.
The Aztecs interpreted the gigantic ruins as "a place where people become gods" when they built their own metropolis around 1350 50 kilometers further south in what is now Mexico City.
We don't know much more about the huge city, neither know the founders of Teotihuacán, nor their language and why they left their city around 650 after centuries of brilliant growth.
What is certain is that Teotihuacán, with a population of 200,000, was one of the largest cities in the world in its time.
Little is known about the relationship between the city and its neighbors.
Because their elites apparently renounced the development of an elaborate script, although evidence of other Central American writing systems were found in the ruins.
A new find now sheds a bright light on the relationship between Teotihuacán and the Maya, whose cities were around 1,000 kilometers further south, on the Yucatan peninsula and in Guatemala.
Archaeologists during the excavations on the Place of the Pillars in Teotihuacán
Source: dpa
More than 2,400 fragments of human bones came to light in the so-called Place of the Pillars in Teotihuacán.
As reported by the National Institute for Anthropology and History (INAH) of Mexico, at least three of the skulls found show deformations and mutilations of the teeth, as has been proven for the Mayan culture.
The scientists also found remains of murals and representations on Mayan-style ceramics.
The discoveries are an indication that the Mayan elite attended large public events in the square, it is said.
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The spectacular detail, however, provides the temporal classification, since the works of art are dated between 300 and 350 AD.
This means that close ties between Teotihuacán and the Maya are proven well before 378.
This year, Mayan records report the arrival of an emissary from Teotihuacán in the metropolis of Tikal in the rainforest of northern Guatemala.
Temple ruins in the Maya city of Tikal in Guatemala
Source: picture alliance / imageBROKER
Since Teotihuacán's influence also increased significantly in other Maya cities at the end of the 4th century, it was assumed that the northern great power would expand.
However, the new finds show that there had been intensive contacts between the two civilizations several decades, possibly up to two generations earlier.
Numerous potsherds in the style of Teotihuacán were found together with Mayan ceramics.
The archaeologists interpreted this as the remains of a large banquet in which members of the elite discussed political or diplomatic issues.
Remnants of bones suggest a feast with rabbits and quail.
Traces of cassava and tobacco, which were grown much further south, refer to gifts from the Maya region.
This also applies to rattlesnakes and a spider monkey, the skeleton of which has been completely preserved.
Neither species lived in the Teotihuacan area.
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Apparently the pottery was ritually destroyed at the end of the feast.
This also applies to the wall paintings.
Objects made of obsidian, a volcanic glass that was used as a blade, as well as the shells of sea snails that were used for jewelry processing, point in this context to a high-ranking event of extraordinary importance.
Further research must show whether the members of the Maya elite, who apparently died here, were sacrificed to seal an alliance or a submission.
Among the Maya, at least, it was customary to sacrifice high-ranking prisoners to the gods in order to gain the gods' sympathy.
Model of Teotihuacan in the National Museum of Mexico City
Source: picture alliance / Photononstop
The importance of Teotihuacan's expansion into the Maya area became apparent when the metropolis withdrew to its heartland in the first half of the 6th century for reasons that were not yet clear.
This hiatus, as the following decades-long crisis is called, into which the Mayan culture of the so-called classical period fell, is explained by the discontinuation of important long-distance trade routes through which the elites gained luxury goods, pearls, shells or feathers for their representation.
But important know-how may also have been lost.
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Just a few decades later, around 650, the residents of Teotihuacán also left their own city.
Because their floors were no longer edible, the social balance was out of joint or the climate changed?
In any case, they destroyed their temples and palaces and disappeared.
One of the largest cities in the world: the Teotihuacán Pyramid of the Sun
Source: picture alliance / Photononstop
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This article was first published in June 2019.