A recent study of the bones of a sacrificed spider monkey suggests the animal may have been a diplomatic gift from the Maya to Teotihuacan, offering a peek at geopolitics in Mesoamerica a century before the two great powers clashed.
suggest the diplomacy went both ways. This grand compound held buildings stocked with Maya pottery and murals depicting Maya symbols, mythological creatures, and gods. University of California, Riverside, archaeologist Nawa Sugiyama, who co-directs the project, thinks these quarters were reserved for high-status Maya dignitaries. “Imagine who’s invited to stay at the White House and downtown [near] the National Mall,” Sugiyama says.
The new study shines light on the peaceful period preceding the apparent meltdown. In 2018, while tunneling beneath a Plaza of the Columns pyramid, Sugiyama and her team uncovered a magnificent cache of figurines, jewelry, obsidian knives, and arrowheads. There were also animal bones, including a puma skull, rattlesnakes, and a golden eagle—and one unusual skeleton that “was [like] nothing I’ve seen before in highland Mexico,” Sugiyama recalls.
To learn how and when the animal ended up in Teotihuacan, the researchers analyzed its bones and teeth, measuring levels of isotopes that reflect what it ate and where it lived at different stages of life. The scientists could tell the monkey was likely captured around age 3 in a balmy habitat, like Maya forests, then moved to a dry environment, like the plateau of Teotihuacan.
“The scientific analysis of … this spider monkey is very impressive,” says Francisco Estrada-Belli, a Tulane University archaeologist who wasn’t involved in the new work.
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