An ancient Mayan altar has been unearthed in the heart of Tikal, a 2,400-year-old city in Guatemala, by international scholars. The discovery provides new clues about a dramatic period of Mayan civilization, evidencing a quasi-imperial control system far in advance of the Spanish empire.
Uncovered in a 2019 excavation, the figure depicted on the altar closely resembles the “Storm God” deity found at other sites across central Mexico but is also a potential match for the “Great Goddess,” whose existence is disputed among scholars. Intriguingly, the team investigating the altar believes the artist who painted the Storm God was not Mayan, but more likely came from the city-state Teotihuacan over 630 miles away, putting their artistic skills in the service of an occupying force.
The Storm God’s Altar
Construction of the altar dates back to the late 300s A.D. The four panels around the altar were painted red, black, and yellow and emblazoned with a human head. The figure was rendered with almond-shaped eyes, a fanged nose bar, and double ear spools. It wore a feathered headdress and was flanked by shields. Today, most of the paint has worn away and faded. Yet, scholars could reproduce its original appearance with the aid of dStretch software, which was originally designed to study rock art.
“It’s increasingly clear that this was an extraordinary period of turbulence at Tikal,” said Stephen Houston, a professor of social science, anthropology, and history of art and architecture at Brown, who co-authored the paper. “What the altar confirms is that wealthy leaders from Teotihuacan came to Tikal and created replicas of ritual facilities that would have existed in their home city. It shows Teotihuacan left a heavy imprint there.”
Power and Control in Central America
Before the discovery, Maya scholars knew of a long-lasting relationship with Teotihuacan. Between its 850 B.C. founding and about 100 A.D., Tikal was just a small city with little power for almost a millennium. After transforming into a dynasty around 100 A.D., the city eventually came to the notice of the powerful Teotihuacan roughly 200 years later, beginning a trading partnership that soon became coercive.
“It’s almost as if Tikal poked the beast and got too much attention from Teotihuacan,” Houston said. “That’s when foreigners started moving into the area.”
In the 1960s, scholars began discovering evidence of a stormy relationship between Tikal and Teotihuacan. Text carved into a well-preserved stone shed light on the troubles, today referred to as “Entrada,” a Spanish word translated into English as “Arrival.” Known as the “Tikal Marcador,” the stone carving symbolizes victory in Teotihuacan style while bearing Mayan hieroglyphs.
“Around A.D. 378, Teotihuacan was essentially decapitating a kingdom,” Houston said. “They removed the king and replaced him with a quisling, a puppet king who proved a useful local instrument to Teotihuacan.”
Mayan Occupation
Scholars believe that to maintain their control, Teotihuacan likely established an occupation or surveillance. Evidence for this comes from a LiDAR scan of what appeared to be natural hills outside of Tikal. Buried beneath the earthen mounds was a scaled-down replica of the Teotihuacan Ciudadela, including a proxy of the Feathered Serpent Pyramid, similar in layout and orientation.
Radiocarbon dating indicates the altar was constructed close to the coup, and the researchers identify the artwork as a tool of influence. Beyond the Teotihuacan-style exterior, the altar contains a child buried in a seated position, a Teotihuacan practice uncommon to Tikal. Additionally, the altar also interred an adult struck with a uniquely Teotihuacan-style green obsidian dart.
Around the fifth century AD, the people of Tikal burned the altar and its surroundings, suggesting a desire to forget the Teotihuacan occupation. Following the burning, the Tikal inhabitants buried the area in a “non-uniform fill to create the impression of a natural hill,” the authors state. Similarly, the Tikal Ciudadela appears to have been intentionally buried in an abandonment ritual close to when Teotihuacan entered a significant decline.
“The Maya regularly buried buildings and rebuilt on top of them,” said co-author Andrew Scherer, a professor of anthropology, archaeology, and the ancient world at Brown and director of the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World.
“But here, they buried the altar and surrounding buildings and just left them, even though this would have been prime real estate centuries later,” Scherer said. “They treated it almost like a memorial or a radioactive zone. It probably speaks to the complicated feelings they had about Teotihuacan.”
Cycles of Oppression
The coup’s effects were complex, ultimately making the kingdom much more powerful, despite undergoing a period of subservience. Tikal continued growing in power to become one of the region’s greatest dynasties before the broader Mayan society began declining around 900 AD, taking Tikal with it.
“There’s a kind of nostalgia about that time, when Teotihuacan was at the height of its power and taking increasing interest in the Maya,” Houston said. “It’s something exalted for them; they looked back on it almost wistfully. Even when they were in decline, they were still thinking about local politics in context of that contact with central Mexico.”
The story of a strong power plundering a beautiful but weaker civilization carries universal relevance.
“Everyone knows what happened to the Aztec civilization after the Spanish arrived,” Houston concluded. “Our findings show evidence that that’s a tale as old as time. These powers of central Mexico reached into the Maya world because they saw it as a place of extraordinary wealth, of special feathers from tropical birds, jade and chocolate. As far as Teotihuacan was concerned, it was the land of milk and honey.”
The paper “A Teotihuacan Altar at Tikal, Guatemala: Central Mexican Ritual and Elite Interaction in the Maya Lowlands” appeared on April 8, 2025, in Antiquity.
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.