An ancient Mesoamerican relationship is being reexamined by a sacrificed spider monkey.
It is possible that the Maya gave the primate a diplomatic gift by revealing the remains of a 1,700-year old monkey discovered in Teotihuacan, an ancient Mexican city. The discovery is The earliest evidence of a primat being held captive in the AmericasResearchers report November 21 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Unearthed in 2018 at the base of a pyramid in Teotihuacan, the monkey’s skeleton lay beside the corpses of other animals — including an eagle and several rattlesnakes — in an area of the city where visiting Maya elites may have resided.
The city has seen evidence of animal sacrifices before, including those of predators like jaguars. But “up to that point, we did not have any instances of sacrificed primates in Teotihuacan,” says Nawa Sugiyama, an anthropological archaeologist at the University of California, Riverside.
Chemical analysis of the spider monkey’s bones and teeth showed that the female had likely been captured in a humid environment at a young age sometime in the third century. The monkey lived in captivity for several years until she died sometime between 250 and 300.
Mexico City is located far away from the natural habitats of spider monkeys in its highlands.Ateles geoffroyThey require humid tropical forests in order to thrive. Sugiyama and her team believe this, in conjunction with Maya vessels and murals, indicates that the spider monkey was given to Teotihuacan as a gift by the elite Mayas.
This is an example diplomatic relations between two cultures, which sometimes involved violent interactions. Maya hieroglyphs indicate that Teotihuacan military forces invaded Tikal, Maya in 378. This marked the beginning of roughly 70 years of intercultural relations. Teotihuacan interfered in Maya politics (SN: 10/22/21).
The “striking” discovery of the monkey shows that relationship between these two cultures far predates the invasion, says David Stuart, an archaeologist and epigraphist at the University of Texas at Austin who was not involved in the study.
“The war of 378 had a long history leading up to it,” he says. “The monkey is a really compelling illustration of this long relationship.”
