Powerful people have a history of gifting animals — and especially exotic animals — to their peers as a symbol of their power and their friendship. And a recent discovery provides novel insights into this tradition between the Teotihuacán and the Maya.
A new paper published in PNAS states that a 1,700-year-old spider monkey skeleton found inside an ancient administrative complex in Mexico reveals the relationship between the two neighboring cultures.
For almost 10 years, a team of archaeologists and anthropologists has been hard at work at the Plaza of Columns Complex in the ceremonial precinct of Teotihuacán, an ancient city in the south of Mexico famous for its towering pyramids. There, the team has uncovered thousands of fragments from foreign-style murals and thousands of shards of ceramics from colossal celebrations and feasts, all over 1,700 years old and indicative of frequent interactions with other cultures.
“Teotihuacán attracted people from ...
