Archaeologists have unearthed the tomb of Te Okay’ab Chaak, the primary king of the Maya city-state of Caracol in Belize and founding father of its royal dynasty. Courting to 350 A.D., it’s the first identifiable ruler’s tomb ever present in Caracol.
Te Okay’ab Chaak (Mayan for “Tree Department Rain God”) ascended the throne in 331 A.D. and dominated for 19 years earlier than his demise. The skeletal stays discovered within the tomb belong to a person about 5’7″ tall and lacking all of his tooth, probably because of his superior age. His tomb was furnished with wealthy grave items, together with carved bone tube beads, three pairs of jadeite ear flares (uncommon even when it’s a single set is discovered), jadeite beads carved within the form of spider monkeys, Pacific spondylus shells and different natural supplies.
Among the many grave items have been 11 ceramic vessels, lots of them polychrome and all of them finely crafted. The polychrome vessels are vividly painted on the perimeters and lids. One instance is a basal flange bowl with a coatimundi head because the deal with. The facet of the bowl is painted with two sure prisoners. The lid has a worn however identifiable portrait of Ek’ Chuah, the Maya god of commerce, whose iconography will not be sometimes present in Early Traditional interval artwork. One other vessel portrayed a Maya king holding a spear whereas receiving choices.
Probably the most distinctive artifact within the tomb is a jadeite mosaic demise masks. They’re extraordinarily uncommon at Maya websites, indicators that the deceased was somebody of nice significance. That is confirmed by the inside of the tomb which is coated in cinnabar, symbolizing the rising solar within the east, a component solely discovered within the tombs of the best royalty.
Archaeologists Diane and Arlen Chase have been excavating Caracol since 1985. They uncovered the executive middle and royal palace that soared 141 toes excessive over town within the Late Traditional interval (600-700 A.D.). They named it Caana, Maya for “Sky Palace.” Artifacts and hieroglyphs discovered through the years of excavations confirmed Caracol dominated the southern Yucatan Peninsula from 560 till 680 A.D.
In 2025, the archaeological crew centered on the Northeast Acropolis plaza adjoining to Caana underneath the jungle cover.
Their investigations at Caracol’s Northeast Acropolis present that Te Okay’ab Chaak’s tomb was the primary of three main burials relationship to about 350 AD, a time of early contact with the central Mexican metropolis of Teotihuacan, some 1200 kilometers distant. By 300 AD, Teotihuacan was an enormous metropolis that traded all through Central America. […]
“Maya carved stone monuments, hieroglyphic dates, iconography, and archaeological knowledge all recommend that widespread pan-Mesoamerican connections occurred after an occasion in 378 AD known as ‘entrada,’” mentioned Diane Chase.
“Whether or not this occasion represented precise Teotihuacanos within the Maya space or Maya utilizing central Mexican symbols remains to be debated. The Caracol archaeological knowledge means that the scenario was much more difficult,” she mentioned.
A cremation positioned within the middle of Caracol’s Northeast Acropolis plaza, recovered in 2010 and positioned after Te Okay’aab Chaak’s burial has been dated to AD 350 by radiocarbon evaluation and included artifacts from central Mexico. It contained the stays of three people, in addition to two massive knives, six atlatl factors, and fifteen pristine blades of inexperienced obsidian from Pachuca, Mexico (north of Teotihuacan); a number of pottery vessels additionally probably got here from central Mexico. Moreover, a carved atlatl projectile tip, atypical for the Maya however typical for a Teotihuacan warrior, was included within the cremation.
The cremation itself and its placement within the middle of a residential plaza are additionally extra typical practices for a high-status Teotihuacano and don’t accord with normal Maya burial practices. Primarily based on different ceramics on this cremation, the principle particular person was probably a Caracol royal member of the family that had adopted central Mexican ritual practices. This particular person might even have served as a royal Maya envoy who had lived at Teotihuacan and returned to Caracol. […]
The three burials interred within the Caracol Northeast Acropolis all cluster at AD 350, a minimum of a technology earlier than the beforehand acknowledged Teotihuacan presence within the Maya space. They show that early Maya rulers have been totally enmeshed in Mesoamerican-wide contacts previous to the Teotihuacan entrada recorded on Maya monument[s].
