Tomb of Maya city’s first king discovered

Archaeologists have unearthed the tomb of Te K’ab Chaak, the first king of the Maya city-state of Caracol in Belize and founder of its royal dynasty. Dating to 350 A.D., it is the first identifiable ruler’s tomb ever found in Caracol.

Te K’ab Chaak (Mayan for “Tree Branch Rain God”) ascended the throne in 331 A.D. and ruled for 19 years before his death. The skeletal remains found in the tomb belong to a man about 5’7″ tall and missing all of his teeth, likely due to his advanced age. His tomb was furnished with rich grave goods, including carved bone tube beads, three pairs of jadeite ear flares (rare even when it’s a single set is found), jadeite beads carved in the shape of spider monkeys, Pacific spondylus shells and other organic materials.

Among the grave goods were 11 ceramic vessels, many of them polychrome and all of them finely crafted. The polychrome vessels are vividly painted on the sides and lids. One example is a basal flange bowl with a coatimundi head as the handle. The side of the bowl is painted with two bound prisoners. The lid has a worn but identifiable portrait of Ek’ Chuah, the Maya god of trade, whose iconography is not typically found in Early Classic period art. Another vessel portrayed a Maya king holding a spear while receiving offerings.

The most exceptional artifact in the tomb is a jadeite mosaic death mask. They are extremely rare at Maya sites, indicators that the deceased was someone of great importance. This is confirmed by the interior of the tomb which is coated in cinnabar, symbolizing the rising sun in the east, an element only found in the tombs of the highest royalty.

Archaeologists Diane and Arlen Chase have been excavating Caracol since 1985. They uncovered the administrative center and royal palace that soared 141 feet high over the city in the Late Classic period (600-700 A.D.). They named it Caana, Maya for “Sky Palace.” Artifacts and hieroglyphs found over the years of excavations showed Caracol dominated the southern Yucatan Peninsula from 560 until 680 A.D.

In 2025, the archaeological team focused on the Northeast Acropolis plaza adjacent to Caana under the jungle canopy.

Their investigations at Caracol’s Northeast Acropolis show that Te K’ab Chaak’s tomb was the first of three major burials dating to about 350 AD, a time of early contact with the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan, some 1200 kilometers distant. By 300 AD, Teotihuacan was a huge city that traded throughout Central America. […]

“Maya carved stone monuments, hieroglyphic dates, iconography, and archaeological data all suggest that widespread pan-Mesoamerican connections occurred after an event in 378 AD referred to as ‘entrada,’” said Diane Chase.

“Whether this event represented actual Teotihuacanos in the Maya area or Maya using central Mexican symbols is still debated. The Caracol archaeological data suggests that the situation was far more complicated,” she said.

A cremation placed in the center of Caracol’s Northeast Acropolis plaza, recovered in 2010 and placed after Te K’aab Chaak’s burial has been dated to AD 350 by radiocarbon analysis and included artifacts from central Mexico. It contained the remains of three individuals, as well as two large knives, six atlatl points, and fifteen pristine blades of green obsidian from Pachuca, Mexico (north of Teotihuacan); several pottery vessels also likely came from central Mexico. Additionally, a carved atlatl projectile tip, atypical for the Maya but typical for a Teotihuacan warrior, was included in the cremation.

The cremation itself and its placement in the center of a residential plaza are also more typical practices for a high-status Teotihuacano and do not accord with standard Maya burial practices. Based on other ceramics in this cremation, the main individual was likely a Caracol royal family member that had adopted central Mexican ritual practices. This individual may even have served as a royal Maya envoy who had lived at Teotihuacan and returned to Caracol. […]

The three burials interred in the Caracol Northeast Acropolis all cluster at AD 350, at least a generation before the previously recognized Teotihuacan presence in the Maya area. They demonstrate that early Maya rulers were fully enmeshed in Mesoamerican-wide contacts prior to the Teotihuacan entrada recorded on Maya monument[s].

* This article was originally published here