Archaeologists have discovered the tomb of the first ruler of Caracol, the most important political center of the Maya in Belize.

Te K'ab Chaak ascended to the throne in 331 AD, and his dynasty spanned nearly five centuries. Archaeologists from the University of Houston have just discovered the tomb of this powerful Mayan monarch, the first ruler of the ancient city of Caracol, a site now in ruins but key to dominating the southern part of the Yucatán Peninsula from 560 to 680 AD, before its abandonment in 900 AD.

The discovery represents the first identifiable burial of a ruler in more than four decades of work at Caracol, the most important Maya site in Belize. Te K'ab Chaak was approximately 1.70 meters tall, died at an advanced age, and had no remaining teeth.

Buried at the foot of a family shrine

He was buried at the foot of a royal family shrine along with eleven ceramic vessels, carved bone pipes, jadeite jewelry, a mosaic mask, Pacific spondylus shells, and other perishable materials.

The chamber's bowls, the researchers explain in a statement, included a scene of a Mayan king holding a spear and receiving offerings from supplicants. Another vessel depicts the image of Ek Chuah, god of merchants, surrounded by offerings.

Four of the ceramic jars depict bound captives (similar vessels also appeared in two related burials), and two others had lids with handles modeled after coatimundi (pizote) heads. This animal (known as tz'uutz' in Maya) was used by Caracol rulers as part of their names.

The team, led by husband and wife team Arlen and Diane Chase, has been excavating in the city for more than 40 years. Their investigations on the Northeast Acropolis show that the tomb of Te K'ab Chaak was the first of three burials dating to around 350 AD.

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At that time, according to recent discoveries, the first contacts existed between the metropolis located in Belize and Teotihuacán, in central Mexico, some 1,200 kilometers away. By 300 AD, the Mexican city was already a huge metropolis that traded with all of Central America.

“Maya stone carvings, hieroglyphic dates, iconography, and archaeological data suggest widespread pan-Mesoamerican connections following an event in AD 378 known as ‘entrada,’” notes Diane Chase.

The three burials discovered at Caracol would demonstrate, however, that the first Mayan rulers were fully immersed in contacts at the Mesoamerican level before that date, since the findings from the tomb of Te K'ab Chaak are from an earlier generation.

“Both central Mexico and the Maya region clearly knew each other's ritual practices, as reflected in these cremations,” Arlen Chase stated. “Connections between the two regions were established by the highest echelons of society, suggesting that the early kings of several Maya cities maintained formal diplomatic relations with Teotihuacan,” he added.

The Northeast Acropolis of Caracol

One of the cremations, located in the center of the Northeast Acropolis plaza and recovered in 2010, has been radiocarbon-dated to 350 AD and included artifacts from central Mexico. Inside were the remains of three individuals, as well as two large knives, six atlatl points, and fifteen pristine green obsidian blades from Pachuca (north of Teotihuacan).

There were also several ceramic vessels that likely came from central Mexico. In addition, a carved atlatl projectile point, atypical for the Maya but typical of a Teotihuacan warrior, was included in the cremation.

The cremation and its location in the center of a residential plaza are also more typical of a high-ranking Teotihuacan and inconsistent with standard Maya funerary practices. According to other ceramics, the principal individual in the burial was likely a member of the Caracol royal family, which adopted ritual practices from central Mexico.

This person may even have been a Maya royal envoy who lived in Teotihuacan and returned to Caracol. A third burial—of a woman covered in hematite, with four vessels, a beaded necklace, mirror fragments, and two Pacific spondylus shells—was recovered in the northern building of the same residential group in 2009 and has a similar date.

The Chases' findings also indicate that ancient Mesoamerican people were travelers. A car journey between Teotihuacan and Caracol today would take more than 23 hours. The one-way trek is estimated at approximately 153 days.