Find Adds a Clue to Teotihuacan Riddle

A newly opened tomb in Mexico’s Pyramid of the Moon has revealed a grisly sacrificial burial that highlights two contradictory aspects of the mysterious Teotihuacan culture — the decapitation of 10 people and the presence of exquisite artworks unlike any previously discovered in the region.

The findings from the ancient “City of the Gods” about 30 miles northeast of Mexico City reinforce the growing idea that the Teotihuacanos were a warlike people, not the gentle, pastoral folk they were once thought to be, archeologists said this week.

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The sacrifices may have “created a horrible scene of bloodshed,” he said. The ritual “must have been one of the most terrifying acts recorded archeologically in Mesoamerica.”

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