Archeologists are reconstructing the history of the ancient megacity of Teotihuacán using the nearly 2,000-year-old remains of hundreds of animals and some humans. Recent expeditions in Mexico have uncovered 12 sets of human remains, along with over 200 sacrificed animals–33 of which were complete animal skeletons. The findings are detailed in a new book written by University of California, Riverside anthropologist Nawa Sugiyama. What was Teotihuacán? Teotihuacán was one of the first megacities in Western Hemisphere. It is located about 30 miles northeast of present day Mexico City and is a designated UNESCO World Heritage site. It dates back over 1,900 years and was an economic powerhouse between 100 BCE and 650 CE. It’s believed that 100,000 people lived in Teotihuacán during its heyday, about 1,000 years before the Aztec civilization settled in the area. The remains of the large metropolis include multiple plazas, the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, and the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon. According to UNESCO, it was one of the most powerful cultural centers in Mesoamerica and the city extended its cultural and artistic influence throughout the region. Animals were also revered in Teotihuacán, with evidence that they were given as gifts, sacrificed, or venerated. Many of the animals found in the burial sites were also apex predators at the top of the local food chain–golden eagles, Mexican gray wolves, hawks, owls, falcons, jaguars, pumas, wolves, and even rattlesnakes. “That’s really interesting from the zooarchaeology standpoint because there’s a fundamental shift in the ways we know Indigenous communities understood these potent apex predators as active agents and mediators of the sky realm, the earth, and the underworld,” Sugiyama said in a statement. “They were also in conversation with and interacting, sometimes in very dangerous ways, with the human communities that were trying to make connections to–and have power over–hese natural sources of power themselves.” CREDIT: UC Riverside. CREDIT: UC Riverside. Aztec-size sacrifices Within four dedicated chambers, Sugiyama and her team found the bones of 200 animal species. The largest of the chambers included 12 human remains and 100 animals. This is believed to be one of the most abundant cases of mass animal sacrifices ever found in Teotihuacán. They are comparable to the animal sacrifices conducted by the Aztec empire a millennium later. The Aztecs conducted ritual sacrifices often, offering 400 different animal species to their gods.  Sugiyama studied their bone chemistry, which revealed new details about their sex, diet, age, and whether they were sacrificed dead or alive. A family crop was found to be a common denominator. Their diet was primarily maize–or corn–a primary staple food for humans in Mesoamerica. Many civilizations believed human beings were created from maize and it was important religious and cultural practices.    [ Related: Ancient pyramid uncovered during highway construction. ] “I don’t think it’s a mere coincidence, they were part of that process of creating a new politics, a new landscape, in which animals and humans coordinated one of the most ambitious ceremonial landscape constructions in ancient Mesoamerica,” Sugiyama said. The team believes that this dedicatory chamber must have once been a “State spectacle,” that was potentially witnessed by thousands of people. Sacrifices in Teotihuacán were government-sanctioned ritual performances put on at the heart of the Moon Pyramid.  Golden eagles remain golden  One animal of particular importance in ancient Teotihuacán was the golden eagle. The large birds of prey with a roughly six to seven foot wing span is still held in high regard in the area today and is featured in the center of Mexico’s flag.  Sugiyama’s excavation has uncovered 18 golden eagles that are believed to represent the 18 months in Teotihuacán’s 365-day calendar. The eagles can help archeologists reimagine what the dedicatory ceremony may have looked like 2,000 years ago. Sugiyama believes that the birds were carried in by State officials on their forearm or shoulder through Teotihuacán’s main corridor leading  down the Calzada de los Muertos (Avenue of the Dead) to the endpoint at the Moon Pyramid.  “We are able to see the matter in which ancient Teotihuacanos materialized, felt, heard, created space, and understood their cosmos directly through the messages that are provided to us archeologists through the material remains of the bones that are speaking to us 2,000 years later,” Sugiyama said. The post Apex predators were sacrificed nearly 2,000 years ago in Teotihuacán appeared first on Popular Science.