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Using LiDAR data, archaeologists from Brown University and the University of Texas at Austin have discovered that what has long been considered an area of natural hills in the classic Mayan city of Tikal, in Guatemala. In fact, the area turned out to be the site of destroyed buildings that were designed to look like the Ciudadela and the Temple of the Feathered Serpent in the imperial capital of Teotihuacan, the largest and most powerful city in ancient America.

"What we previously thought were natural hills were actually buildings, and they corresponded to the shape of the citadel — an area that may have been an imperial palace — in Teotihuacan," said Brown University professor Stephen Houston.

"Regardless of who built this smaller replica and why, it shows without a doubt that there was a different level of interaction between Tikal and Teotihuacan than previously thought."

Tikal and Teotihuacan were radically different cities: Tikal, a Mayan city, was fairly densely populated but relatively small in size, while Teotihuacan was the largest city in pre-Columbian America.

Although little is known about the people who founded and ruled Teotihuacan, it is clear that their influence extended far beyond their metropolitan center: evidence shows that they formed and colonized countless communities hundreds of kilometers away.

Scientists have known for decades that the inhabitants of the two cities had been in contact and often traded with each other for centuries before Teotihuacan conquered Tikal around 378 AD.

There is also plenty of evidence that between the II and VI centuries AD, Maya elites and scribes lived in Teotihuacan, some of whom brought elements of the culture and materials of the empire to Tikal.

"The architectural complex we found appears to have been built for the people of Teotihuacan or those under their control," Stephen Houston said.

"Perhaps it was something like an embassy complex, but when we combine previous research with our latest discoveries, it suggests something tougher, such as occupation or surveillance. At least, it shows an attempt to implement part of the plan of a foreign city on Tikal."

The excavations that followed LiDAR's work confirmed that some of the buildings were built of clay plaster rather than traditional Maya limestone.

The buildings were designed as reduced copies of the buildings that make up the citadel of Teotihuacan, down to the intricate cornices and terraces and the specific orientation of the platforms of the complex from east to north by 15.5 degrees.

"It almost suggests that local builders have been told to use completely non—local construction technologies in the construction of this vast new building complex," Stephen Houston said.

"We've rarely seen evidence of anything other than two-way interaction between two civilizations, but here we seem to be looking at outsiders who have aggressively invaded the area."

The scientists' article was published in the journal Antiquity.

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