After 40 years of digging through the dense Belizean jungle, archaeologists Diane and Arlen Chase stumbled upon something that made their careers worth every mosquito bite and sweltering day.
A tomb covered in blood-red cinnabar powder. Eleven intricately painted pottery vessels. And most stunning of all, a death mask made from 89 pieces of jade that hadn’t seen daylight in 1,700 years.
This wasn’t just any burial. This was Te K’ab Chaak, the founding king of Caracol, and his tomb is forcing archaeologists to completely rethink when the ancient Maya first connected with the powerful Mexican city of Teotihuacan, located 1,200 kilometers away.
The Discovery That Almost Didn’t Happen
The Chases weren’t even looking for a royal tomb when they made the discovery in February 2025.
They were reopening an old excavation trench from 1993 at Caracol’s Northeast Acropolis when Arlen’s trowel hit something unusual. As they carefully brushed away centuries of dirt, the telltale red mineral cinnabar began appearing everywhere.
“You’re dealing with some of the highest royalty when things get covered in cinnabar,” Arlen explained in a University of Houston video, his excitement barely contained after four decades in the field.
But it was what they found next that confirmed they’d struck archaeological gold.
A King’s Ransom in Jade
Three sets of jade earflares, ornate ear ornaments worn by Maya elite, lay carefully arranged in the chamber.
“That’s incredibly unusual,” Diane Chase noted. “We don’t usually get one set of earflares, much less multiples.”
Then came the death mask. Made from 89 pieces of jade and 26 pieces of shell, it’s only the second such mask the Chases have found in their entire careers. Death masks “are not that common,” Diane emphasizes. “There are not that many in the Maya world.”
The pottery told its own fascinating story. One vessel featured a lid sculpted to look like a coatimundi (a local raccoon relative), painted with a portrait of Ek Chuah, the Maya god of trade. Other pots depicted bound captives, a spear-wielding ruler receiving offerings, and images of hummingbirds, monkeys, and owls.
The Teotihuacan Connection That Changes Everything
Here’s where the discovery gets truly groundbreaking.
According to the archaeological team’s findings, Te K’ab Chaak’s tomb dates to around 350 AD, at least a generation before historians thought the Maya and Teotihuacan first made contact.
A nearby cremation burial, also from 350 AD, contained unmistakably Teotihuacan artifacts: green obsidian blades from Pachuca, Mexico, and atlatl spear-thrower points typical of Teotihuacan warriors. The cremation style itself was distinctly Teotihuacan, not Maya.
“This guy is a one-percenter,” Arlen Chase said about Te K’ab Chaak. The evidence suggests early Maya rulers weren’t isolated in their jungle cities, they were engaged in sophisticated diplomatic relationships spanning all of Mesoamerica.
A City Lost and Found
Caracol itself is a testament to Maya power and sophistication.
At its peak between 560 and 680 AD, the city housed over 100,000 people and covered 68 square miles. The Caana pyramid, which means “Sky Place” in Maya, still towers 141 feet above the jungle, one of the tallest structures in all of Belize.
We visited similar Maya sites in the region, and the scale never fails to impress. These weren’t primitive settlements, they were sophisticated urban centers with advanced road systems, markets, and complex water management.
The Chases’ work has repeatedly overturned old assumptions about Maya society. In 1986, they discovered an inscription proving Caracol had defeated the supposedly invincible city of Tikal in battle. They’ve mapped thousands of agricultural terraces and hundreds of reservoirs, showing that water, sacred to the Maya, wasn’t monopolized by elites.
What Makes This Discovery Different?
Melissa Badillo, director of Belize’s Institute of Archaeology, calls it “quite a significant discovery.”
After 40 years of research, this is the first time a jade death mask has been recovered in the context of a royal tomb at Caracol.
The bones tell their own story. Te K’ab Chaak stood about 5’7″ tall, above average for his time, and died at an advanced age with no remaining teeth. DNA and isotope analysis currently underway might reveal whether he spent time in Teotihuacan itself.
The Journey That Would Take 153 Days
Perhaps most intriguing is what this discovery reveals about ancient travel and diplomacy.
The research team calculated that walking from Caracol to Teotihuacan would have taken approximately 153 days one way. Yet the evidence shows regular contact and trade between these distant cities.
“Both central Mexico and the Maya area were clearly aware of each other’s ritual practices,” Arlen Chase explained. These connections happened at the highest levels of society, suggesting formal diplomatic relationships that reshaped both civilizations.
A Dynasty That Lasted 460 Years
Te K’ab Chaak, whose name means “Tree Branch Rain God,” took the throne in 331 AD and founded a dynasty that would rule Caracol for over four and a half centuries.
His tomb’s location, at the base of a royal family shrine in the Northeast Acropolis, marks him as the literal and symbolic foundation of Caracol’s power.
The discovery raises as many questions as it answers. Who was this Teotihuacan-connected individual cremated in Caracol’s plaza? How did ideas, goods, and possibly people travel such vast distances? What other secrets lie buried in Caracol’s 68 square miles?
What Happens Next?
The Chases are currently reconstructing the jade death mask piece by painstaking piece.
DNA analysis might reveal family connections or origins. Isotope testing could show where Te K’ab Chaak spent his life. And continued excavation might uncover more evidence of these early Mesoamerican connections.
The team will present their complete findings at the Santa Fe Institute’s Maya Working Group conference in August 2025.
After 40 years of rewriting Maya history, Diane and Arlen Chase, now approaching their 50th wedding anniversary, have delivered their most significant discovery yet. In the dense jungles of Belize, beneath centuries of earth and vegetation, they’ve found evidence that the ancient world was far more connected than we ever imagined.
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