Known for its majestic pyramids of the Sun and the Moon, the golden city of Teotihuacan, nestled in the heart of the Valley of Mexico, is making waves again. After the discovery, in 2016, of 1,600-year-old bones, scientists now claim to have found traces of a “lost language”, the origin of Nahuatl spoken by the Aztecs.
“The discovery of this writing system could transform our understanding of Mesoamerican cultures and, perhaps, lift the veil on the mystery of Teotihuacan», Explains Christopher Helmke, specialist in Amerindian languages and cultures at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark), in an article published by The Debrief.
Founded around 100 BCE, Teotihuacan was one of the largest metropolises in pre-Columbian America. The immense complex of buildings and roads would have accommodated up to 200,000 inhabitants at its peak, before their mysterious disappearance in the 7the century. Anxious to unravel the secrets of this enigmatic civilization, Christopher Helmke and his team analyzed the fragments of frescoes as well as numerous artifacts. They discerned similar patterns that would form a “ancestor” to the Cora, Huichol and Nahuatl languages, all belonging to the Uto-Aztec linguistic family.
A disruptive method
To support this hypothesis, researchers created their own “Rosetta Stone”, linking the Aztec language to the images found in the remains of Teotihuacan with the aim of deciphering these strange symbols. But very quickly, an unexpected obstacle appeared: the same figure seemed to have several meanings. Let’s take the coyote: it would designate both the animal, but also a sound. The ancestral writing system would in fact combine figurative drawings and phonetic rebuses, making it possible to express complex concepts.
The work of the Danish team does not go unnoticed: it is the first time that it has been demonstrated that an ancestral language uses the phonetic value of logograms in a sentence or a word. A method which opens the way for other works of deciphering ancient writings.
This discovery would also make it possible to finally establish a link between the enigmatic inhabitants of Teotihuacan and the Aztecs, who came to the region much later. According to the study’s findings, individuals speaking in the original language of Nahuatl would have arrived in the city much earlier than current research indicates. If the information is verified, these same people would therefore be the direct descendants of the inhabitants of Teotihuacan.
Further work is needed to better understand this new language and its implications. Perhaps the opportunity to elucidate the mysterious disappearance of the people who built this jewel of Mexican heritage, visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists each year.
