New findings suggest the symbols found on walls and pottery reflect a structured script tied to early forms of the Uto-Aztecan language family—possibly rewriting what we know about the people who built and inhabited the city.
By linking the signs to an earlier version of Nahuatl, scholars are challenging previous theories about the region’s linguistic timeline. The discovery could reshape understanding of cultural continuity in central Mexico and offer rare insight into the daily life, beliefs, and identity of Teotihuacan’s residents.
Founded around 100 BC and abandoned by 600 AD, Teotihuacan was one of the largest and most advanced urban centers of the ancient world. Located northeast of modern-day Mexico City, the metropolis once supported a population of up to 125,000 and was known for its orderly grid system, massive pyramids, and sophisticated water and farming infrastructure.
Despite its monumental architecture and rich archaeological remains, little has been known about the people who lived there—especially their language. For decades, archaeologists have debated whether the city’s murals and artifacts carried linguistic meaning or were purely symbolic. This new research moves that debate forward.
A Structured Language Hidden in the Murals
Recent work by Magnus Pharao Hansen and Christopher Helmke from the University of Copenhagen focuses on painted murals and ceramic vessels found across Teotihuacan. These surfaces display repeated clusters of symbols, previously dismissed as decorative or ritualistic. According to Earth, the team now argues these marks form a coherent writing system that records an ancient form of Uto-Aztecan—a major language family that includes Cora, Huichol, and Nahuatl.
The writing appears to mix visual logograms (symbols representing whole words) with phonetic signs, using what’s known as the rebus principle. This approach—where an image may represent a sound instead of just an object—has been seen in other ancient scripts but is rare in the region’s archaeological record.
Hansen notes that while more examples are needed to fully validate the system, the consistency of signs across multiple artifacts supports their hypothesis. “It would be great if we could find the same signs used in the same way in many more contexts,” he said, acknowledging the current limitations. Still, the research offers a new method for interpreting Mesoamerican scripts using language reconstructions matched to the right time period.
Early Nahuatl Presence Before the Fall of Teotihuacan
The potential identification of early Nahuatl elements within the murals also calls into question long-held assumptions about when that language arrived in central Mexico. For years, scholars believed Nahuatl-speaking peoples only moved into the area after Teotihuacan’s decline. The new findings challenge that idea directly.
By matching the script to an earlier linguistic stage, researchers suggest that Nahuatl or related languages may have been spoken in the city while it was still thriving. According to Helmke, trying to decode the murals using modern Nahuatl would be like interpreting ancient Danish runes with contemporary Danish—it just doesn’t fit. “You have to try to read the text using a language that is closer in time and contemporary,” he explained.
This linguistic continuity could reshape regional history and strengthen cultural links between Teotihuacan and later civilizations. It also raises the possibility that some post-Teotihuacan groups inherited their language, rituals, or identity directly from the city’s original inhabitants.
Cultural Identity Through Language and Art
Beyond language, the murals provide new insight into the identity of Teotihuacan’s population. The presence of Maya communities within the city and its broad influence across Mesoamerica have long been documented, but written language could unify and connect these diverse elements. A decipherable script would help tie art, rituals, names, and daily practices to specific peoples and traditions.
According to the research published in Current Anthropology, this is the first time scholars have proposed that Teotihuacan’s symbols carry phonetic as well as visual meaning. That opens the possibility of reading full sequences of text—rather than simply identifying objects or deities. As Helmke put it, “If we are right, it is not only remarkable that we have deciphered a writing system. It could have implications for our entire understanding of Mesoamerican cultures.”
