Archaeologists Diane and Arlen Chase Unearth First King of Caracol in Belize

Caana, the central architectural complex at Caracol, Belize, rising 43.5 m above ground level, author davidriano, Caracol Archaeological Project/University of Houston.

In the spring of 2025, deep beneath the dense jungle canopy of Belize, archaeologists Diane and Arlen Chase uncovered one of the most important royal tombs ever found in the Maya world: the resting place of Te K’ab Chaak, the first known ruler of Caracol. Te K’ab Chaak’s name, translated as “Tree Branch Rain God” or “Tree-Armed Chaak,” appears on later stelae and inscriptions at Caracol as the founder of the city’s ruling lineage. In a tomb with reddened walls still marked with precious cinnabar, the Chases found skeletal remains topped by an empty skull with bone grown over the toothless jaw – the relics of an elderly, long-ruling king.  Buried over 1,700 years ago, this once-mighty ruler was laid to rest with a mosaic jade mask, jadeite earflares, carved bone tubes, spondylus shells, and eleven elaborately decorated pottery vessels—riches fit for a founding monarch.

Diane Z. Chase in the tomb of Te K’ab Chaak, 2025. Caracol Archaeological Project/University of Houston.

This discovery was no stroke of luck. It was the culmination of more than 40 years of methodical excavation, mapping, and inquiry by the Chases, one of archaeology’s most accomplished husband-and-wife teams, who have dedicated their lives to unlocking the secrets of Caracol. Their decades-long project has not only redefined our understanding of this massive Maya city but has also challenged long-held assumptions about Maya civilization and its connections across Mesoamerica.

The Chase’s long-term dedication to a single region has been made possible by support from the government of Belize and organizations that have recognized the benefit of persistent immersion in a specific site over centuries of development. The Chases’ current work has been supported by Belize’s Institute of Archaeology, the University of Houston, and organizations such as Chicago’s Alphawood Foundation and the Geraldine and Emory Ford Foundation.

When Diane and Arlen Chase first began excavations at Caracol in 1985, the city was little understood and largely dismissed as a peripheral site. That changed quickly. Within a year, they uncovered a monumental altar inscription detailing Caracol’s military defeat of Tikal—then believed to be the supreme power of the Classic Period. Caracol began to be revealed as a formidable political and military force with a history of dynastic ambition and regional dominance.

Portion of skull of Te K’ab Chaak. Caracol Archaeological Project/University of Houston.

The Chase’s exploration and excavation of Caana, or ‘sky palace,’ Caracol’s ceremonial complex rising 141 feet, further attested to the city’s grandeur. They had also found signs of a far more extensive system of roadways, terraces, reservoirs, and a dense, non-elite residential population. Then, starting in 2009, the Chases were able to use LiDAR to pierce the jungle growth. The technology revealed a 200 square kilometer urban landscape. This challenged the prevailing idea of Maya cities as elite ceremonial centers and revealed Caracol as a socially complex metropolis with shared infrastructure and decentralized water systems.

The 2025 tomb discovery took place within Caracol’s Northeast Acropolis, a residential and ritual compound long under study by the Chases. Excavating below a chamber first explored in 1993, the team unearthed a deeper, older tomb marked by red cinnabar pigment, symbolizing the eastern rising sun and royal authority. Inside lay the skeletal remains of an elderly man surrounded by rare artifacts.

A basal flange-lidded bowl and lid recovered from the Caracol founder’s tomb. Caracol Archaeological Project/University of Houston.

Iconography on the pottery vessels in the chamber included bound captives, supplicants offering tribute to a spear-wielding ruler, and a rare depiction of the god Ek Chuah, the Maya patron of merchants and cacao, indicating the importance of trade to the Caracol kingdom. Several lids featured modeled heads of the coatimundi, a small mammal whose name, tz’uutz’, was later adopted into Caracol royal titles. Three sets of jadeite earflares and a rare mosaic death mask underscored the tomb’s elite status.

Hieroglyphic evidence and the tomb’s context identified the ruler as Te K’ab Chaak, who came to power in 331 AD. This is the first time archaeologists have located the burial of a Caracol monarch whose name also appears in inscriptions.

Equally significant is what the tomb and related burials reveal about early Maya interaction with Teotihuacan, the massive central Mexican city more than 1,200 kilometers to the north. Until now, most scholars believed Teotihuacan’s influence reached the Maya lowlands only after a so-called “entrada” event in 378 AD, thought to represent a military incursion by Teotihuacan peoples into sites like Tikal.

Jadeite tubular beads showing live and dead spider monkeys found in the tomb of Te K’ab Chaak. Caracol Archaeological Project/University of Houston.

But Te K’ab Chaak’s tomb and contemporaneous burials nearby date to around 350 AD, almost a generation earlier. One cremation burial, discovered in 2010 in the same plaza, included three individuals together with rich burial objects. These included green obsidian blades from Pachuca (near Teotihuacan), atlatl points, and central Mexican-style ceramics. The cremation burial’s central placement in the plaza was also reminiscent of Teotihuacan practice. The Chases speculate that this burial may represent a Caracol noble who lived in Teotihuacan and returned home, bringing new ideas, artifacts, and traditions.

According to Arlen Chase, speaking in a video on the archaeological project, “This changes everything. The Caracol data show elite-level Maya–Teotihuacan interaction decades earlier than we thought.” Rather than passive recipients of outside influence, early Maya rulers like Te K’ab Chaak may have actively engaged in long-distance diplomacy, trade, and ritual collaboration with their Mexican counterparts.

Archaeological team at Caracol Northeast Acropolis plaza. Caracol Archaeological Project/University of Houston.

The Chases have built a picture of a more complex society in which there were multiple social levels and broader, more cosmopolitan trading and cultural relationships between Teotihuacan and Mayan Belize. For the Chases, the discovery is the most important in their long and storied careers—not just because of this spectacular find of a founding king, but because of what it reveals about the depth and breadth of Maya civilization. It is a reward for persistence, patience, and a research design rooted in asking new questions year after year.

The Chases’ work has established a model for sustained, collaborative, and community-engaged archaeology. They have also built a multigenerational archaeological enterprise. Their son Adrian Chase, also a professor and trained archaeologist, has done essential work to clarify Caracol’s decentralized governance and infrastructure.

As Diane Chase noted in the project’s University of Houston oral and visual documentation, “If we’d stopped at 10 years, we would’ve had part of the story. If we’d stopped at 20, still only part. We kept going, and that’s how you build a picture of the past.”

In August 2025, the Chases will present their findings at a Santa Fe Institute’s conference on Maya–Teotihuacan interaction, discussing how their discoveries have reshaped how we understand ancient political orders, cultural exchange, and the enduring legacy of one of the most powerful cities in the Maya world.

Panorama, atop Caracol, author Pgbk87, 8/09/2009, CCA-SA 3.0 Unported license.

From cutting through jungle with machetes to using laser mapping satellites, from a newlywed couple to academic luminaries, Diane and Arlen Chase have spent four decades revealing the rise and fall of a great city. By concentrating on unfolding layers of understanding of a single region they’ve rewritten Maya history not once but several times.

Their discovery of Te K’ab Chaak’s tomb may be the crown jewel of their efforts, but it is not an ending. As ever in archaeology, it is the beginning of new questions. How did Maya kings craft their authority? What did they see in their Mexican counterparts? And how far did their diplomatic and ritual networks reach?

If the past is a puzzle, the Chases have just uncovered a piece essential to the whole picture. And, with patience and persistence, they are helping a global public to fit the pieces together.

See more: Laurie Fickman, story, Marcus Allen, design, The Chase(s) of a Lifetime: After 40 years, UH Archaeologists Arlen and Diane Chase Uncover a Ruler’s Tomb in Caracol and – Once Again – Rewrite Maya History.

Video: UH Archaeologists Uncover a Ruler’s Tomb in Caracol, University of Houston.