✦ The Ancient Atlas

Comalcalco

PyramidCentral America

Mayan city in the western lowlands of Tabasco, Mexico — the only major Mayan site built primarily of fired clay brick rather than the limestone block used everywhere else in the Maya world. Conventional dating places the city c. 250-1000 CE. What makes Comalcalco anomalous is the bricks themselves: many bear inscriptions and pictographic marks that include Old World script forms — Phoenician, Libyan, Iberian — documented since the 19th century and revisited in the diffusionist literature. Hugh Newman has filmed on-site and presents the brick inscription corpus as a working puzzle.

18.2667°, -93.2025°

Look Closer — this site carries open questions: tool marks suggesting advanced machining; dating rests on thin stratigraphic evidence.
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Walkthrough videos (1)

Comalcalco | Mysterious Inscriptions from Around the World in Ancient Mexico | MegalithomaniaComalcalco | Mysterious Inscriptions from Around the World in Ancient Mexico | MegalithomaniaHugh Newman / Megalithomania

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