Mexico City ? A new discovery at the pyramids of Teotihuacan in Mexico are revealing a pre-Hispanic past that was probably less egalitarian and less peace-loving than some scholars believed.

Recent archaeological digs have turned up the first evidence of a ruling elite and provided more evidence of mass human sacrifices at Teotihuacan, a vast complex of pyramids outside Mexico City that was a thriving metropolis of 150,000 at the time of Christ.

Previous scholars had surmised that the mysterious Indian residents of Teotihuacan who abandoned the city hundreds of years before it was discovered by the Aztecs belonged to an egalitarian-minded, nature-worshipping culture unlike any other in the pre-Hispanic world.

As opposed to other ruins where every pyramid and painting is a canvas to extol the military victories and virtues of kings and governors, Teotihuacan’s red-hued murals are dappled with what look like commoners cavorting amid flowers, butterflies, coyotes and jaguars.

The site has puzzled scholars for more than a century, because unlike any other ancient society of the Americas, it offered no hint in mural paintings, carvings or stonework of who ruled it.

“It is sort of a mystery. Why didn’t they depict rulers?” archaeologist Ruben Cabrera said.

Cabrera and colleague Saburo Sugiyama think they may be close to solving that mystery.

The two were involved in the September discovery of three skeletons buried with elaborate ornaments near the peak of Teotihuacan’s massive Pyramid of the Moon.

Sugiyama said the three skeletons appeared to be those of aristocrats and the body of a king may lie concealed nearby in the 60-foot shaft researchers excavated into the pyramid.

“There was clearly inequality and hierarchy,” Cabrera said.

Earlier this year, a similar discovery cast doubts on previously held notions of another pre-Hispanic culture, the Mayas.

Tourists walk down the Pyramid of the Moon in the ancient city of Teotihuacan, near Mexico City, in this Oct. 19, 2000, file photo. A new discovery at the pyramids of Teotihuacan are revealing a pre-Hispanic past that probably was less peace-loving than some scholars thought.

Hieroglyphics found on stone stairs of an ancient Maya pyramid in Guatemala suggest that a people once considered to be a peaceful society of astronomers fought the equivalent of a war of annihilation.

Hundreds of sacrifice victims have been discovered in recent years at Teotihuacan and other sites, leading archaeologists to reject suspicions that the Spaniards vastly exaggerated accounts of mass sacrifices by the Indians.

But Sugiyama’s interpretation of the recent find at Teotihuacan that the remains are those of aristocrats doesn’t sit well with some who think the complex was an exception to the ruler-oriented pre-Hispanic world.

“The art of Teotihuacan refrains from glorifying rulers because its people wished to create the image of an integrated community instead,” wrote Esther Pasztory, specialist in pre-Hispanic art at Columbia University, in her 1997 book “Teotihuacan, An Experiment In Living.”

“Their art glorifies nature and the supernatural, and emphasizes egalitarian rather than aristocratic values,” she wrote.

Pasztory told The Associated Press she thinks archaeologists are trying to force Teotihuacan into a single-ruler mold that is more comfortable for them.

“They were looking for some absolute leader,” she said in a telephone interview. “The model is something like ancient Egypt, but Teotihuacan is not Egypt. It’s a very special place.”

But the remains discovered in September, dating from about A.D. 300, appear to belong to a ruling class. They were buried with jade ear ornaments, carved shells and other offerings, traditional symbols of power and status in pre-Hispanic America.

More important, the skeletons did not have their hands tied like previous ones discovered at Teotihuacan, meaning they were not sacrificial victims.