Category Archives: MEXICO

Twin ‘grumpy mouth’ reliefs of Olmec contortionists discovered in Mexico

Twin ‘grumpy mouth’ reliefs of Olmec contortionists discovered in Mexico

Archaeologists in Mexico have uncovered two Olmec reliefs chiselled into large, circular stones that are thought to depict local rulers performing ritual contortion.

Twin 'grumpy mouth' reliefs of Olmec contortionists discovered in Mexico
Carved into limestone, the two reliefs depict rulers from the ancient Olmec civilization in what is now Mexico.

The twin pieces were found in Tenosique, a town located in the state of Tabasco, near Mexico’s southern tip, and are believed to feature rulers from the ancient Olmec civilization, whose name comes from the Aztec (Nahuatl) word “Ōlmēcatl,” which means “rubber people.”

The Olmec reigned between 1200 B.C. to 400 B.C. and are considered the first elaborate pre-Hispanic civilization in Mesoamerica(opens in new tab). Today, they’re best known for their sculptures of colossal heads.

Constructed of limestone, the massive 3D sculptures measure approximately 4.5 feet (1.4 meters) in diameter and weigh 1,543 pounds (700 kilograms) each.

The two carved monuments portray the faces of local rulers with their “grumpy mouth[s]” agape and their arms crossed, according to a translated statement. Each piece is punctuated by footprints, a diadem, corncobs, an Olmec cross and glyphs of jaguars, with the leaders’ open mouths alluding to the “roar of the jaguar.”

Researchers from the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Mexico, part of the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) Tabasco Center, the organization that recovered the pieces, noted that what’s most striking about the reliefs is the positioning of the figures’ mouths, since they’re carved as though they’re “ajaw.” This signals to archaeologists that the portraits, which date to between 900 B.C and 400 B.C., were that of important figureheads within the Olmec community. 

It’s possible that this style of Olmec carving evolved into the later Maya ajaw altars, according to the INAH statement. “The word ‘ajaw’ means ‘he who shouts,’ ‘he who sends’ [and] ‘the one who orders,’ and in these [later] Maya monuments the mouth stands out, a feature that must come from Olmec times, especially from these reliefs circulars of ‘contortionists’ that are portraits of local chiefs,” Carlos Arturo Giordano Sánchez, the director of the INAH Tabasco Center, said in the statement. Some of the Maya ajaw altars are found at the Caracol Maya archaeological site in Belize, “which tells us about the permanence of this theme for more than three centuries,” Giordano Sánchez said.

The newfound carvings look strikingly similar to five different reliefs of contortionists attributed to the Olmec that were found elsewhere in the region, including in Balancán and Villahermosa, two other cities in Tabasco; Ejido Emiliano Zapata, a town in the Mexican state of Jalisco; and in Tenosique.

Based on those similarities, the researchers believe that the portraits depict rulers performing ritual contortion. This practice involves “adopting a stance that reduces the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain to achieve a trance-like state,” Heritage Daily(opens in new tab) reported.

Doing so allegedly “gave them powers,” Tomás Pérez Suárez, an archaeologist at the Center for Mayan Studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), said in the translated statement. 

He also said that he believes that the newfound reliefs originated from the Middle Usumacinta region bordered by the Chacamax River to the north and the mouth of the San Pedro River to the south.

The INAH first learned about the reliefs in 2019 after an anonymous tip reported their discovery on a property in Tabasco’s capital.

The sculptures will be housed at the Pomoná Site Museum in Tenosique, which counts the aforementioned Ejido Emiliano Zapata piece as part of its collection. 

Maya rulers’ ashes turned into pelota balls – expert

Maya rulers’ ashes turned into pelota balls – expert

Some Maya rulers may have been incinerated and their ashes mixed with rubber to make the balls used in the game of pelota, an archaeologist says. Burnt human remains uncovered at the ruins of a Maya city have led to a new theory about the death rites of the ancient civilisation.

Descendants of the Maya have been trying to revive the ball game
Descendants of the Maya have been trying to revive the ball game

Archaeologist Juan Yadeun Angulo came up with the hypothesis after finding urns containing human ashes, rubber and roots at a Maya temple in Mexico.

Pelota is among the oldest team sports.

Mr Yadeun, an archaeologist with Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), has been studying a recently uncovered crypt underneath the Sun Temple at the Toniná archaeological site in southern Mexico.

Inside the underground crypt and its antechamber, archaeologists found 400 urns containing a mixture of human ashes, coal, rubber and plant roots.

Vases containing human ashes and rubber were found in a crypt 8m (26ft) underground

Mr Yadeun believes the crypt was used to burn the bodies of the dead in a religious ritual.

The ashes were then added to other organic material to make the heavy balls used in pelota, the team game played in Mesoamerica thousands of years ago, the theory goes.

The Toniná archaeological site may not be as well-known as that of Mayan ruins in Palenque but it is an impressive complex built on a hill in the jungle of Chiapas.

Among the constructions preserved to this day is the sunken ballcourt where the Maya played pelota.

The sunken ballcourt at Toniná is well preserved

According to Mr Yadeun, stone carvings at key locations inside the ballcourt offer clues that back up his theory.

He says the stone carvings suggest that three rulers, all of whom died between 722AD and 776AD, were taken to the “cave of the dead” for their “transmutation”.

“Just as Egyptians tried to preserve [bodies], we know here they were transformed in another way,” Mr Yadeun told Reuters news agency.

The archaeologist thinks that the Maya wanted the bodies of their rules to “be converted into a life force, something to stimulate their people” and therefore worked their ashes into the rubber used to make balls for the game.

“We have evidence they were incorporated into balls, during the Classic Period the balls were gigantic,” Mr Yadeun explained.

A carved stone disc found at a different site in Chiapas suggests the size of the pelota ball in the 6th Century and how players propelled it with their hips.

The disc of Chinkultic, which dates back to 590, depicts a Maya ball player

Secret Tunnel Under Teotihuacan Pyramid May Lead To Royal Tombs

Secret Tunnel Under Teotihuacan Pyramid May Lead To Royal Tombs

Mexican archaeologists have announced that a years-long exploration of an underground tunnel beneath the ancient city of Teotihuacan in Mexico has yielded thousands of artefacts and may lead to royal tombs.

According to a news release on Reuters, the entrance to the 1,800-year-old tunnel was first discovered in 2003, and an extensive project involving both human researchers and remote-control robots has been ongoing ever since.

The tunnel is located approximately 18 meters below the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, the third largest pyramid at Teotihuacan, which flourished between 100 BC and 750 AD.

The ancient city of Teotihuacan, which is located about 30 miles (50 km) northeast of Mexico City, is one of the largest and most important sacred cities of ancient Mesoamerica, whose name means “the city of the gods” in the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs.

Secret Tunnel Under Teotihuacan Pyramid May Lead To Royal Tombs

It once supported an estimated population of 100,000 – 200,000 people, who raised giant monuments such as the Temple of Quetzalcoatl and the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon.

However, much about Teotihuacan remains unknown, including the origin and language of the people who lived there, as they did not leave behind any written records.

The entrance to the tunnel was found beneath the Temple of the Feathered Serpent.

Project leader Sergio Gomez said researchers recently reached the end of the 340-foot (103-meter) tunnel, within which they found an estimated 50,000 objects, including finely carved stone sculptures, jewellery, shells, and animal bones, seeds, obsidian blades and arrowheads.

The tunnel was full of remnants of pyrite or magnetite, a metal not found in the area, which was brought to Teotihuacan and milled. It was used to paint the roof, giving it a sparkling effect.

They also found more than 300 metal spheres, of unknown purpose.

Inside the tunnel under the ancient city of Teotihuacan.

“The Tunnel is the metaphorical representation of the conception of the underworld,” said Gomez. In the middle of the tunnel, three chambers were found that could hold more important finds. A large offering found near the entrance to the chambers, suggests they could be the tombs of the city’s elite.

“Due to the magnitude of the offerings that we’ve found, it [royal tombs] can’t be in any other place,” said Gomez, who speculates that they may find some of the most powerful rulers of the pre-Hispanic world. 

Archaeologists have never found any remains believed to belong to the rulers of Teotihuacan.

Such a discovery would be monumental, as it would lead light on the hierarchical structure of the city and whether the rule was hereditary.

The chambers have not yet been excavated; the full exploration will take at least another year.

Study Investigates Climate and Collapse of Maya City

Study Investigates Climate and Collapse of Maya City

Study Investigates Climate and Collapse of Maya City
Central Mayapan shows the K’uk’ulkan and Round temples.

An extended period of turmoil in the prehistoric Maya city of Mayapan, in the Yucatan region of Mexico, was marked by population declines, political rivalries and civil conflict.

Between 1441 and 1461 CE the strife reached an unfortunate crescendo—the complete institutional collapse and abandonment of the city. This all occurred during a protracted drought.

Coincidence? Not likely to find new research by anthropologist and professor Douglas Kennett of UC Santa Barbara.

Writing in the journal Nature Communications, lead author Kennett and collaborators in the fields of archaeology, history, geography and earth science suggest that drought may in fact have stoked the civil conflict that begat violence, which in turn led to the institutional instabilities that precipitated Mayapan’s collapse.

This transdisciplinary work, the researchers said, “highlights the importance of understanding the complex relationships between natural and social systems, especially when evaluating the role of climate change in exacerbating internal political tensions and factionalism in areas where drought leads to food insecurity.”

“We found complex relationships between climate change and societal stability/instability on the regional level,” Kennett said in an interview.

“Drought-induced civil conflict had a devastating local impact on the integrity of Mayapan’s state institutions that were designed to keep social order. However, the fragmentation of populations at Mayapan resulted in population and societal reorganization that was highly resilient for a hundred years until the Spanish arrived on the shores of the Yucatan.”

The researchers examined archaeological and historical data from Mayapan, including isotope records, radiocarbon data and DNA sequences from human remains, to document in particular an interval of unrest between 1400 and 1450 CE.

They then used regional sources of climatic data and combined it with a newer, local record of drought from cave deposits beneath the city, Kennett explained.

“Existing factional tensions that developed between rival groups were a key societal vulnerability in the context of extended droughts during this interval,” Kennett said. “Pain, suffering and death resulted from institutional instabilities at Mayapan and the population fragmented and moved back to their homelands elsewhere in the region.”

The vulnerabilities revealed in the data, the researchers found, were rooted in Maya reliance on rain-fed maize agriculture, a lack of centralized, long-term grain storage, minimal investments in irrigation and a sociopolitical system led by elite families with competing political interests.

Indeed the authors argue that “long-term, climate-caused hardships provoked restive tensions that were fanned by political actors whose actions ultimately culminated in political violence more than once at Mayapan.”

Yet significantly, a network of small Maya states also proved to be resilient after the collapse at Mayapan, in part by migrating across the region to towns that were still thriving.

Despite decentralization, trade impacts, political upheaval and other challenges, the paper notes, they adapted and persisted into the early 16th century. It all points to the complexity of human responses to drought on the Yucatan Peninsula at that time—an important consideration for the future as well as the past.

“Our study demonstrates that the convergence of information from multiple scientific disciplines helps us explore big and highly relevant questions,” Kennett said, “like the potential impact of climate change on society and other questions with enormous social implications.

“Climate change worries me, particularly here in the western U.S., but it is really the complexities of societal change in response to climatic perturbations that worry me the most,” he added.

“The archaeological and historical records provide lessons from the past, and we also have so much more information about our Earth’s climate and the potential vulnerabilities in our own sociopolitical systems.”

Skeleton With Stone-Encrusted Teeth Found In Mexico Ancient Ruins

Skeleton With Stone-Encrusted Teeth Found In Mexico Ancient Ruins

Archaeologists who found the 1,600-year-old skeleton near Mexico’s ancient Teotihuacan said the woman was 35-40 when she died with an intentionally deformed skull and teeth encrusted with mineral stones

Archaeologists in Mexico have recently uncovered a 1,600-year-old skeleton of a woman who had mineral-encrusted teeth and an intentionally elongated skull – evidence that suggests she was part of her society’s upper class.

While it isn’t uncommon for archaeologists to find deformed remains, the new skeleton is one of the most “extreme” ever recorded.

“Her cranium was elongated by being compressed in a ‘very extreme’ manner, a technique commonly used in the southern part of Mesoamerica, not the central region where she was found,” the team said, according to an AFP report.

The team, led by researchers from the National Anthropology and History Institute in Mexico, found the woman in the ancient ruins of Teotihuacan – a pre-Hispanic civilisation that once lay 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Mexico City, existing between the 1st and 8th century AD before it mysteriously vanished.

The woman, who the researchers have named The Woman of Tlailotlacan after the location she was found inside the ancient city, not only had an elongated skull, but she had her top two teeth encrusted with pyrite stones – a mineral that looks like gold at first glance.

She also had a fake lower tooth made from serpentine – a feature so distinctive, the team says it’s evidence to suggest that she was a foreigner to the ancient city.

The researchers don’t give any details on how these body modifications were performed 1,600-years-ago, or why they were common in the first place.

But based on other cultures, such as the Mayans, artificial cranial deformation was likely done in infancy using bindings to grow the skull outwards, possibly to signal social status.

While very little is known about the woman’s faux-golden grill, researchers from Mexico did find 2,500-year-old Native American remains with gems embedded in their teeth back in 2009.

In that study, the team said that sophisticated dental practices made the modifications possible, though they were likely used purely for decoration and weren’t symbols of class. 

“It’s possible some type of [herb-based] anaesthetic was applied prior to drilling to blunt any pain,” team member José Concepción Jiménez, from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, told National Geographic.

It’s also important to note that the current team’s findings have yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, so we will have to take their word on it for now until they can get their report ready for publication.

The Mexican team aren’t the only ones to discover some interesting human remains lately, either. Back in June, researchers from Australia uncovered 700,000-year-old ‘hobbit’ remains on an island in Indonesia.

More recently, just last week, researchers in China what might be a skull bone belonging to Buddha inside a 1,000-year-old shrine in Nanjing, China.

Needless to say, archaeologists all over the world have been quite busy this year, and we can’t wait to see what they uncover next.

Mexican Archaeologists Find Over 2,500 Rare Wooden Aztec Artifacts!

Mexican Archaeologists Find Over 2,500 Rare Wooden Aztec Artifacts!

Archaeologists have recovered as many as 2,550 wooden objects from the Templo Mayor in the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan in Mexico City. The rescued objects have survived more than 500 years submerged in water, some completely flooded.

As explained on AncientPages.com earlier, the “most important sacred temple complex of the Aztecs – the Main Temple (in Spanish: Templo Mayor) was built in the centre of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán.

According to Aztec chronicles, the first temple (later followed by its twin temple) was built after 1325 and enlarged several times over the course of the 14th and 15th centuries.

Mural by Diego Rivera of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan and life in Aztec times.

The twin temples were dedicated to the god of rain and fertility, Tlaloc (“the one who makes sprout”), and Huitzilopochtli, god of war and sun.

Aztec chronicles confirm that both gods were frequently appeased with human sacrifices and other public rituals that took place in the temple.”

Scientists report the extraordinary offerings found at the foot of the Great Temple of old Tenochtitlan to include darts, dart throwers, pectorals, earrings, masks, ornaments, earmuffs, sceptres, jars, headdresses, a representation of a flower and another of bone, all found in the ritual deposits made by the priests to consecrate a building or make a request to the Aztec gods.

A high and constant level of humidity, little oxygen, and light, as well as minimal temperature fluctuations, contributed to the preservation of the organic remains to this day.

However, due to their natural vulnerability, the rescued objects must be handled with proper care.

Experience has taught scientists how easy such artefacts can be destroyed. In the 1960s, a wooden mask was recovered from the Templo Mayor site. The ancient object was brought to the INAH laboratories and after a few hours, it fell to dust.

Today, scientists have gathered knowledge to take care of objects that are so vulnerable.

Mexican Archaeologists Find Over 2,500 Rare Wooden Aztec Artifacts!

“Currently, the restorers María Barajas Rocha and Adriana Sanromán Peyrón are applying a very innovative conservation technique. Thanks to it, the wood does not melt in our hands. They are extremely delicate objects; when we extract them from the offerings they come out as if they were pork rinds in green sauce.

[That of the Templo Mayor] is a collection, I would dare to say, unique in its kind. It is one of the richest in all of Mesoamerica. First, because of its state of conservation. These types of objects normally do not survive to this day, among other things, because this was an island surrounded by a lake. The conditions caused these objects to survive well over 500 years; another is the collection’s richness and diversity. And, on a symbolic level, it is exceptional, because we are in the capital of the Mexica empire. The materials we have here are spectacular because we are in the heart of an empire. That explains, in part, why we have found not only wood but rubber, flowers, crocodiles, starfish… It is a unique place in the sense that you have three superimposed capitals. Mexico, the capital of 21 million inhabitants.

Then the capital of New Spain, the most important European city overseas, with 170,000 inhabitants; Further down, you have Mexico-Tenochtitlan, with about 200,000 inhabitants. We are excavating in a privileged place such as Jerusalem, Istanbul; Alexandria, in Egypt or Rome itself”, INAH’s López Lujan told to the El Pais.

INAH archaeologists report several of the objects were found inside 7 excavation units and 14 offerings from old Tenochtitlan, were made from softwood obtained from different species of pine. The use of white cedar, cypress, ahuehuete, aile and tepozán has also been identified.

El Pais reports, “the artefacts were found complete or almost complete, and many even preserve traces of polychromy on their surfaces: blue, red, black and white; typical colours used by the Mexica culture. Blue, for example, is associated with the god of rain. Black and white were used to outline figures, for example, to mark closed eyes on masks.

According to Víctor Cortés Meléndez, archaeologist of the Templo Mayor Project, the stories of Fray Bernardino de Sahagún mention that in the Mexica era carpenters and carvers were specialized craftsmen who made use of the existing trees and plants in the Basin of Mexico. “

“Trees in Mesoamerica, especially some species, were considered axis Mundi, they were sacred. There were pieces adorned with wood by Mexica priests, for example, copal figurines, basalt braziers and flint knives. To the flint knife they put his earmuffs and his serpentine sceptre, one of the attributes of Tlaloc,” the archaeologist told El Pais.

“Most of the wooden pieces are miniature representations of pitchers, deer-shaped or serpentine scepters; miniature and pectoral masks; darts, throwing darts (atlatl) and mallets, with which they adorned the protagonist animals of the offerings of the Great Temple.

Scientists explain the discovery of the monolith of the goddess Tlaltecuhtli, the unique monumental sculpture that represents the earth, on the property that was previously occupied by the Mayorazgo of Nava Chávez , has motivated the team of specialists from the Templo Mayor Project, led by archaeologist Leonardo López Lujánto to excavate at the site. If everything goes well we may soon be able to learn more about the discoveries made at this historical site.

Children’s Burials Hint at the Survival of Aztec Customs

Children’s Burials Hint at the Survival of Aztec Customs

Four children in Mexico were buried in the years after the Spanish Conquest with rituals and grave offerings that suggest that pre-Hispanic customs lived on for some time after the Aztec empire fell.

The National Institute of Anthropology and History said Monday the burials of children ranging from a newborn to a girl aged between 6 and 8, were found in a working-class district just north of Mexico City’s historic centre.

When the Spanish conquered the Aztec capital in 1521, they quickly expelled the Indigenous Mexica population to the city’s edges, reserving the centre for the homes of only Spaniards.

Archaeologists estimate the children were buried in a layer of earth that dated between 1521 and 1620. Even though the Spaniards quickly outlawed most pre-Hispanic ceremonies and religious practices, researchers found evidence the children were buried with Aztec-style grave goods.

The youngest, the newborn, was buried inside a pot, with other pots around it. The bulbous shape of the pot was thought to imitate the form of a uterus, and it was not clear if the child died before or after birth.

Another offering found at the site included the bones of a bird in a ceramic pot with blue colouring, associated with water.

The older girl was buried with a large clay Aztec-style figurine depicting a female figure holding a child. Her skull showed signs of possible anaemia, malnutrition or infection, signs that suggest life was hard for the Indigenous population in the years following the conquest.

In December, archaeologists announced they had discovered another house site on the outskirts of the city’s centre where 13 large clay ceremonial Aztec incense burners had been carefully buried, again after the Conquest, suggesting that pre-Hispanic beliefs and customs lasted on for some time.

The incense burners had been carefully buried in a pattern that may refer to the Aztec calendar and were covered with adobe bricks as if to hide them.

Archaeologists discover passageways in 3,000-year-old Peruvian temple

Archaeologists discover passageways in 3,000-year-old Peruvian temple

Archaeologists have excavated a network of passageways under a 3,000-year-old temple in the Peruvian Andes. Chavin de Huantar temple was once a religious and administrative hub for people across the region, Reuters reported.

Archaeologists discover passageways in 3,000-year-old Peruvian temple
Archaeologists work on the new discovery in the Peruvian Andes in Ancash

Found earlier this month, the passageways have features believed to have been built earlier than the temple’s labyrinthine galleries, according to an archaeologist at Stanford University.

John Rick, who was involved in the discovery, said: “It’s a passageway, but it’s very different. It’s a different form of construction. It has features from earlier periods that we’ve never seen in passageways.”

At least 35 underground passageways, which sit 3,200m above sea level, have been found over several years, connecting with each other.

They were built between 1,200 and 200 years BC in the foothills of the Andes.

Chavin de Huantar, declared a World Heritage Site in 1985, was the inspiration and name of the operation carried out when the Peruvian armed forces built a network of tunnels to rescue 72 people taken hostage by the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) rebel group at the Japanese ambassador’s residence in Lima in 1997.

The archaeological site of Chavin de Huantar, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site, is seen some 155 miles (250 km) north of Lima on July 18, 2008.

It comes as archaeologists uncovered an “unprecedented” network of lost cities in the Amazon that shed light on how ancient civilisations constructed vast urban landscapes while living alongside nature.

Researchers used lidar technology, dubbed “lasers in the sky”, to scan through the tropical forest canopy, and examine sites found in the savannah forest of southwest Amazonia.

They uncovered a wide range of intricate settlements that have laid hidden under thick tree canopies for centuries in the Llanos de Mojos savannah forest in Bolivia.

The findings, described in the journal Nature on Wednesday, shed light on cities built by the Casarabe communities between AD500 and AD1400.

Heiko Prumers, an archaeologist and study co-author from the German Archaeological Institute, said the complexity of the settlements was “mind-blowing”.

The site features an unprecedented array of elaborate and intricate structures “unlike any previously discovered” in the region, including 5m high terraces covering 22 hectares – the equivalent of 30 football pitches – and 21m tall conical pyramids, say the scientists, including Jose Iriarte from the University of Exeter in the UK.

Researchers examined six areas within a 4,500 sq km region of the Llanos de Mojos, in the Bolivian Amazon, that belonged to the Casarabe culture.

They also found a vast network of reservoirs, causeways, and checkpoints, spanning several kilometres at the site.