It was a part of the Zapotec culture, an original populace, dating from roughly 500 to 900 AD. Share Article Share Article Facebook X LinkedIn Reddit Bluesky Email Copy Link Link copied Bookmark Comments
Following 1,400 years, archaeologists have revealed what they are calling the “find of the decade” in Oaxaca, Mexico. In a valley, an old crypt, speculated to originate from about 600 AD and tied to the ‘Cloud People’, has been unearthed.
It was related to the Zapotec civilisation, an aboriginal community in Oaxaca, spanning from approximately 500 to 900 AD, and the crypt was situated in Cerro de la Cantera. Currently, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) is undertaking efforts to interpret its writings and ascertain its cultural and sacred importance.
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Last Friday (January 23), Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum stated that the find represents “the most significant archaeological revelation of the past decade”.
She expressed that the location is notable due to its “degree of preservation and the details it offers”. Archaeologists anticipate that the find will supply precious data concerning the pre-Hispanic civilisation.
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Secretary of Culture, Claudia Curiel de Icaza, remarked: “This is an amazing discovery owing to its level of conservation and what it discloses regarding Zapotec culture: their societal structure, burial customs, and outlook, maintained in their architecture and wall paintings.
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“It serves as a striking instance of Mexico’s age-old magnificence, which is presently being investigated, safeguarded, and disseminated among the public.”
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Within the crypt, archaeologists located sculptures and wall paintings, encompassing representative imagery of authority and mortality, alongside friezes and headstones bearing calendrical notations.
Also discovered at the entrance was a sizable sculpted owl – a bird considered by the Zapotecs to represent night and demise. Its bill obscures the painted visage of a Zapotec dignitary, potentially a depiction of the person for whom the crypt was constructed.
A level beam consisting of stone blocks borders the entrance, while the likenesses of a man and a woman, embellished with headdresses, are carved onto the doorposts.
Sections of a wall painting, coloured in shades of red, blue, green, white, and ochre, adorn the confines of the burial chamber.
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Presently, INAH specialists are executing preservation, safeguarding, and investigative actions on the structure. They are similarly endeavoring to decode the crypt’s inscriptions and iconography.
An INAH representative stated: “This find is, without a doubt, a portal into the essence of a civilisation that, millennia later, persists in communicating through stone and pigment.”