San Pablo Huitzo, Oaxaca — The INAH says conservation work is currently underway on a newly discovered ancient Zapotec tomb. The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) says archaeologists are working on the conservation and the deciphering of its iconography.
President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo has called the finding “the most significant archaeological discovery of the last decade made by the Ministry of Culture.”
The new Zapotec tomb was found on Cerro de la Cantera in San Pablo Huitzo, Oaxaca, and dates back to the year 600 AD.
“It is the most important archaeological discovery of the last decade in Mexico due to its level of preservation and the information it provides,” said Sheinbaum, who stressed that it is a compelling example of Mexico’s ancient grandeur.
The tomb is located in the Central Valleys of the state of Oaxaca and, due to its architectural and pictorial richness, provides valuable information about the social organization, funerary rituals and worldview of this pre-Hispanic civilization.
Claudia Curiel de Icaza, Mexico’s Secretary of Culture, explained “This is an exceptional discovery due to its level of preservation and what it reveals about Zapotec culture, its social organization, its funerary rituals and its worldview, preserved in its architecture and mural paintings.
“It is a compelling example of Mexico’s ancient grandeur, which is now being researched, protected, and shared with society.”
The find stands out for the presence of sculptural elements and mural painting, including symbolic representations associated with power and death, as well as friezes and tombstones with calendrical inscriptions, which places it among the most significant discoveries of the national archaeological heritage.
An owl, a bird that in the Zapotec worldview symbolizes night and death, decorates the entrance of the antechamber. Its beak covers the stuccoed and painted face of a Zapotec lord, possibly a portrait of the ancestor to whom the tomb was dedicated and to whom his descendants turned as an intercessor with the deities.
The threshold is flanked by a lintel, at the top of which is a frieze made up of stone slabs, engraved with calendrical names, while the figures of a man and a woman adorned with headdresses and artifacts in both hands, perhaps the guardians of the place, appear carved on the jambs.
On the walls of the burial chamber are in situ sections of an extraordinary mural painting, in ochre, white, green, red and blue colors, a procession of characters carrying bags of copal and walking towards the entrance.
An interdisciplinary team from the INAH Oaxaca Center is carrying out conservation, protection and research work on the building, including the stabilization of the mural painting, whose condition is delicate due to the presence of roots, insects and abrupt changes in environmental conditions.
In parallel, ceramic, iconographic and epigraphic analyses are being developed, as well as physical anthropology studies, in order to deepen the knowledge of the rituals, symbols and funerary practices associated with the tomb.
Due to its construction quality and decorative richness, the find is compared with other highly relevant Zapotec funerary complexes in the region, which confirms its importance in understanding the social, artistic and symbolic complexity of this civilization.
