US EditionAstonishing 1,400-Year-Old Tomb Featuring Giant Owl Sculpture Discovered in Mexico
The tomb's murals, sculptures, and inscriptions offer insights into Zapotec funerary rituals and social hierarchy, with preservation deemed exceptional by Mexican officials.
- Last Friday, archaeologists with the National Institute of Anthropology and History unearthed a 1,400-year-old Zapotec tomb in the Central Valley of Oaxaca, which officials called the most significant archaeological discovery in Mexico in the last decade.
- Dated to 600 C.E., the tomb belongs to Zapotec culture from 1,400 years ago, and Mexico's Minister of Culture Claudia Curiel de Icaza called the find extraordinary for its preservation and insights.
- Inside the burial chamber, multicolored murals show ocher, white, green, red and blue hues including a copal procession, while an owl sculpture above the entrance and carved doorjambs with two guardian figures frame a frieze with calendrical names on the lintel.
- Experts in ceramics, iconography, epigraphy and physical anthropology hope to glean invaluable information about Zapotec social hierarchy, funerary rituals and worldview, while a painted portrait may represent the ancestor honored in the tomb and descendants may have sought his intercession with deities.
- A multidisciplinary INAH team is now working to protect and stabilize fragile murals threatened by roots, insects, and environmental changes, while experts hope to soon decipher the paintings relevant to hundreds of thousands of Zapotec speakers in Mexico.
15 Articles
15 Articles
Governor Solomon Jara Cruz stressed that the recent discovery of Tomb 10 in San Pablo Huitzo in Oaxaca has reaffirmed that the state is the cradle of one of the most important civilizations of Mesoamerica, highlighting its historical, cultural and symbolic relevance of this finding. During a press conference, the governor pointed out that this finding represents a testimony of high level of knowledge, thought and artistic expression reached by t…
Astonishing 1,400-year-old tomb featuring giant owl sculpture discovered in Mexico
Archaeologists have discovered a 1,400-year-old Zapotec tomb in southern Mexico, adorned with complex carvings, which has been called “the most significant archaeological discovery of the last decade.”
A trip to the underworld Zapotec under the land of Oaxaca The recent discovery of a Zapotec tomb in Oaxaca has been catalogued by cultural authorities as the most relevant archaeological discovery of the last decade in Mexico, both for its level of conservation and for the historical information it provides. The funeral structure dates from approximately 600 of our era and remained sealed for more than 1,400 years, protecting exceptional archite…
It is considered the most important archaeological discovery of the last decade in Mexico, due to its degree of preservation and the information it provides.
Zapotec tomb owl carving uncovered in 1,400-year-old burial in Mexico
Zapotec tomb owl carving discoveries in southern Mexico are drawing international attention after archaeologists revealed a remarkably preserved burial site dating back approximately 1,400 years. The tomb, found in the state of Oaxaca, features a monumental carved owl with a human figure emerging from its beak — a powerful symbol of death and authority in...
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