The findings that marked Mexican archeology in 2022

The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) recorded relevant archaeological discoveries in 2022, mainly during the rescue tasks that accompany the country’s infrastructure works, among which are those linked to the construction of the Mayan Train.

Thus, in the supervision of the seven sections that constitute the railway line, which cover around 1,500 kilometers, connecting five states in the southeast of the country, the INAH has registered, to date, almost 35,000 monuments in the area of ​​influence, of which it has intervened, registered and recovered information of almost 4,500, which are within the right of way; the rest have been registered, but not intervened, since they are outside of it.

Parallel to this work, in the southwest of the country, the INAH applies the Program for the Improvement of Archaeological Zones (Promeza), which will benefit 26 archaeological zones in the radius of influence of the Mayan Train. The development of this initiative recently led to the discovery of two limestone sculptures, one in Uxmal and the other in Oxkintok, sites on the Puuc Route in Yucatan, which present reliefs on both sides and whose age is estimated at the Late Classic period (750-900 AD).

The so-called Stela 18 was discovered in the Sunken Patio of Uxmal. On one side of it, it represents a female deity with large eyes, a mouth, and a bare chest with an element of pearls, bracelets, a skirt to the heels, and a quetzal held in her left hand. On the opposite side, there is a male deity with a broad-brimmed element decorated with feathers and an owl head; She is adorned with what appears to be bracelets, a loincloth and bandages on her legs, in her left hand she holds a cane and in her right, a bundle.

While the sculpture found in Oxkintok, on the front side it has the representation of a naked man, with disproportionate anatomical features that lengthen his torso and give his abdomen a flaccid appearance; on the other side, the elements that make up the individual’s back make up a phallus.

In the Archaeological Zone of Palenque, last July, as a result of the archaeological salvages associated with the works of the Promeza and the construction of the Visitor Service Center, the first lithic workshop (600-850 AD) and cemetery of that ancient Mayan city, as well as the burial of a woman who belonged to the elite and lived in the last period of occupation of the city, between 800 and 850 AD The skeleton shows cranial deformation and precious stone incrustations in the teeth, aspects that refer to to his influence and prestige in Palencan society.

In the country’s capital, INAH has accompanied the works of the Center for Environmental Culture, near the Xochipilli fountain and Avenida de los Compositores where, in August, a layer of ceramic remains from the Middle Preclassic period (1200-600) was found. BC). This discovery, from which vases and figurines of human forms stand out, has doubled the temporality of human settlement in this area, raising it to more than three millennia, which places the Chapultepec Forest among the oldest in the Basin of Mexico.

Likewise, in June, in the Rosario Castellanos Park, due to the construction of the Chivatito pedestrian road, architectural remains from the beginning of the 20th century were discovered, related to the National Cartridge Factory, as well as older ones, corresponding to sections of adobe walls that belonged to Casa Mata, the colonial fort destroyed during the Battle of Molino del Rey against US troops, on September 8, 1847.

Also in Mexico City, that same month, the remains of a Mexica dwelling and four infant burials from the Early Colonial period (1521-1620 AD) were found during an archaeological salvage carried out on a property in La Lagunilla, in the Centro Historic, whose area in pre-Hispanic times corresponded to the Cotolco neighborhood, in the Atzacoalco district, one of the four great territorial divisions of ancient Mexico-Tenochtitlan.

The importance of the context in question is that it denotes the difficult living conditions endured by the indigenous people who were unable to flee Tenochtitlan during the siege and the Spanish invasion.

To the north of the Mexican capital, in the supervision carried out by the INAH of the works in the Modal Transfer Center, in Indios Verdes, during the readjustment of Insurgentes avenue, in both directions, sections of the first modern highway in the country were detected , inaugurated in 1936.

Last September, on the west side of this road, a paved road was found, 45 meters long, built with basalt rock covered with black gravel, on which an asphalt layer was placed. Months later, in the eastern part, approximately 40 meters in length of the return lane were discovered. Both sections are known testimony of the old Mexico-Nuevo Laredo highway, the first section of what would be named the Pan-American Highway.