A tomb containing the remains of eight individuals and offerings of 47 miniature pottery vessels has been discovered at the Ignacio Zaragoza archaeological site in Tula de Allende, Hidalgo, Mexico. The tomb is between 1,800 and 1,900 years old, and is part of a residential complex within the sphere of its economic and cultural dominance. It was about 55 miles from Teotihuacan and was occupied between 225 and 600 A.D., the apex of Teotihuacan’s power.
Archaeologists from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) made the discovery in a salvage excavation along the route of the Mexico City-Queretaro Passenger Train. After finding scattered fragments of pottery on the surface, the team dug test pits that uncovered wall foundations. Further excavation and coupled with drone photography determined the settlement consisted of small residential structures with rooms oriented north-south and east-west, connected by central and side patios.
Inside and around the residential spaces, archaeologists found more than a dozen individual and collective burials containing complete and incomplete skeletons. Most were the long bones from the legs of adults, with a few children and adolescents. Some burials were cists on the surface, others cut into the tepetate (compressed volcanic soil). Five of the tombs were shaft burials — vertical shafts leading to small burial chambers.
Two of the shaft burials were in a single room. The one on the north side of the room had two chambers, the one of the south had one. It was inside the northern tomb that INAH archaeologists found the remains of eight people. Six of them had been arranged in a seated position with ceramic vessels at their feet.
The offering of 47 miniature vessels is especially important. Miniature ceramics in Mesoamerican funerary settings often point to ritual practice rather than daily use. Their placement near the bodies suggests that the tomb was not a simple burial space, but a carefully maintained mortuary context tied to memory, identity and household ritual.
One individual was also buried with shell ornaments, including part of a small semicircular mother-of-pearl pendant and a small plate made from the same material. In another tomb, archaeologists found engraved vessels, which were removed with surrounding soil so they could be studied through micro-excavation.
* This article was originally published here
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