Ancient cone-shaped tombs filled with bones and figurines uncovered in Mexico City park
Ten ancient, cone-shaped tombs were unearthed just a stone’s throw away from a bustling street in the heart of Mexico City, officials said.
The underground chambers were discovered along Constituciónntes Avenue, which runs parallel to the Chapultepec Forest, a sprawling park in the Mexican capital, according to a Nov. 24 news release from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).
Photos show the round, tapered chambers clustered alongside one another amid a grove near the road.
The graves — which measure up to nearly 7 feet wide — long predate the arrival of Europeans in the region and are believed to be around 3,000 years old, officials said. They represent a particular type of funerary architecture found in other parts of Mexico.
They were likely constructed by inhabitants of a large village that existed during the Early and Middle Preclassic periods, which spanned from 2500 to 400 B.C.
The Preclassic period saw the transformation of many villages into larger urban cities, the most prominent of which was Teotihuacan, which became Mexico City, according to a 2017 study published in the Journal of Anthropology and Archaeology.
Skeletal remains — believed to belong to four women and one man — were discovered inside five of the graves, officials said.
Alongside the bones, archaeologists found tools, a cup and a handful of female figurines, among other artifacts, which provide evidence of complex social practices.
The fact that the soil, and the graves encased inside, were preserved for 3,000 years is “fantastic,” María de Lourdes López Camacho, the archaeological coordinator, said in the release.
The artifacts were transported to the National Museum of History for further analysis, officials said.
Google Translate was used to translate a news release from INAH.
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