Most Popular
-
1
Actor Jung Woo-sung admits to being father of model Moon Ga-bi’s child
-
2
Wealthy parents ditch Korean passports to get kids into international school
-
3
First snow to fall in Seoul on Wednesday
-
4
Man convicted after binge eating to avoid military service
-
5
Trump picks ex-N. Korea policy official as his principal deputy national security adviser
-
6
Final push to forge UN treaty on plastic pollution set to begin in Busan
-
7
Korea to hold own memorial for forced labor victims, boycotting Japan’s
-
8
S. Korea not to attend Sado mine memorial: foreign ministry
-
9
Nvidia CEO signals Samsung’s imminent shipment of AI chips
-
10
Toxins at 622 times legal limit found in kids' clothes from Chinese platforms
MEXICO CITY (AP) ― Archaeologists announced Tuesday that they dug to the very core of Mexico’s tallest pyramid and found what may be the original ceremonial offering placed on the site of the Pyramid of the Sun before construction began.
The offerings found at the base of the pyramid in the Teotihuacan ruin site just north of Mexico City include a green serpentine stone mask so delicately carved and detailed that archaeologists believe it may have been a portrait.
The find also includes 11 ceremonial clay pots dedicated to a rain god similar to Tlaloc, who was still worshipped in the area 1,500 years later, according to a statement by the National Institute of Anthropology and History, or INAH.
The offerings, including bones of an eagle fed rabbits as well as feline and canine animals that haven’t yet been identified, were laid on a sort of rubble base where the temple was erected about A.D. 50.
“We know that it was deposited as part of a consecration ritual for the construction of the Pyramid of the Sun,’’ said INAH archaeologist Enrique Perez Cortes.
Experts followed an old tunnel dug through the pyramid by researchers in the 1930s that narrowly missed the center, and then dug small extensions and exploratory shafts off it.
What they found points to the earliest days of the still largely mysterious Teotihuacan culture.
The remains of three structures that predate the pyramid were found buried at the base. Archaeologists have known that the ceremonial significance of the site, perhaps as a “link’’ to the underworld, predates the pyramids.
They also found seven burials, some of them infant remains.
Susan Gillespie, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Florida who was not involved in the project, called the find “exciting and important, although I would not say it was unexpected’’ given that dedicatory offerings were commonly placed in MesoAmerican pyramids.
“It is exciting that what looks like the original foundation dedicatory cache for what was to become the largest (in height) pyramid in Mexico (and one of the largest in the world) has finally been found, after much concerted efforts looking for it,’’ Gillespie wrote in an email.
The offerings found at the base of the pyramid in the Teotihuacan ruin site just north of Mexico City include a green serpentine stone mask so delicately carved and detailed that archaeologists believe it may have been a portrait.
The find also includes 11 ceremonial clay pots dedicated to a rain god similar to Tlaloc, who was still worshipped in the area 1,500 years later, according to a statement by the National Institute of Anthropology and History, or INAH.
The offerings, including bones of an eagle fed rabbits as well as feline and canine animals that haven’t yet been identified, were laid on a sort of rubble base where the temple was erected about A.D. 50.
“We know that it was deposited as part of a consecration ritual for the construction of the Pyramid of the Sun,’’ said INAH archaeologist Enrique Perez Cortes.
Experts followed an old tunnel dug through the pyramid by researchers in the 1930s that narrowly missed the center, and then dug small extensions and exploratory shafts off it.
What they found points to the earliest days of the still largely mysterious Teotihuacan culture.
The remains of three structures that predate the pyramid were found buried at the base. Archaeologists have known that the ceremonial significance of the site, perhaps as a “link’’ to the underworld, predates the pyramids.
They also found seven burials, some of them infant remains.
Susan Gillespie, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Florida who was not involved in the project, called the find “exciting and important, although I would not say it was unexpected’’ given that dedicatory offerings were commonly placed in MesoAmerican pyramids.
“It is exciting that what looks like the original foundation dedicatory cache for what was to become the largest (in height) pyramid in Mexico (and one of the largest in the world) has finally been found, after much concerted efforts looking for it,’’ Gillespie wrote in an email.
-
Articles by Korea Herald
![[More than APT] Residents, architects together design homes](http://res.heraldm.com/phpwas/restmb_idxmake.php?idx=652&simg=/content/image/2024/11/24/20241124050036_0.jpg&u=)
