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In 2012, officials in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas entered a dark cavern and were confronted with a gruesome area: about 150 skulls, all with missing teeth and broken bone fragments, were scattered on the ground.
Police launched an investigation, believing the gang was the crime scene of the immigrants killed near the Guatemalan border. violence is ordinary.
It was indeed a crime scene. It’s not just something that happened recently.
Last week, 10 years after the discovery, officials said, expression He said that they determined that the skulls belonged to murders that were sacrificed between 900 and 1200 AD.
“We’ve already learned a lot of information,” said archaeologist Javier Montes de Paz, who analyzed the bones, at a press conference on April 11.
Researchers at the National Institute of Anthropology and History examined the marks on the bones and determined that the deaths occurred centuries ago. Mr Montes de Paz said such signs will only appear after “a lot, a lot of time”.
Mr Montes de Paz said investigators had decapitated the victims, most of the bones belonged to female victims and were all missing teeth, but it was unclear whether these were extracted before or after death.
Researchers also found the skeletal remains of three babies.
Mr Montes de Paz said the pre-Hispanic pile of bones in the Comalapa cave was probably a tzompantli – an altar to the worship of the gods in modern times, resembling a trophy rack, and the skulls were placed on aligned wooden sticks. Similar practices were common in Maya, Aztec, and other Mesoamerican civilizations. Smithsonian Magazine.
Mr Montes de Paz added that the wood material “disappears over time and can precipitate skulls.”
Researchers in the cave also found aligned wooden sticks, another sign of a tzompantli. expression From the National Institute of Anthropology and History.
While the researchers have yet to finalize their work, Mr. Montes de Paz said it was likely that several Mesoamerican communities used the cave. Its two entrances were so steep that researchers had to use a ladder to enter.
It was unclear how or by whom the skulls were found ten years ago. Authorities said in a statement that they were alerted by a “complaint” about the discovery in the town of Carrizal, in Frontera Comalapa municipality. The National Institute of Anthropology and History did not respond to questions emailed Wednesday.
Anthropologists examining the skulls found other bone fragments at the site, including fragments of the femur and arm. However, no intact bodies were found, said Mr Montes de Paz.
The Spanish invasion took place in the 1500s. According to Smithsonian Magazine, the Spaniards were frightened of the ritual when they arrived.
But victims were apparently common in Chiapas. This National Institute of Anthropology and History He said that in the 1980s, anthropologists discovered a cave, the Cueva de las Banquetas, and found 124 skulls without teeth. In 1993 Mexican and French explorers in Ocozocoautla went to Cueva Tapesco del Diablo, another cave with five skulls inside.
Mr Montes de Paz said his team is keen to explore more of the Comalapa cave soon.
If people visit such sites and see skulls in the future, they “shouldn’t touch or take anything,” he said. Otherwise, they may affect the archaeological integrity of the site. He said people who found the skulls in Chiapas in 2012 had accidentally touched some bones. “You are influencing history,” he said. “And a lot of information is lost.”
Still, he believed that after further analysis, the story of the skulls could soon be fully told.
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