Mexican archaeologists begin exploring the underground labyrinths of the Zapotec city.

Representatives of the National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico (INAH) reported that the Llobaa project will begin its work in the near future. Its participants plan to use modern technical means to explore the underground part of Mitla, an ancient city located in the east of the Mexican state

Judging by the finds, a settlement on this site existed as early as 500 BC, but the surviving buildings date back to the period from 200 AD. Historians believe that Mitla was one of the main centers of the Zapotec culture of Mesoamerica. But also in the city there are traces of the Mixtec culture, with whom the Zapotec sometimes lived peacefully, but mostly still fought. The origin of the culture and writing of the Zapotecs is usually associated with the Olmecs who lived to the south.

As the grandiose Monte Alban was being built (we said that the known area of ​​​​this city is larger than the known area of ​​\u200b\u200bBabylon), the inhabitants of Mitla gradually moved there. However, the residence of the high priest (and according to some ideas, it was also the ruler of the Zapotecs) remained in Mitla. The city became a complex of buildings of sacred significance.

Ancient and colonial sources speak of a vast underground labyrinth, accessed through one of the main palaces of Mitla and communicating with a deep natural cave. The Zapotecs believed that this was the real entrance to the underworld. In addition, priests and rulers were buried there.

The toponym Llobaa (the pre-Spanish name for the surrounding areas) is translated from the Zapotec language as “Place of the Underworld”, and the name Mitla – from Nahuatl – as “Place of the Dead”.

According to the 17th-century chronicler Francisco de Burgoa, all entrances to the underground labyrinth were sealed by the first Catholic priests and missionaries sent to the region. Attempts to find the lost labyrinth, undertaken in the 19th and early 20th centuries, led to the discovery of at least two monumental tombs under one of the courtyards. However, a full-fledged study of the underground part of the city has not yet been implemented, we will talk about the reasons below.

The Llobaa project is the result of a collaboration between the Federal Ministry of Culture, the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the ARX Project Association. According to INAH archaeologist Denisse Argote Espino, it will use the most modern, superficial and non-destructive technologies to explore the bowels of the ancient city.

She explained that researchers are interested not only in the archeology of the site, its history, but also in the issue of preserving these monuments. Given the high seismicity of the Oaxaca area, it is necessary to have technical data that will help map the subsurface and identify problems that could affect archaeological sites, historical buildings and the population living near the archaeological zone.

Under the altar of the Catholic Church, according to the chronicler of the XVII century, there is an entrance to the underworld of the dead.

The scientists plan to use ground penetrating radar, subsurface tomography, which takes into account the electrical resistance of the soil, and tomography based on the refractive indices of seismic waves.

“These are complementary technologies that will allow the creation of highly accurate 3D maps without the need for excavation or damage to any monument,” explained Argote Espino.

Work will begin in the premises known as the “Church Group” and “Column Group”. For experts, these two groups, dating back to the Postclassic period (AD 900-1521), are of particular interest: the “Column Group” will be used as a model for identifying the tombs, since it was here that the Mexican archaeologist Alfonso Casa at the beginning of the 20th century found the first of them.

So far, no one has ever dug up the “church group”, since a Catholic church of the colonial period is located there – the Spaniards in general often built their churches on sacred and significant places for the indigenous population. Meanwhile, Francisco de Burgoa spoke of entering the underworld under the altar of the church. It can be a small cavity, a tomb, or a larger network – it is necessary to check this, and such a check can only be carried out in non-destructive ways (it is clear that no one will demolish a Catholic church).

Photo: “Group of columns” / ©INAH

A significant part of the scientific community denies the very existence of the Aztatlan culture.

In the Mexican city of Mazatlán, repairmen accidentally discovered ancient human remains. The found burial is very different from the traditional burials of Mazatlán.

The work was immediately stopped so that the employees of the National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico (INAH) carried out archaeological excavations.

According to archaeologist Víctor Joel Santos Ramírez, rescue coordinator, the area is a natural high hill near the mouth of the El Quelite River. In pre-Hispanic times, people settled there in order, on the one hand, to live near the river and use its resources, and on the other, to avoid seasonal flooding.

Part of the surface of the hill was covered with crushed shells. But under this impromptu “floor” was a human burial. It is definitely unusual.

Let’s start with the fact that archaeologists have found the remains of only one person – that is, this is not a cemetery, not a place of regular burials. At the same time, three fragmented ceramic vessels of rather fine workmanship and a smoking pipe were found in the burial. The preservation of human remains is very poor, due to local climatic conditions.

Mazatlán was founded by the Spaniards in 1531, ten years after the fall of Tenochtitlan. But not too regular excavations within the city show that this area was inhabited even before the Europeans. A number of burials found indicate that the indigenous inhabitants of those places adhered to the same ritual: they buried the dead in large vessels. It is not entirely clear why Mexican archaeologists attributed this find to the Aztatlán culture: similar pottery is found in many places in Mesoamerica up to the territory of modern Costa Rica.

The found burial, therefore, strongly stands out from the local burial tradition. Mexican archaeologists have suggested that they have found the tomb of Aztatlán, a man from Aztlán, the mythical homeland of the Aztecs.

In general, today there is no evidence that Aztlán ever existed anywhere other than myths. In the scientific community, it is perceived as something between Atlantis and Camelot, but they are looking for it with undying persistence, including for political reasons.

Scholars agree that the Aztecs roamed North America for a long time before founding Tenochtitlan in 1325. And around the same time, the emergence of the legend of Aztlan is attributed. The myths do not contain exact indications of where he was. It is only clear that north of Tenochtitlan.

The description is also rather poor: a small island in a lake inhabited by herons. Based on these, frankly, poor signs, at the end of the 19th century, Mexican historians announced that Aztlán was located on Mescaltitan, a small island in mangrove swamps. Local residents (now there are less than two thousand people) found a certain amount of pre-Columbian ceramics, but no one conducted serious archaeological excavations there. Accordingly, this assumption has not received scientific approval.

A century later, the question of the location of the ancestral home of the Aztecs suddenly became relevant again. This was due to the growing number of Mexican migrants in the US. It is not entirely clear who first came up with the idea to look for the roots of the Aztec culture in the United States. But whoever seeks will find.

 Petroglyphs found in Shogo Canyon in the US state of Utah. They are divided into three groups and attributed to three different Indian cultures. The images of one group were considered by some researchers to be similar to the images carved on the Stone of the Sun – a basalt disk on which the Aztec cosmogony is schematically displayed.

And on Antelope Island, in the middle of the Great Salt Lake in the same state, seven caves were discovered. And this coincides with another (probably earlier) legend about the ancestral home of the Aztecs – about Chicomostok, which consists of just seven caves.

Of course, none of this proves in any way that Aztlán was in Utah. Although the Aztecs themselves in their nomadic years could be there and even live for some time. But scientific evidence rarely matters in an ideological struggle. And with her, the situation is such that those who yesterday were illegal migrants without documents, today identify themselves as the indigenous population of Utah. And claims put forward appropriate.

Although it is not yet clear on what basis Mexican archaeologists attributed the found burial to the Aztatlán culture, it is still of great interest. It remains to be hoped that facts, not legends, will become the basis for the final conclusions of scientists.

Photo: Exodus of the Aztecs from Aztlan, drawing from the Codex Boturini, manuscript by an unknown Aztec author (the name is given by the name of one of the first owners) / ©wikipedia.org