About 500 years ago, someone put a shell bracelet in a stalagmite of a Mexican cave
After all, the “trash” recently found in the depths of a cave in Mexico is a set of artifacts with more than five centuries of existence of an almost unknown culture.
In September 2023, Katiya pavlova e adrián beltrán dimas Cave ventured on the top of Mexico’s mountains-possibly the first time someone has entered it in about five centuries.
Speleologists (who study natural cavities such as caves and caves) thought he found a lot of trash from a citizen of modern times.
However, after a closer inspection, he found that “garbage” was actually a hiding place of artifacts that may have been used in fertility rituals for over 500 years.
The cave, called Tlayócoc (which means “Cave of the Teams” in the Nahuatl indigenous language) is in the Mexican state of Guerrero and is about 2,380 meters above sea level. It is known locally as a source of water and bat guano.
Pavlova and Beltrán were shocked to discover 14 artifacts – from which they stood out Two rings around the stalagmites.
As researchers detail in, among the artifacts were four shell bracelets, a decorated giant snail shell (genre strombus), two complete stone records and six disk fragments, and a piece of charred wood.
At the discovery, Pavlova and Beltrán soon contacted the National Institute of Anthropology and Mexico History (Inah), which sent archaeologists to recover the artifacts.
Fertility rituals over 500 years
“For pre-history cultures, caves were sacred places associated with the underworld and considered The womb of the earth”, Explained, in a statement, the archaeologist of Inah Miguel Pérez Negrete.
Pérez dated the artifacts of the post-classical period in the history of Mesoamérica, between 950 e 1521 d.C.and suggested that they were made by members of a practically unknown culture called Tlacotepehuathat inhabited that region.
“It is very likely that because they were found in a nearby environment, where moisture is quite stable, objects have managed to survive for so many centuries,” Pérez said, quoted by Live Science.
