An ancient tomb belonging to the ‘Cloud People’ has been unearthed in a valley after 1,400 years.
The tomb is believed to be from around 600 AD.
It belonged to the Zapotec civilization, also known as the Cloud People, who flourished in Oaxaca Valley, Mexico, between 500 and 900 AD.
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The tomb was located in Cerro de la Cantera near Oaxaca City, as reported by What’s The Jam.
Work is currently underway by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) to decipher its iconography.
Last Friday (23 Jan), Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum hailed it as “the most important archaeological discovery of the last decade”.
She said the site is significant because of its “level of preservation and the information it provides”.
Archaeologists hope the discovery will provide valuable information about the pre-Hispanic civilisation.
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Secretary of Culture, Claudia Curiel de Icaza, said: “This is an exceptional find due to its level of preservation and what it reveals about Zapotec culture: their social organisation, funerary rituals, and worldview, preserved in their architecture and mural paintings.
“It is a compelling example of Mexico’s ancient grandeur, which is now being researched, protected, and shared with society.”
The tomb has sculptures and mural paintings, including symbolic representations of power and death, as well as friezes and tombstones with calendrical inscriptions.
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An owl, a bird the Zapotecs believed symbolised night and death, decorates the entrance of the antechamber.
Its beak covers the stuccoed and painted face of a Zapotec lord, possibly a portrait of the individual the tomb was built for.
The threshold is flanked by a lintel while the figures of a man and a woman adorned with headdresses appear carved on the jambs.
On the walls of the burial chamber are sections of a mural painting in hues of red, blue, green, white and ochre.
INAH experts are currently carrying out conservation, protection and research work on the building.
They are also working to decipher the inscriptions and iconography present in the tomb.
An INAH spokesperson said: “This discovery is, without doubt, a window into the soul of a civilisation that, thousands of years later, continues to speak through stone and colour.”
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