Archaeology
Stone box containing rare ceremonial offerings discovered at Tlatelolco
![](https://conspirazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/stone2-fwiMrw.webp)
Archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) have discovered a stone box containing ceremonial offerings during excavations of Temple “I”, also known as the Great Basement, at the Tlatelolco archaeological zone.
Tlatelolco was a pre-Columbian altepetl or city-state, located in the Valley of Mexico in present-day Mexico city.
The inhabitants, known as the Tlatelolca, were a Mexica Nahuatl-speaking people who settled in the region during the 13th century.
Tlatelolco emerged as the sister city to the Aztec-Mexica city-state of Tenochtitlan, offering refuge to the people of Tenochtitlan during the Spanish siege led by the conquistador Hernán Cortés.
Image Credit : Mauricio Marat
Archaeologists from INAH have uncovered a stone box at Temple “I”, a rectangular complex situated northwest of the Templo Mayor Tlatelolca.
According to the researchers, the box was deposited as a ceremonial offering sometime between AD 1375 and 1418 to consecrate an architectural extension of the temple in dedication to the Black Tezcatlipoca.
The Black Tezcatlipoca was the god of providence, the invisible and darkness, lord of the night, and ruler of the North, and was also associated with obsidian and conflict.
Excavations found a stone altar, likely used as a place of worship of the military elite, where they uncovered a sealed cist containing the stone box.
The box contains 59 pocket knives, 7 obsidian knives, and numerous copal blocks. According to archaeologist Laue Padilla, these items were used for acts of self-sacrifice by Tlatelolca priests and high-ranking officials.
The box might contain additional materials, which will be confirmed as archaeological work progresses. This includes detailed drawings of the various context levels, photogrammetric surveys to create three-dimensional images of the find, and soil sampling to identify associated organic matter.
Header Image Credit : Mauricio Marat
Sources : National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH)
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
Archaeology
Ornate grave goods found in Murom burial ground
Archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences have been excavating a burial ground associated with the Finnic Muromians.
The Finnic Muromians were groups of settlers that lived within the vicinity of the Volga and Oka rivers. They spoke Muromian, an Uralic language that became extinct following their assimilation by the Slavs.
The burial ground, which dates from the early 10th century AD, was discovered on the eastern bank of the Oka river, located in the Nizhny Novgorod Region of Russia.
A total of seventeen burial pits have been identified, nine of which have been severely damaged through looting.
The surviving 8 burials contain the remains of four children, two women, and two men.
The men were accompanied with an ornate collection of grave goods, including arrowheads, knives, bronze bracelets, iron plates, a bronze buckle, and a whetstone.
At the bottom of one of the pits is a heavily corroded axe, along with a flint that has traces of iron-coated embossed leather and textile threads.
The burials containing women were also accompanied with high status funerary goods, such as a necklace of red-brown prismatic and dark blue berry-shaped beads of Byzantine origin, signet ring-shaped pendants, plate bracelets, a bronze spiral, and a silver ring.
Traces of wood within the pit fillings suggest that they originally contained a wooden structure, similar to a log house made of thin beams and covered with birch bark.
According to the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences: “The culmination of the discoveries at the site were two clay vessels, testifying to direct and close contacts between the right-bank Muromians and the Old Russian population.”
Header Image Credit : Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Sources : Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
Archaeology
Ghastly finds at gallows execution site
![](https://conspirazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/gast2-S78Iej.jpeg)
Archaeologists from the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt are currently excavating the site of a former gallows in Quedlinburg, Germany.
Gallows are usually wooden structures made of two vertical posts, a horizontal crossbeam, and a hanging noose. They have been used for executing criminals by hanging, a prevalent form of capital punishment in Europe since the Middle Ages.
Archaeologists are currently excavating a gallows site on Galgenberg, or ‘Gallows Hill,’ which was used for public executions by the courts in Quedlinburg from 1662 to 1809.
Excavations have revealed complete and partial burials in the area, along with bone pits containing multiple bundled burials, likely the result of mass executions carried out in a short period.
Image Credit : LDA
According to the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt, “these discoveries provide unique insights into penal practices from the Middle Ages and early modern times.”
A burial unrelated to the gallows has also been unearthed, featuring a wooden coffin containing the skeletal remains of an individual buried with a rosary chain.
Archaeologists propose that the burial’s characteristics suggest that the individual was likely a suicide victim, denied burial in consecrated ground so was placed in the cemetery near the gallows.
Also discovered is a so-called ‘revenant grave’, where the skeletal remains of a man was found placed on his back with several large stones placed across his chest.
According to the researchers, the stones were likely placed to prevent the individual from rising as a revenant, which are described as animated corpses in the verbal traditions and lore of many European ethnic groups.
In medieval times, those inflicted with the revenant condition were generally suicide victims, witches, corpses possessed by a malevolent spirit, or the victim of a vampiric attack.
Header Image Credit : LDA
Sources : State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
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