TULA.- Archaeologists working in Tula, Hidalgo, have uncovered a remarkable series of ancient burials that may help explain how communities in the region lived, mourned and organized themselves during the height of Teotihuacan’s influence.
The discovery was made near the community of Ignacio Zaragoza, where specialists from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, INAH, are carrying out archaeological rescue work along the route of the Mexico City-Querétaro Passenger Train. Since September 2025, the team has been studying a 2,400-square-meter area where traces of an ancient domestic complex began to emerge beneath land long used for agriculture.
At first, the evidence was subtle: scattered fragments of pottery on the surface, including materials from the Coyotlatelco and Mexica periods. But once archaeologists opened test pits, they began to identify wall foundations and the remains of small residential groups arranged around patios. These homes, oriented along north-south and east-west axes, pointed to a carefully organized settlement whose roots reach back to the Teotihuacan era.
Most of the site’s surviving elements have been linked to the Tlamimilolpan and Xolalpan phases, between approximately 225 and 550 A.D., when Teotihuacan was one of the most powerful urban centers in ancient Mesoamerica. Although centuries of farming removed many stones from the original buildings, the foundations still preserve the outline of a community that once formed part of a broader regional world.
The most striking discoveries have come from inside the rooms themselves. Archaeologists found more than a dozen individual and collective burials, including five tombs similar to shaft tombs, excavated into the tepetate. Some remains were complete, while others were incomplete, with long bones from arms and legs among the most frequently recovered elements. Preliminary studies indicate that the burials include children, youths and adults.
One of the rooms contained two tombs of particular importance. The northern tomb held the remains of eight individuals, most of them adults, accompanied by 47 miniature vessels. Six of the individuals had been placed in a seated position, with ceramic offerings arranged near their feet. The arrangement suggests that the tomb was reused over time, with earlier funerary bundles moved when new individuals were placed inside.
The offerings add an intimate dimension to the find. Among the objects recovered were a small shell, part of a semicircular mother-of-pearl pendant, and a small plaque made from the same material. In another tomb, engraved vessels were removed together with surrounding soil so they could be examined through micro-excavation, a careful process that may reveal additional details about their use and meaning.
For researchers, the burials are more than isolated finds. They are clues to a larger story about the relationship between Tula and the Teotihuacan world. Archaeologist Jonathan Velázquez Palacios noted that the area had been exploited as a source of raw material since pre-Hispanic times, especially lime, which may have been important for the stucco used on buildings in Teotihuacan, located about 90 kilometers away.
The Ignacio Zaragoza site is now being studied as part of a wider regional network that includes Classic-period settlements such as Chingú, El Tesoro, Acoculco, El Llano and La Malinche. Chingú, in particular, is considered a regional center of Teotihuacan expansion.
Mexico’s Secretary of Culture, Claudia Curiel de Icaza, emphasized that discoveries like these show why archaeological rescue work matters. Each burial, offering and recovered context, she noted, helps reconstruct the beliefs, daily life and social organization of people who inhabited the region more than a thousand years ago.
As the investigation continues, the burials at Ignacio Zaragoza promise to deepen understanding of a region shaped by movement, trade, ritual and memory. Beneath the modern landscape of Tula, archaeologists are recovering the traces of families and communities whose lives were connected to one of ancient Mexico’s greatest civilizations.
