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Teotihuacan: Mexican Archaeologists Find Tunnel, Possible Tombs Under Ruins
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Contextual image of the tunnel found in front of the Temple of the Feathered Serpent. Photo: CNMH INAH.
By: Mark Stevenson, Associated Press Writer
TEOTIHUACAN, Mexico (AP) — A long-sealed tunnel has been found under the
ruins of Teotihuacan and chambers that seem to branch off it may hold the tombs
of some of the ancient city's early rulers, archaeologists said Tuesday.
Experts say a tomb discovery would be significant because the social structure
of Teotihuacan remains a mystery after nearly 100 years of archaeological exploration
at the site, which is best known for the towering Pyramids of the Moon and the
Sun.
No depiction of a ruler, or the tomb of a monarch, has ever been found, setting
the metropolis apart from other pre-Hispanic cultures that deified their rulers.
Archaeologists had suspected the hidden tunnel was there after a heavy rainstorm
in 2003 caused the ground to sink at the foot of the Temple of Quetzacoatl, in
the central ceremonial area of the ruins just north of Mexico City.
Starting last year, they began digging, and after eight months of excavation,
they reached the roof of the tunnel last month, 40 feet (12 meters) below the
surface.
They lowered a small camera into the 12-foot-wide (4-meter) corridor, which had
been carved out of the rock early in Teotihuacan's history, and got the first
glimpse of the space that they say was intentionally closed off between A.D.
200 and 250.
"
I think the tunnel was the central element, the main element around which the
rest of the ceremonial center was built," archaeologist Sergio Gomez said. "This
was the most sacred place."
The camera showed the tunnel appearing to extend about 37 yards (meters) before
it is blocked by a wall or mound.
Ground-penetrating scanner images found the tunnel extends beyond the blockage
and ends in a large chamber that measures 10 yard (meters) on each side, lying
almost directly beneath the temple. Two smaller chambers appear on either side
of the rough-hewn corridor.
All the signs point to it being a ruler's tomb, Gomez said, including the rich
offerings tossed into the tunnel at the moment it was closed up: almost 50,000
objects of jade, stone, shell and pottery, including ceramic beakers of a kind
never found before at the site.
"
Up to now, every archaeologist who has worked in Teotihuacan has tried to find
the tombs of the rulers," Gomez said.
"
There is a high possibility that in this place, in the central chamber, we can
find the remains of those who ruled Teotihuacan," he added.
The complex of pyramids, plazas, temples and avenues was once the center of a
city of more than 100,000 inhabitants and may have been the largest and most
influential city in pre-Hispanic North America at the time.
Nearly 2,500 years after the city was founded — and about 2,100 years after
the Teotihuacan culture began to flourish there — the identity of its rulers
remains a mystery.
The city was built by a relatively little-known culture that reached its height
between 100 B.C. and A.D. 750. It was abandoned by the time the Aztecs arrived
in the area in the 1300s and gave it the name "Teotihuacan," which
means "the place where men become gods."
Luis Barba, of the Anthropological Research Institute of Mexico's National Autonomous
University, said that because there are no images, names or other references
to rulers among Teotihuacan's rich murals and stone carvings, some experts suggest
the city might have had a shared leadership, with rulers alternating between
its four precincts.
"
People have looked for these rulers for many years," Barba said. "Perhaps
they will be found now. There is nothing to rule it out or make it impossible,
but at this point, we have nothing."
Gomez said it will take at least two more months of digging before archaeologists
can actually enter the tunnel.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. |
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