Archaeologists say they have discovered hundreds of Mayan artifacts, including ceramic vessels and burial sites, along the route of a train construction project in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
Researchers have so far discovered nearly 2,500 pre-Hispanic structures, 80 burial sites and thousands of vessels and fragments along the route of the “Maya Train,” Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) announced on October 21.
The artifacts were discovered with the help of GPS georeferencing, satellite topographic images and LIDAR sensors in the periphery of just one of the sections of the project, which runs from the cities of Palenque, in Chiapas to Escárcega, in Campeche.
Discoveries ranged from mounds to bases with complex architecture, INAH archaeologists Ileana Echauri Pérez and Iliana Ancona Aragón said. The pair also worked with INAH investigator Silvianne Boucher Le Landais.
“Both the immovable archaeological artifacts and the movable ones expand the knowledge about daily life, and trade and cultural exchange relations that existed centuries ago in the Mayan area,” the researchers said.
The material culture reflects the presence of human groups living in times as early as the Preclassic in this region that Tabasco occupies today, who used ceramic vessels for daily and sumptuary activities.
An interesting context of the Early Classic period, is an offering composed of a bowl and a spout vessel, both with four mammiform supports – representing the breasts of a woman – which date from the transition from Preclassic to Classic, known in the region as Protoclassic.
Archaeologists believe the vessels were used by the ruling elite during “important political or religious moments,” and the pouring vessel was likely to have been used for precious liquids such as chocolate and perfumes.
“The construction of the Mayan Train constitutes an important research opportunity, through archaeological recovery, with a view to expanding the knowledge about the archaeological sites of the regions that the train will travel through,” researchers said.
Sources: inah.gob.mx • CNN