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1,400-year-old Zapotec tomb found in southern Mexico
A 1,400-year-old Zapotec tomb in exceptional condition has been unearthed in southern Mexico’s state of Oaxaca. According to President of Mexico Claudia Sheinbaum, the quality of the decoration, its excellent preservation and the new information it provides about Zapotec ritual, social hierarchy and ancestor worship make the tomb “the most important archaeological discovery of the last decade in Mexico.”
Archaeologists with the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) discovered the tomb in the municipality of San Pablo Huitzo in central Oaxaca when following up on an anonymous complaint for looting made in 2025. It contains reliefs, paintings and murals depicting motifs symbolizing death and power in Zapotec culture.
Over the entrance to the tomb is a large relief of an owl, symbol of night, power and death. The hooked upper mandible of its beak curves down over a red painted stucco face of a Zapotec lord bearing his teeth in a fierce expression. Archaeologists believe the face may have belong to an ancestor to whom the tomb was dedicated. The entrance is flanked by two large jambs, each of them carved with a female and a male figure wearing headdresses and carrying artifacts in both hands. They may be guardians of the tomb.
Inside the tomb is an antechamber with doorway leading into the burial chamber. A frieze above the lintel made of different stones engraved with calendrical names. Another pair of monumental jambs intricately carved with guarding figures flank the doorway under the lintel. The burial chamber walls are covered in a polychrome mural of a procession of people carrying bags of copal (a tree resin used as incense) towards the entrance. It is painted in ochre, white, green, red and blue pigments.
An interdisciplinary team from INAH Oaxaca is currently working to conserve and study the site. One of the most urgent challenges is stabilizing the mural paintings, which are threatened by roots, insects, and sudden changes in temperature and humidity.
At the same time, researchers are conducting ceramic, iconographic, and epigraphic analyses, as well as physical anthropology studies of the human remains. Together, these investigations aim to deepen understanding of the rituals, symbols, and burial practices associated with this elite Zapotec tomb.
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