Category Archives: NORTH AMERICA

NORTH AMERICA, U.S.A, WORLD

‘The day the dinosaurs died’: Fossilized snapshot of mass death found on North Dakota ranch

‘The day the dinosaurs died’: Fossilized snapshot of mass death found on North Dakota ranch

A fossilised snapshot of the day about 66 million years ago when an asteroid hit Earth, fire rained from the sky and the ground shook far worse than any current earthquake, is captured in new studies. It was the day that almost all life on Earth, including dinosaurs, went extinct.

The fossil discoveries add weight to the theories that a swathe of lifeforms on Earth were wiped out after an asteroid hit.

Fossil evidence discovered in Tanis, North Dakota, was revealed by the researchers, which they said dated back to the day the fatal asteroid hit, including fish with hot glass beads clogged in their gills from flaming debris that showered back on Earth.

According to a paper published by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the fossilised fish graveyard reveals the sea creatures died within the first minutes or hours after the impact of the asteroid.

The researchers also reported the discovery of charred trees, evidence of an inland tsunami and melted amber.

The main author of the article, Robert DePalma, is curator of palaeontology at the Palm Beach Museum of Natural History in Florida and a doctoral student at the University of Kansas.

He told the University of Berkeley that the killing field he examined was the result of the meteor impact, which marked the end of the Cretaceous Period, also known as the KT boundary, and ended much of life on Earth.

A private fossil collector alerted Mr DePalma to the Hell Creek site in 2012.

“This is the first mass death assemblage of large organisms anyone has found associated with the KT boundary,” Mr DePalma said. Mr DePalma was first alerted to the site by a private collector in 2012.

Purdue University geophysicist and impact expert Jay Melosh, who wasn’t part of the research but edited the paper released on Friday, called it the field’s “discovery of the century”. “This is the death blow preserved at one particular site. This is just spectacular,” he said

Separately, University of Amsterdam’s Jan Smit disclosed that he and his colleagues even found dinosaur footsteps from just before their demise.

Dr Smit said the footprints — one from a plant-eating hadrosaur and the other of a meat eater, maybe a small Tyrannosaurus Rex — is “definite proof that the dinosaurs were alive and kicking at the time of impact … They were running around, chasing each other” when they were swamped.

But other experts said that while some of Mr DePalma’s work is fascinating, they have some serious concerns about the research, including the lack of access to this specific Hell Creek Formation fossil site for outside scientists.

Hell Creek — which spans Montana, both Dakotas and Wyoming — is a fossil treasure trove that includes numerous types of dinosaurs, mammals, reptiles and fish trapped in clay and stone from 65 to 70 million years ago.

Kirk Johnson, director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History who also has studied the Hell Creek area for 38 years, said that the work on the fish, the glass and trees “demonstrates some of the details of what happened on the day”.

‘The day the dinosaurs died’: Fossilized snapshot of mass death found on North Dakota ranch
Fish form some of the different types of life that the Hell’s Creek fossil site preserved.

“That’s all quite interesting and very valid stuff,” he said. But Dr Johnson said that because there is restricted access to the site, other scientists can’t confirm the research. Dr Smit said the restrictions were to protect the site from poachers.

Dr Johnson also raised concerns about claims made by the main author, Mr DePalma, that appeared in a New Yorker magazine article published on Friday but not in the scientific paper.

However, when asked about concerns over site access, Mr DePalma told the ABC that “other researchers not on the original author list” had already been granted access to the site on multiple occasions.

“It is a fabulous and important opportunity for such collaborations, and it is essentially no different than any other major site under the custodianship of institutions other than ours,” he said.

For decades, the massive asteroid crash that caused the Chicxulub crater in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula has been considered the likely cause of the mass extinction. But some scientists have insisted that massive volcanic activity played a role.

Dr Johnson and Dr Melosh said this helps prove the asteroid crash case. There were only a few dinosaur fossils from that time, but the footsteps are most convincing, Dr Smit said. There was more than dinosaurs, he said.

The site includes ant nests, wasp nests, fragile preserved leaves and fish that were caught in the act of dying. He said that soon after fish die they get swollen bellies and these fossils did not show swelling.

Researchers said that the confluence of tree trunk and fish fossils point to one major extinction event.

The researchers said the inland tsunami points to a massive earthquake generated by the asteroid crash, somewhere between a magnitude 10 and 11 — stronger than the 2004 Boxing Day earthquake, found to be a magnitude 9.0 earthquake.

Purdue’s Dr Melosh said as he read the study, he kept saying “wow, wow, what a discovery”. The details coming out of this are “mind-blowing,” he said.

MEXICO, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

Long Lost Temple Unearthed in the Mexican City of Atlixco

Long-Lost Temple Unearthed in the Mexican City of Atlixco

Archaeologists have found the remains of an ancient Mexican temple that was thought to be little more than a legend.

The chapel of San Miguel sits atop the hill of the same name, but this Catholic structure actually hides the remnants of a far older, legendary temple.

Within the city of Atlixco in central Mexico, there has long been a rumor of a lost temple, or teocalli, that was built centuries before the Spanish arrived in the early 16th century.

According to the local people, the Atlixquenses, the temple was originally constructed on top of the San Miguel Hill where there is currently a Catholic chapel dedicated to the archangel Michael.

Despite these rumors, no archaeological evidence for this legendary temple had ever been found.

However, recent work carried out by the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Mexico through the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) has discovered vestiges that confirm its existence.

The first evidence that led to this discovery appeared during efforts to renew the chapel’s lighting and to reinforce the paths leading up the hill. A team of researchers, coordinated by INAH archaeologists Miguel Medina Jaen and Carlos Cedillo Ortego, along with Elvia Cristina Sánchez de la Barquera, found artifacts – stone tools, ornaments, and clay vessels – that were over 1,000 years old.

These objects were created by the Mesoamerican Nahua, who lived in this region centuries before Europeans arrived.

The team carried out survey work inside and around the chapel’s atrium and found the remains of stone walls and floors that had belonged to an ancient temple that pre-dates the current structure. These remnants are buried around 90 centimeters (35 inches) below the foundations of the existing chapel.

This, according to a statement released by the INAH, sufficiently affirms that “a teocalli did exist on the summit of the hill, San Miguel, and that it had at least two construction stages.”

At present, it is not clear which divinity the temple was dedicated to. Among those who may have been the focus of attention were the deities Quetzalcóatl (creator and civilizer of humanity), Tláloc (giver of rain), or Macuilxóchitl (a patron of play, dance, and festivities).

However, more research is needed before any valid conclusions can be drawn. Other “segments of the teocalli and greater clues to clarify which was its titular deity still lie under the viceregal chapel of San Miguel Arcángel,” the statement adds.

“Even with this aura of mystery, the archaeological confirmation of that ancient popular belief of more than 400 years will help strengthen the identity of the Atlixquenses.”

NORTH AMERICA, U.S.A, WORLD

Oldest Fossil Human Footprints In North America Confirmed

Oldest Fossil Human Footprints In North America Confirmed

New research reaffirms that human footprints found in White Sands National Park, NM, date to the Last Glacial Maximum, placing humans in North America thousands of years earlier than once thought.

In September 2021, scientists announced that ancient human footprints discovered in White Sands National Park were between 21,000 and 23,000 years old.

This discovery pushed the known date of human presence in North America back by thousands of years and implied that early inhabitants and megafauna co-existed for several millennia before the terminal Pleistocene extinction event.

Fossil human footprints discovered in White Sands, New Mexico likely date back to between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago, according to scientific evidence.

In a follow-up study, researchers used two new independent approaches to date the footprints, both of which resulted in the same age range as the original estimate.

The 2021 results began a global conversation that sparked public imagination and incited dissenting commentary throughout the scientific community as to the accuracy of the ages.

“The immediate reaction in some circles of the archeological community was that the accuracy of our dating was insufficient to make the extraordinary claim that humans were present in North America during the Last Glacial Maximum.

But our targeted methodology in this current research really paid off,” said Jeff Pigati, USGS research geologist and co-lead author of a newly published study that confirms the age of the White Sands footprints.

The controversy centered on the accuracy of the original ages, which were obtained by radiocarbon dating. The age of the White Sands footprints was initially determined by dating seeds of the common aquatic plant Ruppia cirrhosa that were found in the fossilized impressions.

However aquatic plants can acquire carbon from dissolved carbon atoms in the water rather than ambient air, which can potentially cause the measured ages to be too old.

“Even as the original work was being published, we were forging ahead to test our results with multiple lines of evidence,” said Kathleen Springer, USGS research geologist and co-lead author on the current Science paper.

“We were confident in our original ages, as well as the strong geologic, hydrologic, and stratigraphic evidence, but we knew that independent chronologic control was critical.”

For their follow-up study, the researchers focused on radiocarbon dating of conifer pollen, because it comes from terrestrial plants and therefore avoids potential issues that arise when dating aquatic plants like Ruppia.

The researchers used painstaking procedures to isolate approximately 75,000 pollen grains for each sample they dated. Importantly, the pollen samples were collected from the exact same layers as the original seeds, so a direct comparison could be made. In each case, the pollen age was statistically identical to the corresponding seed age.

“Pollen samples also helped us understand the broader environmental context at the time the footprints were made,” said David Wahl, USGS research geographer and a co-author on the current Science article.

This Oct. 2023 photo made available by the National Park Service shows White Sands National Park Resource Program Manager, David Bustos at the White Sands National Park in New Mexico.

“The pollen in the samples came from plants typically found in cold and wet glacial conditions, in stark contrast with pollen from the modern playa which reflects the desert vegetation found there today.”

These fossilized human footprints at the White Sands National Park in New Mexico are 21,000 to 23,000 years old.
Oldest Fossil Human Footprints In North America Confirmed
Fossilized footprints in White Sands National Park.
A single human footprint at the site.

In addition to the pollen samples, the team used a different type of dating called optically stimulated luminescence, which dates the last time quartz grains were exposed to sunlight.

Using this method, they found that quartz samples collected within the footprint-bearing layers had a minimum age of ~21,500 years, providing further support to the radiocarbon results.

With three separate lines of evidence pointing to the same approximate age, it is highly unlikely that they are all incorrect or biased and, taken together, provide strong support for the 21,000 to 23,000-year age range for the footprints.

The research team included scientists from the USGS, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the National Park Service, and academic institutions. Their continued studies at White Sands focus on the environmental conditions that allowed people to thrive in southern New Mexico during the Last Glacial Maximum and are supported by the Climate Research and Development Program | U.S. Geological Survey and USGS-NPS Natural Resources Protection Program.

MEXICO, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

2,000-year-old Flower Bouquet in ‘Very Good Condition’ Found Under Mexican Pyramid

2,000-year-old Flower Bouquet in ‘Very Good Condition’ Found Under Mexican Pyramid

Nearly 2,000 years ago, the ancient people of Teotihuacan wrapped bunches of flowers into beautiful bouquets, laid them beneath a jumble of wood and set the pile ablaze.

Now, archaeologists have found the remains of those surprisingly well-preserved flowers in a tunnel snaking beneath a pyramid of the ancient city, located northeast of what is now Mexico City. 

The pyramid itself is immense and would have stood 75 feet (23 meters) tall when it was first built, making it taller than the Sphinx of Giza from ancient Egypt.

The Temple of the Feathered Serpent at Teotihuacan, Mexico

The Teotihuacan pyramid is part of the “Temple of the Feathered Serpent,” which was built in honour of Quetzalcoatl, a serpent god who was worshipped in Mesoamerica. 

Archaeologists found the bouquets 59 feet (18 m)  below ground in the deepest part of the tunnel, said Sergio Gómez-Chávez, an archaeologist with Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) who is leading the excavation of the tunnel.

A digital reconstruction of the tunnel running under the pyramid at Teotihuacan.

Numerous pieces of pottery, along with a sculpture depicting Tlaloc, a god associated with rainfall and fertility, were found beside the bouquets, he added. 

The bouquets were likely part of rituals, possibly associated with fertility, that Indigenous people performed in the tunnel, Gómez-Chávez told Live Science in a translated email.

The team hopes that by determining the identity of the flowers, they can learn more about the rituals. 

One of the 2,000-year-old bouquets is prepped for research.

The team discovered the bouquets just a few weeks ago. The number of flowers in each bouquet varies, Gómez-Chávez said, noting that one bouquet has 40 flowers tied together while another has 60 flowers. 

Archaeologists found evidence of a large bonfire with numerous pieces of burnt wood where the bouquets were laid down, Gómez-Chávez said.

It seems that people placed the bouquets on the ground first and then covered them with a vast amount of wood. The sheer amount of wood seems to have protected the bouquets from the bonfire’s flames. 

The tunnel that Gómez-Chávez’s team is excavating was found in 2003 and has yielded thousands of artefacts including pottery, sculptures, cocoa beans, obsidian, animal remains and even a miniature landscape with pools of liquid mercury.

Archaeologists are still trying to understand why ancient people created the tunnel and how they used it.

Teotihuacan contains several pyramids and flourished between roughly 100 B.C. and A.D. 600. It had an urban core that covered 8 square miles (20 square kilometres) and may have had a population of 100,000 people. 

MEXICO, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

A palatial 1,500-year-old Maya structure unearthed in Mexico

A palatial 1,500-year-old Maya structure unearthed in Mexico

A palatial 1,500-year-old Maya structure unearthed in Mexico
Here we see the foreground of one of the buildings during the restoration process.

Archaeologists in Mexico have discovered two housing complexes, including a palace-like building, in the roughly 1,500-year-old Maya city of Kabah on the Yucatán Peninsula.

The team unearthed the buildings, which are the first evidence of residential buildings at this archaeological site, ahead of the Maya Train railroad project, a 930-mile-long (1,500-kilometer) railway that will run through the Yucatán Peninsula.

The palace-like structure is 85 feet (26 meters) long and is decorated with carvings of birds, feathers, and beads, Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said in a translated statement.

The building’s façade has a portico that includes eight pilasters, and rectangular columns that project from the walls.

The palace and the other housing complex were elite living spaces where people slept, ate and lived their daily lives, Lourdes Toscano Hernández, an archaeologist with the INAH who co-led the team, told Live Science in a translated email.

A lineage of people who ruled the city would have lived in the buildings, although their names are not known, Toscano Hernández said.

A view of Kabah, which means “Lord of the strong or powerful hand” in Mayan.

The buildings also may have been used for administrative functions, Toscano Hernández said, noting that public meetings may have been carried out nearby.

The carvings of birds, feathers and beads on the palace-like structure may have symbolized the relationship between the elites who lived in these structures and the Maya gods — something that would have helped to legitimize their status, Toscano Hernández said.

A view of the buildings in the Kabah archaeological zone.

Until recently, the housing complexes, along with other parts of the ancient city, were covered with vegetation, the INAH statement noted.

It’s unclear exactly when the buildings were built, but the city was founded sometime between A.D. 250 and 500 by people who came from the Petén region, an area that includes Guatemala and Belize, according to the statement.

Toscano Hernández said the city’s first ruler may have lived in the structures.

A palatial 1,500-year-old Maya structure unearthed in Mexico
A general view of the Petén palace.

Within the buildings, archaeologists found the remains of pottery, including painted vessels and ceramics that had a utilitarian use, the statement said. Research at the site is ongoing.

The Maya flourished in the region between 250 and 900. While many cities collapsed around 900, new cities, such as Chichén Itzá, were built. Today, their descendants, the modern-day Maya, number in the millions and can be found all over the world.

MEXICO, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

A Painted Vault Lid Discovered In the Royal Palace Of Ek’ Balam Will Shed Light On the History Of The Acropolis Of Ek’

A Painted Vault Lid Discovered In the Royal Palace Of Ek’ Balam Will Shed Light On the History Of The Acropolis Of Ek’

Archaeologists in Mexico have discovered a painted ancient vault lid, decorated with a depiction of a serpent. The Ministry of Culture of the Government of Mexico, through the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), registered this unpublished mural painting on the stone artifact.

A Painted Vault Lid Discovered In the Royal Palace Of Ek’ Balam Will Shed Light On the History Of The Acropolis Of Ek’
Find a painted vault top, Ek’ Balam.

Ek’ Balam is a Yucatec-Maya archaeological site within the municipality of Temozón, Yucatán, Mexico. It lies in the Northern Maya lowlands, 25 kilometers (16 mi) north of Valladolid and 56 kilometers (35 mi) northeast of Chichen Itza. The place was particularly important from the Preclassic period until the Postclassic period. During this time, it played an essential role as the seat of a Mayan kingdom.

The site is noted for preserving the plaster on the tomb of Ukit Kan Lek Tok’, the most important ruler of the Maya city of Ek Balam during the Late Classic period (A.D. 600 to 900), buried on the side of the largest pyramid.

Archaeologists also informed us that this discovery of the stone block – used by the ancient Mayans as a vault lid, in one of the structures of the Ek’ Balam Acropolis – will play a crucial role in deciphering the history of the Ek’ Balam Acropolis.

This block is the seventh painted vault lid unearthed in the last year in this archaeological zone of excavations of Yucatan.

Find painted vault top, Ek’ Balam.

The finding was announced at the morning press conference of the Mexican Presidency, headed on this occasion by the Secretary of the Interior, Luisa María Alcalde Luján, where the progress of work of the Mayan Train Section 4, which will travel 239 kilometers between the Izamal stations, in Yucatan, and Cancun Airport, in Quintana Roo, were presented.

The general director of the INAH, Diego Prieto Hernández, explained that, with the recent discovery of this vault lid, there are 30 of these architectural elements registered over the years at the site, which have provided relevant data, such as the names of some of the rulers of the kingdom of Talol (Ek’ Balam), as well as the dates when the rooms of the royal palace or Acropolis were constructed.

According to the team, unlike the earlier discovered stone lids, the recently one does not have black paint strokes, but was painted in red color.

The lid represents a symbol in the form of a “U”, which could resemble a cave with underground water, probably allusion to the underworld, where a snake seems to enter. The head and part of the body of the reptile is seen, which could be related to the serpentine foot of the god K’awiil.

K’awiil represents a Maya deity associated with lightning, serpents, maize, and fertility. He is depicted with a zoomorphic head, with large eyes, long, upturned snout, and attenuated serpent foot.

The discovery of the lid will contribute to more information about the builders of the elite enclosures of the East Elevated Plaza of the Acropolis, as well as the date on which they were erected, as pointed out the directors of the Ek’ Balam Archaeological Project, Leticia Vargas de la Peña and Víctor Castillo Borges.

Ek’ Balam archaeological site.

Ek’ Balam was occupied from the Middle Preclassic through the Postclassic, although it ceased to thrive as a major city past the Late Classic.

It is worth mentioning that in this sector of the building, the facades of the rooms decorated with the stuccoed reliefs of captors and captives were recently found.

The head of the INAH stressed that the implementation of the Improvement Program in Archaeological Zones (Promeza), in 27 sites in the southeast and the Yucatan Peninsula, which will see an increased influx of visitors due to the operation of the Mayan Train, has led to important discoveries, such as the one described.

In this sense, he added, the Promeza has made it possible to realize various projects in the Archaeological Zone of Chichen Itza, the most recent, the public opening of the Chichen Viejo section or Initial Series.

The research and conservation tasks in Chichen Itza, to which 14% is left to conclude, have focused on important structures, such as the Great Ball Game, the Temple of the Warriors, the Annex of the Nuns, the House of the Snails and the Moon, and the Group of the Nuns; while the signage has been completely renovated.

The head of the INAH stressed that the implementation of the Improvement Program in Archaeological Zones (Promeza), in 27 sites in the southeast and the Yucatan Peninsula, which will see an increased influx of visitors due to the operation of the Mayan Train, has led to important discoveries, such as the one described.

In this sense, he added, the Promeza has made it possible to realize various projects in the Archaeological Zone of Chichen Itza, the most recent, the public opening of the Chichen Viejo section or Initial Series.

The research and conservation tasks in Chichen Itza, to which 14% is left to conclude, have focused on important structures, snd among them the famous  Great Ball Game, the Temple of the Warriors, the Annex of the Nuns, the House of the Snails and the Moon, and the Group of the Nuns; while the signage has been completely renovated.

MEXICO, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

Archaeologists have unearthed a stone chest containing the ritual deposit of 15 anthropomorphic figurines

Archaeologists have unearthed a stone chest containing the ritual deposit of 15 anthropomorphic figurines

Archaeologists have unearthed a stone chest containing the ritual deposit of 15 anthropomorphic figurines

Archaeologists have unearthed a stone chest containing the ritual deposit of 15 anthropomorphic figurines that were placed as votive offerings at the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan in Mexico City.

The stone chest was found under the platform of the rear façade of the temple in a layer that dates to the reign of Aztec emperor and king of Tenochtitlan Moctezuma I (1440-1469 A.D.)

Stone chest is known as Tepetlacalli in Nahuatl, containing 15 anthropomorphic figurines and numerous green stone beads,  two rattlesnake-shaped earrings, snails, shells, and marine corals. Fourteen of the artifacts portray men, while the smallest of the group features a woman.

The anthropomorphic figures are in the Mezcala style, a Mesoamerican culture that emerged in the Middle and Late Preclassic within Mesoamerican chronology (700 to 200 BC). Archaeologists believe the Aztecs valued Mezcala objects and excavated them from Mezcala sites in Guerrero, Mexico’s southwestern state, to use as ritual offerings.

“This means that when the Mexicas (Aztecs) subdued those peoples, the figurines were already true relics, some of them more than 1,000 years old,” archaeologist Leonardo López Luján, director of the Templo Mayor Project, said in the statement. “Presumably they served as cult effigies, which they appropriated as booty of war.”

Photo: Mirsa Islas, Templo Mayor Project

Carved from green metamorphic stones, the largest of these statues is 30 centimeters high, while the smallest figure is 3 centimeters high. On one of the figurines, the remains of facial paint depicting the Mexica god of rain, Tlaloc, were discovered.

Researchers think this was part of a planned Mexica reset of the religious significance of the ancient cult figurines.

The stone chest was found in the context of stage IVa of the Templo Mayor, which dates from the rule of Moctezuma Ilhuicamina between AD 1440 and 1469.

“In their homes, the Mexicas used to keep their most precious belongings in palm-frond chests, such as fine feathers, jewelry or cotton garments,” López Luján said in the statement. “We can imagine the priests storing in these ‘stone cases’ the quintessential symbols of water and fertility: sculptures of the rain gods, green stone beads, shells, and snails.”

Photo: Mirsa Islas, Templo Mayor Project

The sand and shells came from the Atlantic shore, an area conquered by the Aztecs of the Triple Alliance (the combined forces of three Mexica city-states, Tenochtitlan, Tetzcoco, and Tlacopan) under Moctezuma I.

In Tenochtitlan, the seat of the Aztec Empire, the Templo Mayor served as the focal point of a larger temple complex. The temple was devoted to Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, and Tlaloc, the god of rain and agriculture, and was known in Nahuatl as huey teocalli.

MEXICO, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

Human Remains and Jade Ring Found at Maya Site in Mexico

Human Remains and Jade Ring Found at Maya Site in Mexico

Within the priority project of the Mayan Train, the application of the Program for the Improvement of Archaeological Zones (Promeza), by the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Mexico, through the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), allows research and conservation of pre-Columbian monuments from the sites of Palenque, Moral-Reforma and El Tigre, located in Chiapas, Tabasco and Campeche, respectively. In the latter, the discovery of a human skeleton carrying a jade ring, whose antiquity is estimated at around 1,200 years, was recorded.

Burial Platform 1E El Tigre.

When participating in the morning conference of the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the general director of the INAH, Diego Prieto Hernández, reported on this discovery and on the application of Promeza in these heritage sites, “which allows the reconfiguration of the present to from the recovery and disclosure of the past”.

The skeleton, he explained, was discovered as part of a funerary offering, which was located inside platform 1E, to the west of the monumental complex known as Structure 1 of the El Tigre Archaeological Zone.

The ritual deposit consisted of two large-format vessels covered with ceramic bowls, as lids.

One of them particularly drew the attention of archaeologists, because it contained the skeletal remains of a young individual, placed in a flexed position and accompanied by a showy and well-preserved jade ring as a distinctive element.

Based on the characteristics of the vessels, the deposit can be associated to the Late Classic period (AD 600-800), coinciding with the population and political heyday of El Tigre.

Prieto Hernández indicated that the investigation will continue in the laboratory, where a micro-excavation will be carried out, in order to specify anthropophysical data and find out if it had other associated elements, such as seeds or smaller-format ornaments.

With this skeleton, noted the head of the INAH, there are 177 pre-Hispanic human burials located in Section 1 of the Mayan Train, through two aspects: during the monitoring of archaeological rescues in the laying of the railways, and the application of the Promise in the three mentioned areas.

As of August 14, 2023, he said, 2,698 real estate have also been preserved; 248 furniture elements; 281,353 ceramic fragments and 55 natural features associated with the presence of ancient human groups in this branch of the train, which runs from Palenque, in Chiapas, to Escárcega, in Campeche.

With regard to the Archaeological Zone of Palenque, in Chiapas, the anthropologist explained that through the Promeza the attention of the Temple of the Foliated Cross, the mortuary chamber of the Temple of the Inscriptions, houses A and D of the Palace and the buildings J1 and J5 of Group IV.

The new signage for the site, he added, is in the printing phase; the reconfiguration of the “Alberto Ruz L’huillier” Site Museum reports 30% progress, and the construction of the Visitor Service Center (Catvi) has 99% progress.

In the Moral-Reforma Archaeological Zone, in Tabasco, where a Catvi is also being built and signage is being renewed, the Promeza adds 43% progress in the investigation of Plaza Oriente, as well as in excavations and consolidations of various housing units.

Finally, in the El Tigre Archaeological Zone, in Campeche, progress is being made in the exploration of the aforementioned Structure 1, and in the investigation and conservation of the Market Square and the Main Square, while the so-called Triadic Complex is being prepared. for its opening to national and international tourism.

In this patrimonial site, the general director of INAH concluded, a Catvi is also being built, with 5% progress, and signage and visitor infrastructure are optimized.