NORTH AMERICA, U.S.A, WORLD

‘Exceptionally Rare’ Dinosaur Fossil Found in Maryland

‘Exceptionally Rare’ Dinosaur Fossil Found in Maryland

‘Exceptionally Rare’ Dinosaur Fossil Found in Maryland

A group of paleontologists and volunteers discovered several rare fossils, along with the largest theropod fossil ever found in Eastern North America.

The find was made at Dinosaur Park, Maryland, in April 2023. The site has seen the discovery of amazing fossils since the 19th century, but this recent find was described by Matthew Carrano, a paleontologist at the Smithsonian, as “exceptionally rare.”

Dinosaur Park discovery

At Dinosaur Park in Prince George’s County, Maryland, paleontologists and volunteers discovered a three-foot-long fossil. This fossil was found at what had been classified as a “bonebed,” a term used by paleontologists to describe a layer with contents that date to the same geologic period. The bonebed discovered was the first found in Maryland since 1887.

JP Hodnett, program coordinator and paleontologist at Dinosaur Park, said, “Finding a bonebed like this is a dream for many paleontologists as they can offer a wealth of information on the ancient environments that preserved the fossils and provide more details on the extinct animals that previously may have only been known from a handful of specimens.”

Workers at the bonebed where the Acrocanthosaurus fossil was discovered.

Hodnett concluded: “Most paleontologists have to travel across the country or go overseas to find something like this, so having this rare find so close to home is fantastic.”

What was discovered was a three-foot-long shin bone which is believed to have belonged to a theropod.

A theropod is a carnivorous, bipedal, saurischian dinosaur, which is characterized by hollow and thin-walled bones. These dinosaurs had shorter forelimbs with three clawed digits.

The fossil is believed to be from an Acrocanthosaurus, the largest theropod of the Early Cretaceous period. Thomas Holtz, a paleontologist at the University of Maryland, said, “The dinosaur site at Laurel is by far the most important dinosaur dig site in America east of the Mississippi… It gives us insights into the diversity of animals and plants at a critical period in Earth’s history.”

Acrocanthosaurus

Acrocanthosaurus is a genus of theropod dinosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous period, approximately 113 to 110 million years ago. It was a large carnivorous dinosaur that belonged to the family Carcharodontosauridae, which includes other notable predators like Tyrannotitan and Giganotosaurus.

Acrocanthosaurus was named for the distinctive high spines running along its back, which gave it a unique appearance. These spines, coupled with its robust build and powerful jaws, indicate that it was a formidable predator. It measured around 36 to 38 feet in length and weighed an estimated 4.4 to 6.6 metric tons.

Acrocanthosaurus restoration.

One of the most remarkable aspects of Acrocanthosaurus is its skull, which was long, narrow, and filled with sharp, serrated teeth. These teeth were well-suited for gripping and tearing flesh, indicating that it was an efficient hunter. Additionally, its forelimbs were relatively short compared to its hind limbs, suggesting that Acrocanthosaurus was likely a bipedal dinosaur.

Other fossils of Acrocanthosaurus have been discovered in what is now North America, primarily in the United States. The first remains of this dinosaur were found in 1940 in Oklahoma, and subsequent discoveries have helped paleontologists gain a better understanding of its anatomy and behavior.

Due to the incomplete nature of the fossil record, some aspects of Acrocanthosaurus’ life remain uncertain. However, based on its physical characteristics, scientists believe that it was an apex predator that likely preyed upon large herbivorous dinosaurs, such as sauropods and ornithopods.

Ryan McLachlan is a historian and content writer for Hive Media. He received his Bachelor of Arts in History and Classical Studies and his Master of Arts in History from the University of Western Ontario. Ryan’s research focused on military history, and he is particularly interested in the conflicts fought by the United Kingdom from the Napoleonic Wars to the Falklands War.

Ryan’s other historical interests include naval and maritime history, the history of aviation, the British Empire, and the British Monarchy. He is also interested in the lives of Sir Winston Churchill and Admiral Lord Nelson. Ryan enjoys teaching, reading, writing, and sharing history with anyone who will listen.

In his spare time, he enjoys watching period dramas such as Murdoch Mysteries and Ripper Street and also enjoys reading classical literature and Shakespeare. He also plays football and is an afternoon tea connoisseur.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

2,500-Year-Old Chariot Found – Complete with Rider And Horses

2,500-Year-Old Chariot Found – Complete with Rider And Horses

2,500-Year-Old Chariot Found – Complete with Rider And Horses

For the second time in two years, an Iron Age chariot has been found buried in a Yorkshire community. The discovery was made in the town of Pocklington, England, at a construction site where more than 200 homes are being built.

As of early October 2018, archaeologists are working to fully excavate the find. Media reports say that not only a chariot but also horse and human remains were discovered.

Simon Usher, managing director at Persimmon Homes Yorkshire, said: “We can confirm that a significant archaeological discovery, featuring an Iron Age horse-drawn chariot, has been made at our development, The Mile in Pocklington.

Careful excavation is ongoing by our archaeologists and a thorough investigation is in the process to date and detail the find.”

View from Pocklington to Burnby Lane.

In a bizarre twist, 18 months ago, another Iron Age chariot was found, along with two horses, at a different construction site in Pocklington. Archaeology Arts reported in 2017: “The chariot was buried as part of a funerary practice that was not uncommon in the Iron Age. However, the horses were a rather surprising addition for archaeologists.”

The Telegraph said that “the find of the remains dating back to 500 BC is the first of its kind in the last 200 years and one of only 26 chariots ever excavated in the UK.”

Chariot burial, illustration.

Archaeologists say it is highly unusual for a horse and chariot to be buried together and with a human.

In 2017, Paula Ware, managing director at MAP Archaeological Practice Ltd, told a reporter, “The chariot was located in the final square barrow to be excavated and on the periphery of the cemetery.”

She continued, “The discoveries are set to widen our understanding of the Arras (Middle Iron Age) culture and the dating of artifacts to secure contexts is exceptional.”

Bronze snaffle bit from the King’s Barrow burial in Yorkshire, now in the British Museum. The tag on the exhibit reads Bronze bridle-bit from the chariot burial known as the King’s Barrow, Arras, East Yorkshire, 200-100 BC. Presented by Sir A. W. Franks. Photo by Ealdgyth CC BY-SA 3.0

A chariot was the possession of a high-status individual. The rite of including horses as part of the burial is being puzzled over by researchers. Before finding the chariot, the dig at the Burnby Lane site revealed artifacts including a sword, shield, spears, brooches, and pots.

The excavations give insight into life over 2,500 years ago. These are thought to be people of the Arras culture.

Yorkshire continues to be the place where astoundingly well-preserved remains of the Arras culture are found. In 2016, some 150 skeletons and their personal possessions were discovered in a small market town at the foot of the Yorkshire Wolds.

Illustration of a chariot burial.

Some of the 75 square barrows, or burial chambers, contained personal possessions such as jewelry and weapons, according to The Guardian.

Archaeologists also discovered a skeleton with a shield.

Media reports say those remains were of a man in his late teens or twenties, who died with his sword at his side. Before his death, he reportedly had six spears pressed into him “like a hedgehog.”

It is believed these sites all date to the Iron Age, which in Britain lasted from 800 BC until the time of the Roman conquest, beginning in 43 AD.

An in-depth study will focus on whether the population is indigenous or were recent arrivals from the Continent. Archaeologists also hope to reveal how those buried at the site died and whether or not they are related in any way, as well as potential DNA analysis.

The custom of burying the deceased with their chariots within squares is unknown in the rest of the British Iron Age. Interestingly, the Arras vehicles were usually disassembled, a practice less common in the Continental chariot burials.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Scientists Discover Beheaded Man’s Brain Self-Preserved For 2,600 Years

Scientists Discover Beheaded Man’s Brain Self-Preserved For 2,600 Years

Researchers worked carefully the Heslington brain.

One of the oldest human brains ever to be discovered was probably preserved for more than 2,000 years thanks to mud, archaeologists claim. The intact Iron Age organ was discovered inside a decapitated skull in York seven years ago and since then experts have conducted tests to explain how the tissue could have stood the test of time.

Tests have revealed that the brain and other remains are 2,600 years old and have survived because the head was buried in a sealed clay pit devoid of oxygen, soon after its owner’s death.

Scientists Discover Beheaded Man's Brain Self-Preserved For 2,600 Years
The oldest human brain ever to be discovered, was probably preserved for over 2,000 years thanks to mud, archaeologists claim. The intact organ (pictured) was discovered inside a decapitated skull in York seven years ago and since then experts have conducted tests to explain how the tissue could survive

In 2009, archaeologists from York Archaeological Trust uncovered a skull with the jaw and two vertebrae still attached to it, in Heslington, York. The skull was found face-down in a pit without any evidence of what had happened to the rest of the body.

At first, archaeologists thought they had found a normal skull and it was not until the bones were cleaned that they came across ‘something loose’ inside.

Rachel Cubitt, the Collection Projects Officer said: ‘I peered through the hole at the base of the skull to investigate and to my surprise saw a quantity of bright yellow spongy material.

‘It was unlike anything I had seen before.’

An archaeologist at the University of Bradford confirmed the tissue was the brain and experts from York Hospital’s Mortuary they were able to remove the top of the skull in order to reveal the astonishingly well-preserved human brain.

The skull (pictured) was found face-down in a pit without any evidence of what had happened to the rest of the body. In this image it is still covered in mud, protecting the contents inside
Archaeologists first thought the skull was unremarkable, but upon closer examination, saw the ‘bright yellow spongy material’ which turned out to be a brain. Here, Dr O’Conner examines the remains

They have now carbon-dated the jaw bone to confirm the man probably lived in the 6th century BC. An examination of the teeth and skull revealed he was between 26 and 45 years old when he died.

It appears that he was first hit hard on the neck, which was then severed with a small sharp knife, according to marks on the vertebrae, but experts can only guess why the man died such a violent death.

There has previously been a suggestion that he was hanged, but experts have largely ruled out his head being used as a trophy – which was a grim practice in Iron Age societies – because there are no signs of preservation or smoking.

Speaking two years ago, Sonia O’Connor, research fellow in archaeological sciences at the University of Bradford, said: ‘The hydrated state of the brain and the lack of evidence for putrefaction suggests that burial, in the fine-grained, anoxic sediments of the pit, occurred very rapidly after death. 

Scientists said there was no trace on the brain of the usual preservation methods such as embalming or smoking. This x-ray shows the position of the shrunken brain inside the skull
Speaking two years ago, Sonia O’Connor, research fellow in archaeological sciences at the University of Bradford, said: ‘The hydrated state of the brain (pictured) and the lack of evidence for putrefaction suggests that burial, in the fine-grained, anoxic sediments of the pit, occurred very rapidly after death’

‘This is a distinctive and unusual sequence of events, and could be taken as an explanation for the exceptional brain preservation.’

However, the larger mystery is how his brain was preserved naturally, when bodies buried in the ground typically rot because of a mixture of water, oxygen, as well as a temperature allowing bacteria to thrive.

When one or more of these factors is missing, preservation can occur. In the case of the Heslington Brain, the outside of the head rotted as normal, but the inside was preserved. Experts believe the head was cut from the man’s body almost immediately after he was killed and buried in a pit dug in wet clay-rich ground. 

This environment provided sealed, oxygen-free burial conditions. 

In 2009, archaeologists from York Archaeological Trust uncovered the skull with the jaw and two vertebrae still attached to it, in Heslington, York, (marked on this map)
The skull was found face-down in a pit without any evidence of what had happened to the rest of the body. This image shows archaeologists sifting through the muddy pit at the site near the University of York where the brain was found

While over time, the skin, hair, and flesh of the skull rotted away, the fats and proteins of the brain tissue linked together to form a mass of large complex molecules.

This resulted in the brain shrinking, but it also preserved its shape and many microscopic features only found in brain tissue, they explained.

As there was no new oxygen in the brain and no movement, it was protected and preserved, allowing scientists to study it today.

Speaking two years ago, Sonia O’Connor, research fellow in archaeological sciences at the University of Bradford, said: ‘It is rare to be able to suggest the cause of death for skeletonised human remains of archaeological origin. 

‘The preservation of the brain in otherwise skeletonised remains is even more astonishing but not unique.

‘This is the most thorough investigation ever undertaken of a brain found in a buried skeleton and has allowed us to begin to really understand why a brain can survive thousands of years after all the other soft tissues have decayed.’

AFRICA, WORLD

Buried in Sand for a Millennium: Africa’s Roman Ghost City

Buried in Sand for a Millennium: Africa’s Roman Ghost City

Buried in Sand for a Millennium: Africa’s Roman Ghost City

Got Your archeologist’s cap on? Today we invite you to touch down in Algeria and explore Timgad, a lost Roman city on the edge of the Sahara desert that remained hidden beneath the sand for nearly a thousand years.

Positively obscure compared to the international notoriety of Pompeii, this ancient city is nonetheless one of the best surviving examples of Roman town planning anywhere in the historical Empire.

No one believed the first 18th century European explorer who claimed to have found a Roman city poking out of the sand in the North African desert, and the full extent of the 50-hectare site wouldn’t be realised and excavated in its entirety until the 1950s. Rome is still well worth the visit, but it’s in Algeria that some of the most impressive Roman remains in the whole world are to be found…

Timgad photographed by Brian Brake for LIFE magazine, 1965

The first thing you might be thinking when looking at these aerial photographs is that our modern grid design for cities is not so modern after all.

Long before New York City had its “grid” street system, Timgad was designed with an orthogonal grid which is lined by a partially restored Corinthian colonnade, magnificently visible from above. And it’s the oldest of its kind in the world.

Timgad photographed by Brian Brake for LIFE magazine, 1965

Originally founded by Emperor Trajan in 100 AD and built as a retirement colony for soldiers living nearby, within a few generations of its birth, the outpost had expanded to over 10,000 residents of both Roman, African, as well as Berber descent.

Most of them would likely never even have seen Rome before, but Timgad invested heavily in high culture and Roman identity, despite being thousands of kilometers from the Italian city itself.

Timgad photographed by Brian Brake for LIFE magazine, 1965

The extension of Roman citizenship to non-Romans was a carefully planned strategy of the Empire – it knew it worked better by bringing people in than by keeping them out. In return for their loyalty, local elites were given a stake in the great and powerful Empire, and benefitted from its protection and legal system, not to mention, its modern urban amenities such as Roman bath houses, theatres, and a fancy public library…

Timgad photographed by Brian Brake for LIFE magazine, 1965

Timgad, also known as Thamugadi in old Berber, is home to a very rare example of a surviving public library from the Roman world. Built in the 2nd century, the library would have housed manuscripts relating to religion, military history and good governance.

An artist’s interpretation of the Timgad library

These would have been rolled up and stored in wooden scroll cases, placed in shelves separated by ornate columns. The shelves can still be seen standing in the midst of the town ruins, today a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a monument to culture.

Mosaic found in Timgad

The remains of as many as 14 baths have survived and a mosaic portraying Roman flip-flops was found at the entrance of a house in Timgad dating back to the 1st or 2nd century, with the inscription “BENE LAVA” which translates to ‘wash well’. This mosaic, along with a collection of more than 200 others found in Timgad, are held inside a museum at the entrance of the site.

Timgad photographed by Brian Brake for LIFE magazine, 1965

Other surviving landmarks include a 12 m high triumphal arch made of sandstone, a 3,500-seat theater is in good condition and a basilica where a large, hexagonal, 3-step immersion baptismal font richly decorated with mosaics was uncovered in the 1930s.

Baptismal font uncovered in Timgad

You can imagine the excitement of Scottish explorer James Bruce when he reached the city ruins in 1765, the first European to visit the site in centuries. Still largely buried then, he called it “a small town, but full of elegant buildings.” Clearing away the sand with his bare hands, Bruce and his fellow travellers uncovered several sculptures of Emperor Antoninus Pius, Hadrian’s successor.

Unable to take photographs in 1765, and without the means to take the sculptures with them, they reburied them in the sand and continued on Bruce’s original quest to find the source of the Blue Nile. Upon his return to Great Britain, his claims of what he’d found were met with skepticism. Offended by the suspicion with which his story was received, James Bruce retired soon after and there would be no further investigation of the lost city for another hundred years.

A Roman lavatory, flanked by sculptures of dolphins, photographed by Brian Brake for LIFE magazine, 1965

Step forward Sir Robert Playfair, British consul-general in Algeria, who, inspired by James Bruce’s travel journal which detailed his findings in Timgad, went in search of the site. In his book, Travels in the Footsteps of Bruce in Algeria and Tunis, Playfair describes in detail what he found in the desolate and austere surroundings of the treeless desert plain.

“The whole of this district is of the deepest interest to the student of pre-historic archaeology … we left Timegad not without considerable regret that we could not afford to spend a longer time there. We would fain have made some excavations as there is no more promising a field for antiquarian research.”

Just a few years later, French colonists took control of the site in 1881, and began a large-scale excavation, which continued until Algeria gained independence from France in 1959.

Timgad photographed by Brian Brake for LIFE magazine, 1965

“These hills are covered with countless numbers of the most interesting mega-lithic remains,” wrote Playfair in 1877.

Oh what we would do for a time machine right about now.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Egypt Unearths Tomb of Royal Priest From 4,400 Years Ago

Egypt Unearths Tomb of Royal Priest From 4,400 Years Ago

Egypt unveiled a well-preserved 4,400-year-old tomb decorated with hieroglyphs and statues south of Cairo on Saturday, and officials expect more discoveries when archaeologists excavate the site further in the coming months.

The tomb was found in a buried ridge at the ancient necropolis of Saqqara. It was untouched and unlooted, Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, told reporters at the site. He described the find as “one of a kind in the last decades.”

The tomb dates from the rule of Neferirkare Kakai, the third king of the Fifth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom.

Guests enter a newly-discovered tomb at the Saqqara necropolis, 30 kilometers south of Cairo, belonging to the high priest ‘Wahtye’ who served during the reign of King Neferirkare
A view of statues inside the newly-discovered tomb of ‘Wahtye’, which dates from the rule of King Neferirkare Kakai

Archaeologists removed a last layer of debris from the tomb on Thursday and found five shafts inside, Waziri said.

One of the shafts was unsealed with nothing inside, but the other four were sealed.

The entrance to the tomb.

They are expecting to make discoveries when they excavate those shafts starting on Sunday, he said. He was hopeful about one shaft in particular.

“I can imagine that all of the objects can be found in this area,” he said, pointing at one of the sealed shafts. “This shaft should lead to a coffin or a sarcophagus of the owner of the tomb.”

The tomb is 10 meters (33 ft) long, three meters (9.8 ft) wide, and just under three meters high, Waziri said.

The walls are decorated with hieroglyphs and statues of pharaohs. Waziri said the tomb was unique because of the statues and its near-perfect condition.

Statues of pharaohs and others in the tomb of Wahtye.
The 33 ft (ten metres) long, 9.8 ft (three metres) wide tomb has just under three metres high walls which are decorated with hieroglyphs and statues of pharaohs
Scenes in the ancient tomb depicted life during the rule of King Neferirkare Kakai during the Fifth Dynasty

“The color is almost intact even though the tomb is almost 4,400 years old,” he said.

The tomb lies on a buried ridge that has only partially been uncovered. Waziri said he expects more discoveries to be made there when archaeologists start more excavation work in January.

The Fifth Dynasty ruled Egypt from about 2,500 BC to 2,350 BC, not long after the great pyramid of Giza was built.

Saqqara served as the necropolis for Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt for more than two millennia.

Ancient Egyptians mummified humans to preserve their bodies for the afterlife, while animal mummies were used as religious offerings.

Egypt has revealed over a dozen ancient discoveries this year.

The country hopes the finds will brighten its image abroad and revive interest among travelers who once flocked to its iconic pharaonic temples and pyramids but who fled after the 2011 political uprising.

EUROPE, FRANCE, WORLD

Giant 1,100-pound bone belonging to sauropod found in France

Giant 1,100-pound bone belonging to sauropod found in France

The femur of a giant dinosaur was found this week by French paleontologists at an excavation site in southwest France where, since 2010, remains of some of the largest animals ever to live on land have been excavated.

Giant 1,100-pound bone belonging to sauropod found in France
Maxime Lasseron inspects the femur of a Sauropod

The thigh bone of a giant dinosaur was found this week by French paleontologists at an excavation site in southwestern France where remains of some of the largest animals that ever lived on land have been dug up since 2010.

The two-meter-long femur at the Angeac-Charente site is thought to have belonged to a sauropod, herbivorous dinosaurs with long necks and tails which were widespread in the late Jurassic era, over 140 million years ago.

“This is a major discovery,” Ronan Allain, a paleontologist at the National History Museum of Paris told Reuters. “I was especially amazed by the state of preservation of that femur.”

“These are animals that probably weighed 40 to 50 tonnes.”

Allain said scientists at the site near the city of Cognac have found more than 7,500 fossils of more than 40 different species since 2010, making it one of the largest such finds in Europe.

The scientists believe that the bones are from a sauropod, which is the largest herbivorous dinosaur and first appeared in the late Triassic Period.

These reptiles were the largest of all dinosaurs and the largest land animals that have ever lived, they had a small head a long neck, and a very long tail.

Scientists believe they would spend their time wallowing in shallow water that would help support their bodies.

The dinosaur bone was found covered in clay by volunteers from the National Museum of Natural History.

ASIA, JAPAN, WORLD

Japanese scientists ‘reawaken’ cells of 28,000 Old woolly mammoth

Japanese scientists ‘reawaken’ cells of 28,000 Old woolly mammoth

Japanese scientists 'reawaken' cells of 28,000 Old woolly mammoth

Her name is Yuka: an ancient woolly mammoth that last lived some 28,000 years ago, before becoming mummified in the frozen permafrost wastelands of northern Siberia.

But now that icy tomb is no longer the end of Yuka’s story.

The mammoth’s well-preserved remains were discovered in 2010, and scientists in Japan have now reawakened traces of biological activity in this long-extinct beast – by implanting Yuka’s cell nuclei into the egg cells of mice.

“This suggests that, despite the years that have passed, cell activity can still happen and parts of it can be recreated,” genetic engineer Kei Miyamoto from Kindai University told AFP.

In their experiment, the researchers extracted bone marrow and muscle tissue from Yuka’s remains, and inserted the least-damaged nucleus-like structures they could recover into living mouse oocytes (germ cells) in the lab.

Red and green dyed proteins around a mammoth cell nucleus (upper right) in a mouse oocyte (Kindai University)

In total, 88 of these nuclei structures were collected from 273.5 milligrams of mammoth tissue, and once some of these nuclei were injected into egg cells, a number of the modified cells demonstrated signs of cellular activity that precede cell division.

“In the reconstructed oocytes, the mammoth nuclei showed the spindle assembly, histone incorporation, and partial nuclear formation,” the authors explain in the new paper.

“However, the full activation of nuclei for cleavage was not confirmed.”

Despite the faintness of this limited biological activity, the fact anything could be observed at all is remarkable and suggests that “cell nuclei are, at least partially, sustained even in over a 28,000-year period”, the researchers say.

Calling the accomplishment a “significant step toward bringing mammoths back from the dead”, Miyamoto acknowledges there is nonetheless a long way to go before the world can expect to see a Jurassic Park-style resurrection of this long-vanished species.

“Once we obtain cell nuclei that are kept in better condition, we can expect to advance the research to the stage of cell division,” Miyamoto told The Asahi Shimbun.

Less-damaged samples, the researchers suggest, could hypothetically enable the possibility of inducing further nuclear functions, such as DNA replication and transcription.

Another thing needed is better technology. Previous similar work in 2009 by members of the same research team didn’t get this far – which the scientists at least partially put down to “technological limitations at that time”, and the state of the frozen mammoth tissues used.

To that end, the researchers think their new research could provide a new “platform to evaluate the biological activities of nuclei in extinct animal species” – an incremental progression to perhaps one day, maybe, seeing Yuka’s kind roam again.

The findings are reported in Scientific Reports.

MEXICO, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

Traces of Possible Zapotec Temple Detected in Southern Mexico

Traces of Possible Zapotec Temple Detected in Southern Mexico

The Catholic Church of San Pablo in Mitla is built on the footprint of an earlier Zapotec temple.

A hidden “entrance to the underworld” built by the ancient Zapotec culture has been discovered beneath a Catholic church in southern Mexico, according to a team of researchers using cutting-edge ground-scanning technology.

The complex system of underground chambers and tunnels was built more than a millennium ago by the Zapotec, whose state arose near modern-day Oaxaca in the late sixth century B.C. and grew in grandeur as people created monumental buildings and erected massive tombs filled with lavish grave goods. 

The architectural complex at Mitla, 27 miles (44 kilometers) southeast of Oaxaca, boasts unique and intricate mosaics, having functioned as the main Zapotec religious center until the late 15th century, when the Aztec conquest likely resulted in the abandonment of the site.

The Spanish then reused stone blocks from the ruins to build the San Pablo Apostol church a century later. 

Traces of Possible Zapotec Temple Detected in Southern Mexico
Researchers use a georadar to scan the plaza in front of the Palace of the Columns.

Oral histories have long suggested that the main altar of the church was purposefully built over a sealed entrance to a vast underground labyrinth of pillars and passages that originally belonged to a Zapotec temple known as Lyobaa, which means “the place of rest.” 

Investigating this claim with modern geophysical methods, the Project Lyobaa research team announced on May 12 that they had found a complex system of caves and passageways beneath the church.

The project is a collaboration of 15 archaeologists, geophysical scientists, engineers, and conservation experts with the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and the ARX Project.

A seismic tomography scan shows areas of low velocity (blue) that may indicate underground chambers or natural cavities.

Using three nondestructive methods — ground penetrating radar, electrical resistivity tomography and seismic noise tomography — the team produced a virtual 3D model of the subterranean ruins.

These methods work by measuring reflection properties of electromagnetic and seismic waves as they pass through different subsoil layers and other material underground.

A number of measuring devices placed around the church recorded information about a large void below the main altar and two connecting passages, all at a depth of 16 to 26 feet (5 to 8 meters). 

“The newly discovered chambers and tunnels directly relate to the ancient Zapotec beliefs and concepts of the Underworld,” Marco Vigato, founder of the ARX Project, told Live Science in an email, “and confirm the veracity of the colonial accounts that speak of the elaborate rituals and ceremonies conducted at Mitla in subterranean chambers associated with the cult of the dead and the ancestors.” 

A ground-penetrating radar scan shows a stairway under the surface.

Although the team suspected that the underground temple existed, they were surprised by its scale and depth, according to Vigato. “More research is needed to accurately determine the full extent of these subterranean features,” he said.

José Luis Punzo Díaz, an archaeologist at Centro INAH Michoacán who was not involved in the research, told Live Science in an email that “geophysical methods are very important in current archaeology.”

These methods have helped find anomalies at other Mesoamerican sites, such as Teotihuacán, which have also been interpreted as entrances to the underworld.

As a result, these methods “should be contrasted with archaeological excavations,” Punzo noted, “because although the geophysical data are interesting, it is always essential to verify them in the field.” 

The joint research team has plans for a second season of geophysical investigation in September, which will focus on additional groups of structures at Mitla, and they hope to get permission from authorities to conduct further work at San Pablo Apostol as well, Vigato said.

All told, “these findings will help rewrite the history of the origins of Mitla and its development as an ancient site,” the team members wrote in a statement.

All In One Magazine