A Cave So Dangerous to Reach, It Preserved 179 Ritual Objects for More Than 1,100 Years
The cave’s 13 deposits include incense burners, effigy urns and a serpent-topped censer, and researchers say the find may reveal Zoque ritual practice.
- The Chiapas cave Mundo Zoque contains 179 ceramic objects dating to the Late Classic period, roughly 600 to 900 A.D., located near the Arco del Tiempo in the La Venta River canyon.
- Local tourism guide Jairo Díaz Barreiro discovered the cave's entrance in January 2026 and reported it to Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History , triggering formal investigations.
- Archaeologists identified 13 ceremonial deposits containing incense burners, effigy urns, and bowls, including a censer with a 32-centimetre serpent-topped handle decorated with a cross motif representing cardinal directions.
- Vessels decorated with jaguars and owls reflect Zoque cosmology and suggest the cave functioned as a ceremonial sanctuary for rituals linked to rainfall and agricultural fertility, not habitation.
- Researchers will conduct three-dimensional photogrammetric recording and laboratory analysis of residues within ceramic vessels to identify copal, ashes, or organic remains that illuminate ancient Zoque ritual practices.
12 Articles
12 Articles
On the site, an environment symbolically associated with the underworld, 13 pre-Hispanic ritual deposits were located, which is one of the most relevant discoveries in the region in recent decades
Hidden underground sanctuary reveals 179 ancient ritual objects
Archaeologists from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) have documented 179 pre-Hispanic artefacts inside a previously unknown cave in the municipality of Cintalapa, Chiapas. This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com - © 2023 - HeritageDaily
Named Zoque World, this formation of more than 100 meters long, housed urns, boxes and sahumators with human and animal figures
Archaeologists at the National Institute of Anthropology of Mexico (INAH) documented 179 artifacts of a pre-spanic penade in the early part of an uninhabited peter in Sientalapa, Chiapas.
Specialists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) documented a cave with 13 ritual deposits containing 179 pre-Hispanic artifacts in Chiapas, considered one of the most important archaeological discoveries in the region in recent decades. The cave, named Mundo Zoque, is located near the Arco del Tiempo (Arch of Time) in the La Venta River canyon, in the municipality of Cintalapa. Its difficult access allowed it to remain…
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