OCAMPO, MEX.- After the death of a man who must have been between 21 and 35 years old, his body was placed inside of a petate (a type of ceremonial 'sack') along with a small molcajete (mortar) as an offering and buried, which remained untouched for more than a millennium. Although the organic material of the funerary wrappings disintegrated, remarkably it preserved the bones and ceramic artifact.

Today, the remnants of this individual, recovered by experts from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), have become one of the first 'complete' pre-Hispanic human grave sites ever reported, other than those in dry caves, in the cultural area of Southwest Tamaulipas.

In an interview, regarding the "Contigo en la Distancia" ("With You in The Distance") campaign of the Ministry of Culture, anthropologist Jesús Velasco González and archaeologist Vanueth Pérez Silva detailed that it was last July 8th when the inhabitants of the town of San Lorenzo de las Bayas and Ocampo, who happened upon it while building a water reservoir, notified the Institute of the discovery of the skeleton.

Two days after receiving the report investigators from INAH in Tamaulipas traveled to San Lorenzo - a community located north of La Pamería and La Huasteca, and connected by a 40 km long dirt road to Ocampo - to investigate the cultural artifacts and to oversee the construction for the reservoir necessary for the town's water supply which descends from the cliffs of the Sierra Madre Oriental.

After acknowledging the great historical consciousness of the people of San Lorenzo, who in the past have led the INAH and other researchers to document different archaeological sites in open-air sites, caves or even on the rock walls of the banks of the Infiernillo River, close to the site of this finding, anthropologist Jesús Velasco stressed the significance that both the bones and the molcajete were still intact.

The skeleton was placed in a seated position inside the funerary petate and was found in that same position. Furthermore, archaeologist Vanueth Pérez commented that the only object with the deceased was the molcajete, which is in tripod form and typical of the dates from the Classic period of the region. It is likely that, originally, the vessel was on top of the grave.

It should be noted that in this area, which is not open to the public because of the of the archaeological sites Cuitzillos de Fermín and La Coma, more studies will be conducted to specify the time period and cultural association of the elements and, in the case of the skeletal remains of the individual, to try to determine his age, pathologies, whether he had intentional cranial deformation, and the cause of his death.

For now, the patrimonial findings are being investigated in the Osteology Laboratory of the INAH Tamaulipas Center. The experts noted that future field excursions will require the aid and intervention of the Biocultural Projects of Mortuary Caves of Tamaulipas for the two more burials observed near the original site.

Homage to Pioneering Researchers

The canyon of the Infiernillo River which has been inhabited for millennia, from small groups of hunter-gatherers in prehistory to sedentary tribes through to the sixteenth century, makes it an area of notable archaeological interest in particular for the Cuevas de los Portales (Caves of Romero and Valenzuela). In them, in 1937, a framework was discovered that has been key for the study of the origin of agriculture and sedentary life in Mesoamerica.

It was then that Javier Romero and Juan Valenzuela, traveled from Mexico City to Ocampo prompted by a citizen’s report. Guided by the locals, the archeologists identified in the cave scattered skeletal remains and prehistoric botanical elements that decades later would be of interest to the American researcher Richard MacNeish who was able to specify that the fragments of corn, bean and pumpkin of the cave were, respectively, 4,300, 1,300 and 6,300 years old.

On the specific issue of corn, Jesús Velasco stressed that although it is not as old as that of the caves of Guilá Naquitz in Oaxaca "It did contribute to reconstruct the history of agriculture in Mexico," based on a key fact such as the domestication of Theocintle (a species of corn).

Jesús Velasco and Vanueth Pérez concluded that the remains of the newly discovered individual and the probability of locating ancient burial sites, reaffirms the cultural potential of the region and pays homage to the Cuevas de los Portales, as well as to the heritage awareness of the inhabitants of San Lorenzo and Ocampo.