In Mexico, archaeologists found an unusual ancient settlement

1500-year-old Indian village surprised scientists

In Mexico, archaeologists have found a 1500-year-old ancient settlement of the Indians of pre-Columbian America, belonging to the Teotihuacan culture.

Archaeologists have discovered a 1500-year-old Teotihuacan village in Mexico. A large amount of ceramics and three human burials were found in the settlement, the National Institute of History and Anthropology of Mexico said.

According to CNN, excavations conducted between March and June revealed several remains of buildings on the site, including drainage channels, post holes, ceilings, stone lines and a well.

The bodies of one child and two adults were found next to a series of polished Teotihuacan-style bowls with an annular base.

From its seat of power at Teotihuacan, about 50 kilometers northeast of present-day Mexico City, the eponymous civilization exerted a profound influence on Mesoamerica during its sixth-century heyday, even more so than the later Aztec empire.

Using ceramic evidence, experts have dated the village to around 450-650, about the same date as the peak of Teotihuacan influence, CNN notes.

Archaeologist Francisco González Rul originally reported the settlement between 1960 and 1964, but these new finds “strengthened” and “demonstrated” its existence, excavation leaders Juan Carlos Campos Varela and Mara Abigail Becerra Amescua said in a statement.

González Rule suggested that the village was probably inhabited by gatherer fishermen who used the resources of Lake Texcoco, once a large lake that now occupies a small area after artificial drainage in the 17th century.

Excavations have confirmed this hypothesis, but recently unearthed artifacts suggest that the village also had an artisanal pottery industry, “since several fragments of solid and articulated figurines, greenstone objects, shells, funerary offerings, and various obsidian and flint arrowheads have been found”, – added Campos Varela and Becerra Amescua.

Because of the presence of such artifacts, archaeologists believe that the rural village must have had trade links with other Teotihuacan settlements on the shores of Lake Texcoco.

Excavations have also shown that the settlement was later inhabited by the mexica people as well as communities in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

Archaeologists have identified the settlement of Mexico by the presence of two canals that appear to have had a chinamperia space – the shape of floating fields on a shallow lake, widely used by them and artificially created, in this case a seated sculpture without a head, complete and semi-finished objects, as well as a layer of small stones.