While investigating a cave in the mountains of Mexico, a Spenker thought he had found a bunch of waste from a modern bug. But by looking at it, she discovered that the “trash can” was actually a cache of artefacts that could have been used in fertility rituals over 500 years ago.
“I looked in it, and it seemed that the cave had continued. You had to hold your breath and dive a little to go,” said Katiya Pavlova specialty in a translated statement. “It was then that we discovered the two rings around the stalagmites.”
The cave, called Tlayóócoc, is in the Mexican state of Guerrero and about 7,800 feet (2,380 meters) above sea level. Meaning “Bralard cave” in the native language Nahuatl, Tlayócoc is known locally as a source of water and Bat Guano. In September 2023, Pavlova and the local guide Adrián Beltrán Dimas ventured into the cave – perhaps the first time that anyone who entered around five centuries.
About 500 feet (150 m) in the cave, the ceiling plunged. The pair of explorers had to sail in the flooded cave of a space of only 6 inches (15 centimeters) between the water and the ceiling of the cave. “Adrián was afraid, but the water was deep enough, and I went first to show him that it was not so difficult,” said Pavlova.
While taking a break to look around, Pavlova and Beltrán were shocked to discover 14 artifacts.
“It was very exciting and incredible!” Pavlova said. “We were lucky here.”
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Among the artefacts, there were four shell bracelets, a giant decorated snail shell (like Strombus), two complete stone discs and six disc fragments, and a piece of charred wood. Pavlova and Beltrán immediately contacted the National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico (INAH), which sent archaeologists to recover the artifacts in March.
Given the arrangement of the bracelets – which had been completed on small rounded stalagmites with “phallic connotations” – archaeologists have hypothesized that fertility rituals were probably carried out in the Tlayócoc cave, they said in the press release.
“For pre-hispanic cultures, the caves were sacred places associated with hell and considered as the uterus of the earth”, archaeologist of Inah Miguel Pérez Negrete said in the press release.
Three of the bracelets have incised decorations. A symbol in the form of S known as “Xonecuilli” is associated with the planet Venus and the measurement of time, while the profile of a figure in the shape of a human can represent the creative god Quetzalcoatl.
Pérez dated the artifacts of the postclassical period of Meso-American history, between 950 and 1521, and suggested that they were made by members of the little known Tlacotepehua culture who lived in the region.
“It is very likely that, because they were found in a nearby environment where humidity is quite stable, objects have been able to survive for so many centuries,” said Pérez.
