The fascinating cave of La Morita II is located 120 kilometers from Monterrey, the capital of the state of Nuevo León (Mexico). Sheltered by imposing rock formations, this space has one of the oldest manifestations of rock art in the country, dating back to around 6,000 years ago.
Researchers believe that the site fulfilled a mixed function as a funerary space and for daily life, due to the type of materials that have been found. Highlights include, among others, spear and projectile points that are about 4,500 years old or fragments of cordage and basketry from three millennia ago.
As a result of the latest work campaign, archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) have discovered a series of human remains dating back to between 2,500 and 3,000 years ago. The bones were located among fragments of basketry, textiles and fibers that were probably part of the bundle that wrapped them.
Phalanges of the hand and metatarsals of the feet, an ulna and a humerus, several ribs and loose teeth were identified, which would correspond to a baby and two adolescents, as they are short bones. Utensils and tools for domestic and ritual use were also found very close by.
“The human remains were discovered in the south chamber of the cave, 1.65 meters deep. It is likely that they were dismembered and deliberately deposited in that section of the cave as part of a funerary practice,” explained archaeologist Moisés Valadez Moreno, responsible for the excavation.
The funerary customs in these societies in northeastern Mexico, according to the researcher in a statement, indicate a clear intention of these groups to conceal their burial sites. “According to the chronicles, when the mother died during childbirth or minutes afterward, the infant was sacrificed and accompanied her burial,” he says.
In other cases, for example when there was a birth of twins, this fact was conceived as a bad omen, so the newborn with the best conditions was chosen and the second one was separated, which was buried alive. “Infants with signs of poor training or congenital defects suffered the same fate,” says Valadez.
“In the northeastern region of the country, rustic mausoleums were even made in caves, hovels (poor, small and dark homes) and remote places, where the effort to hide the burial site is evident,” said this specialist assigned to the INAH Nuevo Center. Lion.
In addition to the human remains, which will be analyzed in the laboratory, the team of researchers recovered around 1,500 artifacts for ritual and domestic use, such as spearheads and atlatl, punches and polished edges, whose age is estimated between 4,500 and 2,500. years or fragments of cordage and basketry of around 3,000 years.
These materials join the almost 30,000 remains that had already been recovered in the La Morita II cave since 2003, when the project began. Until 2018, sediment had been removed from an area of ??approximately 50 square meters of the main chamber and since 2019, 24 square meters of the southern chamber have been excavated.
