TOMB TREASURE IN MEXICO

Evening Star, Issue 21037, 26 February 1932, Page 1

TOMB TREASURE IN MEXICO

GOLD AND JEWELS "WORTH MILLIONS" Rich finds by Mexican archteologists in soma pre-Azteo ruins at Monte Alban, near Oaxaca, are regarded by archseologists and. ethnologists as comparable in significance with discoveries made in Pharaoh Tutankhamen’s tomb in Egypt. Treasures of gold and precious stones are reported by Don Alfonso Ouso, who directed the excavations, to be “worth millions,” but quite apart from their intrinsic value they have' a great importance in throwing light cn a Mexican culture about which ‘little has hitherto uen known, : Several weeks " ago the excavators were excited by the discovery that they were appreaching, at the foot of a stairway 350 ft wide, a central tomb. Working in their enthusiasm fourteen i and sixteen ht urs a day to remove debris, they came'hi last to a flat carved tablet in the coiling of the tomb. It proved to be not a doorway, but'an exit 1 by which the builders hed emerged after sealing the doorway frem the inside. The treasure inside the tomb exceeded all expectations. Entirely covering the mummies of ten Caciques of the Mixteo nation was a heap of cups, urns, vases, jars of onyx, jade, and rock crystal, together with numerous ornaments and utensils cf gold inlaid with turquoises. The workmanship of these relics shows a high degree of development, and this, with what little is known of the Mixtec civilisation, indicoics that the Caciques were buried there at sometime either in the fifteenth or early sixteenth century. The obvious haste o'f the interment supports the belief that it was done—in this country of hostile, Zapotees—in time of war. ' Reports about the details of the discoveries are still meagre; but now that the treasures have been removed for safe keeping to the vaults of the Bank of Mexico it is expected that all facts about frem will be published. It has already been announced, however, that the skulls'of the mummies are encrusted with turquoisebrought probably from the mines of New Mexico. This gem was held sacred by the Mayas and Aztecs alike. With the mummies were found a finely-wrought mask of gold and a human skull penetrated by a stone knife. The fact that the tomb had never, ban entered before since, it was sealed by the builders has caused Senor Caso and his fellow workers to hope that there may be other treasures yet to be found at Monte Alban. Dr Herbert J. Spinden, Curat-w of Ethnology in the Brooklyn Institute ■Museum, who _ has 1 himelf visited Monte Alban as.an explorer, said that the chances were that the tomb was a relic of one of the warrior cults and of great ceremonial importance. Most archaeologists had believed that the ruins of Monte Alban bad ceased to be occupied • before the advent of the Spaniards, and perhaps in the tw.elfth or thirteenth century, but these new discoveries apparently related to the fifteenth or early sixteenth century.—‘ The Times.’