Pre-Columbian Artifacts Repatriated to Mexico

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO—Reuters reports that German officials have handed over clay artifacts to members of Mexico’s foreign ministry. Alejandro Bautista of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History said a German woman who had had possession of the artifacts for decades approached the Mexican embassy in Berlin to turn them over voluntarily. The objects, which include a 1,500-year-old Zapotec incense burner and sculpted clay faces thought to have originated in what are now the southern Mexican states of Oaxaca and Campeche some 300 years ago, will be analyzed in Mexico. To read about ritual objects found in a cave system near the Maya center of Chichen Itza, including incense burners that are decorated with images of the rain god Tlaloc, go to "Maya Subterranean World," one of ARCHAEOLOGY's Top 10 Discoveries of 2019.