Cave Paintings Found in Mexico’s San Carlos Mountains

News May 23, 2013

SHARE:
Mexican-cave-paintings4-1
(INAH)

BURGOS, MEXICO—Nearly 5,000 paintings have been discovered in 11 different sites in northeastern Mexico, in an area thought to have been uninhabited during the pre-Hispanic era. More than 1,500 of the paintings were found in one cave alone. The images depict people, animals, and insects, as well as an atlatl and abstract objects, and are thought to have been created by at least three different groups of hunter-gatherers. “We have not found any ancient objects linked to the context, and because the paintings are on ravine walls and in the rainy season the sediments are washed away, all we have is gravel,” said Gustavo Ramirez of the National Institute of Anthropology and History. Scientists will attempt to date the paintings’ pigments.

  • Features March/April 2013

    Pirates of the Original Panama Canal

    Searching for the remains of Captain Henry Morgan's raid on Panama City

    Read Article
    (Courtesy Captain Morgan Rum Co.)
  • Features March/April 2013

    A Soldier's Story

    The battle that changed European history, told through the lens of a young man’s remains

    Read Article
    (Courtesy Dominique Bosquet)
  • Letter From Cambodia March/April 2013

    The Battle Over Preah Vihear

    A territorial dispute involving a 1,100-year-old Khmer temple on the Thai-Cambodian border turns violent

    Read Article
    (Masuru Goto)
  • Artifacts March/April 2013

    Pottery Cooking Balls

    Scientific analyses and experimental archaeology determine that mysterious, 1,000-year-old balls of clay found at Yucatán site were used in cooking

    Read Article
    (Courtesy Bolonchen Regional Archaeological Project)