NEW YORK, NEW YORK—Science News reports that Elsa Redmond and Charles Spencer of the American Museum of Natural History have excavated a 2,300-year-old palace on the north side of the plaza at El Palenque, located in southern Mexico’s Valley of Oaxaca. The archaeologists say that the purpose-built complex, complete with a rainwater collection system, could be one of the earliest centralized government buildings in the Americas. Its residential quarters, courts, and buildings where government officials may have conducted affairs of state covered an area of more than 20,000 square feet. Skull fragments in the courtyard indicate that ritual sacrifices may have been performed there as well. To read more about archaeology in Oaxaca, go to "Deconstruction a Zapotec Figurine."
Palace Excavated in Oaxaca
News March 30, 2017
Recommended Articles
Digs & Discoveries July/August 2017
House Rules
Digs & Discoveries November/December 2024
Matchbox Memories
Digs & Discoveries July/August 2024
Rubber Ball Recipe
-
Features January/February 2017
Top 10 Discoveries of 2016
ARCHAEOLOGY’s editors reveal the year’s most compelling finds
-
Features January/February 2017
Hoards of the Vikings
Evidence of trade, diplomacy, and vast wealth on an unassuming island in the Baltic Sea
(Gabriel Hildebrand/The Royal Coin Cabinet, Sweden) -
Features January/February 2017
Fire in the Fens
A short-lived settlement provides an unparalleled view of Bronze Age life in eastern England
(Andrew Testa/New York Times/Redux) -
Letter from Laos January/February 2017
A Singular Landscape
New technology is enabling archaeologists to explore a vast but little-studied mortuary complex in war-damaged Laos
(Jerry Redfern)