Possible Ritual Deposits at Palenque Investigated

News April 17, 2022

(Palenque INAH Archaeological Project)
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Mexico Palenque Remains
(Palenque INAH Archaeological Project)

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO—According to a statement released by Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), tiny pieces of green stone, animal remains, seeds, charcoal, and small beads made of shell and other materials were recovered when earth from deposits discovered in houses B and E in the palace at Palenque was passed through water and a fine sieve. Carlos Miguel Varela Scherrer said that the flotation process revealed the remains of fish, mussels, snails, freshwater crabs, quail, bass, turtle, armadillo, dog, crocodile, turkey, and deer. Varela Scherrer and his colleagues Arnoldo González Cruz and Haydeé Orea Magaña suggest the food waste and other objects used at a banquet had been placed in cavities at the site and then burned and buried, perhaps at the beginning of the construction of a building or as a religious rite during the Classic period, from about A.D. 200 to 900. To read about excavations of a royal palace at Palenque, go to "House Rules."

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