NOGALES, ARIZONA—Homeland Security Today reports that U.S. Homeland Security special agents handed over more than 150 artifacts recovered during two separate investigations to officials at the Mexican Consulate. Ten of the objects, ceramics thought to have originated in the western states of Nayarit, Jalisco, and Colima, have been dated to between 100 B.C. and A.D. 500. Other artifacts recovered at the border include arrowheads, ax heads, hammers, spearheads, and figurines dated to between 1,000 and 5,000 years ago. “This repatriation comes at an opportune time, in the year of a very significant commemoration for Mexico, the 500th anniversary of the taking of Tenochtitlan,” commented José Luis Perea González of Mexico’s National Institute for Anthropology and History (INAH). To read about heavily tattooed figures found in western Mexican shaft tombs, go to "Ancient Tattoos: Hollow Ceramic Figurines."
