San Pedro Nexicho It was one of the largest and most important pre-Hispanic settlements in the Sierra Juárez of Oaxaca, as attested by at least a dozen ancient Zapotec tombsseveral of which were recently recovered by an interdisciplinary team from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).
The INAH Oaxaca Center, with financial support from the Alfredo Harp Helú Foundation of Oaxaca (FAHHO), developed a project to rescue, investigate, register and preserve these funerary monuments.
The director of the Monumental Complex Project of atzompadoctor Nelly Robles Garciapoints out that, in view of an alert from the FAHHO of irregular activity in some of the tombs, the INAH Oaxaca Center commissioned a group of professionals from its Archeology, Historical Monuments and Conservation sections, to value four rectangular tombs and a cruciform, which were in poor condition, and now have new covers and accesses.
The actions in the field, he details, were carried out between 2015 and 2020, and now the cabinet phase is being carried out, consisting of the analysis of archaeological materials, from which various publications will derive that will delve into the importance of San Pedro Nexicho in pre-Hispanic timeswith emphasis on its interaction with the Valley of Oaxaca and the Mixteca.
The INAH team found that Tomb 1, discovered by a neighbor in 2010, had been looted; Despite this, materials that were part of the funerary paraphernalia were recovered, such as a small gold bead and splendid murals. The specialists were given the task of rehabilitating the architectural structure and restoring the mural painting that was lying on the floor.
Dr. Robles García, a specialist in pre-Hispanic cultures of Oaxaca, explains that Tomb 1, the largest, has a cruciform plan and is located on what was once a residential terrace. A small stepped system, like a ramp, leads to the entrance, in the shortest part of the cross; from there, one enters the antechamber, four meters wide by one long. Afterwards, the main chamber follows, two meters long by 1.40 meters wide.
Although there are paintings on all the walls, executed in a “codex style”, the war scenes in the main chamber stand out, in which several richly dressed characters appear, painted with black lines, with a deep red background and some elements in yellow. . Its quality, iconography and color give it a high cultural value. These works were stabilized by a team led by restorer Lilia Rivero Weber, former INAH National Coordinator for Cultural Heritage Conservation.
The tombs of San Pedro Nexicho were occupied between the Classic and Early and Late Postclassic periods (AD 200 to AD 1100-1521). In this sense, “they will give us clues on the theme of the elite tombs of those times, and be able to add them to the map that includes those found in places like Monte Albán, Atzompa and Suchiquiltongo, in the Valley of Oaxaca,” says Nelly Robles.
Unlike tombs 1, 3 and 4, from which few materials were recovered, such as local ceramic miniatures, shell and foreign green stone; tombs 2 and 5 were found with their funerary context intact, including osteological material that, despite its poor condition due to moisture filtered in the last five centuries, will provide data on its former inhabitants.
For example, in crypt 2, used as an ossuary, 240 complete and semi-complete objects were found, including stuccos with Zapotec writing, and sgraffito sculptures that reveal their own mountain style. Robles García points out that, in the case of Tomb 3, a small piece of textile revealed that an individual was shrouded and deposited inside, already in the colonial period.
Finally, the archaeologist Nelly Robles acknowledged the support of the Alfredo Harp Helú Foundation, as well as the facilities granted by the San Pedro Nexicho Community Museum and the local authorities, for the rescue work and to be able to establish, in one of its rooms, the first place of work for the archeology of the Sierra Juárez, which will help to vindicate its importance, since Nexicho was the capital of the Ixtepeji manor and an important enclave on the trade route of the Zapotec border.
