Zapotecs of Mexico: Significant Archaeological Discovery

An exquisitely preserved and decorated tomb dating back 1,400 years has been found in the jungle.

The owl head - a symbol of life and death

Belonging to one of Mexico’s non-Mayan native cultures, the Zapotecs, its most striking feature is a frieze of an enormous owl head, with a man’s face trapped in its beak. The Zapotecs are a pre-Colombian people who inhabited areas making up the modern Mexican state of Oaxaca as far back as the 6th century BCE, around the time this tomb dates to.

Located in San Pablo Huitzo, the tomb is decorated with scenes associated with funerary traditions, according to Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). “It’s the most significant archaeological discovery of the last decade in Mexico due to the level of preservation and the information it provides,” said Claudia Sheinbaum (who became Mexico's first woman president in 2024).

Mexico’s culture secretary, Claudia Curiel de Icaza, also pointed out that the tomb is an “exceptional discovery” for what it tells us about Zapotec culture and “its social organization, funerial rituals and belief system, preserved by the architecture and the murals.”

Everyone agrees that the truly standout feature of the tomb is the owl sculpture. In Zapotec myth, owls were symbols of both the night and death, and the beak of the bird contains a stone head - perhaps representing the one belonging to the man buried in the tomb, INAH said. Hundreds of thousands of Zapotec speakers still live in Mexico to this day.

All images courtesy of Luis Gerardo Pena Torres | INAH

The site is also home to multicoloured murals, featuring symbols associated with power and death. At the threshold to the burial chamber there are carvings of two human figures holding various artifacts in their hands, who may have been the guardians of the tomb, according to the INAH. And inside the burial chamber itself is an “extraordinary” mural in ocher, white, green, red and blue, showing a procession of people carrying bags of copal, a tree resin burned as incense during ceremonies.

CNN reports that a multidiscplinary team from the INAH is now working to protect the site and conduct further research.