MesoAmericas & Beyond

An elaborate crypt at least 2,500 years old was found in the Mexican state of Chiapas. The remains are believed to be an early ruler of the Zoque people.

The Zoque are generally thought to be descended from early emigrants from the Olmec culture. The tomb was near the top of a three-story pyramid at the site of Chiapa de Corzo, about 60 miles southeast of the Olmec coastal city of La Venta on the Gulf of Mexico.

“For so long, the Olmec people have been considered the ‘Mother Culture’ where everything started in Mesoamerica,” said archaeologist Carl Wendt of Cal State Fullerton, who was not involved in the research. “This find is showing that complexity is not necessarily confined to the Olmec area.”

The full article is posted on LA Times Website

MesoAmerias.com has published Daniel Brinton’s argument that Tula was merely one of the towns built and occupied by that tribe of the Nahuas known as Azteca or Mexica and its inhabitants were called Toltecs, but there was never any such distinct tribe or nationality; they were merely the ancestors of this branch of the Azteca and the Toltec “empire” is a baseless fable.

The paper is published in MesoAmericas Book Collection.