Imagine you’re digging around the city of Des Moines, Iowa and you stumble upon a secret tunnel. What’s more, is you think there are dead people in there.
That’s exactly what happened to archeologists in Teotihuacan, Mexico. Teotihuacan, which means “birthplace of the gods,” was once an epicenter of Mexican culture. About 200,000 people, the population of modern-day Des Moines, lived there around 600 A.D. Teotihuacan is best known for the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon and the fact that the identities of those who ruled it remains a mystery.
But with this recent discovery, archeologists are hoping to make that known. They think the tunnel belonged to a dynasty.
“I think the tunnel was the central element, the main element around which the rest of the ceremonial center was built,” archaeologist Sergio Gomez told the Associated Press. “This was the most sacred place.”
The roof of the tunnel lies 40 feet below the ground, and inside, Gomez and his associates found nearly 50,000 objects of jade, stone, shell and pottery, which makes them think there are tombs below (because valuables were tossed in there before it was sealed off).
“People have looked for these rulers for many years,” Luis Barba of the Anthropological Research Institute of Mexico’s National Autonomous University said. “Perhaps they will be found now. There is nothing to rule it out or make it impossible, but at this point, we have nothing.”
Photo by bdebaca via Flickr.