Accusations fly after an influencer unearths ancient Mixtec treasures in Oaxaca

A Facebook station astir an archaeological find successful the confederate authorities of Oaxaca led to a simmering quality and a flurry of accusations astir however Mexico safeguards its heritage.

This past weekend, Señor Blue, a past and archaeology societal media influencer, shared a video of the find of astir 60 pre-Hispanic artifacts successful San Pedro Jaltepetongo, a agrarian municipality successful the mountains astir 140 kilometers northbound of the authorities capital, Oaxaca city.

The station was accompanied by photographs showing dozens of vases, pots and a portion of golden extracted from a well, prompting the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) to pass against irresponsible reporting.

INAH issued a connection urging citizens, journalists and contented creators to “exercise owed attraction erstwhile disseminating accusation astir archaeological sites not unfastened to the public,” lest they facilitate looting by revealing their location.

“It is everyone’s work to attraction for and sphere our practice for aboriginal generations,” the connection said, “and to debar misinformation that … promotes looting and the demolition of the pre-Hispanic bequest of the radical of Oaxaca and Mexico.”

As the communicative spread, immoderate criticized the amateur excavation for destroying the archaeological context of the find, portion others thanked Señor Blue for his connection of ineligible enactment to support the artifacts successful the section community.

In effect to 1 societal media remark that “If you person truthful overmuch emotion for the past, … you should cognize this: it’s a superior mistake to excavation pieces retired of that hole,” Señor Blue wrote: “The astir superior happening is erstwhile INAH removes everything, cleans it up and takes the items away, storing them successful a warehouse, successful the champion of cases, oregon selling the pieces.”

Señor Blue claims to person infiltrated Facebook groups wherever pieces are offered for sale, saying immoderate individuals adjacent show INAH worker credentials to “authenticate” the pieces being sold. INAH did not respond to the allegations.

The influencer said the residents of San Pedro — who he’d worked with earlier — contacted him for fearfulness that INAH would merchantability the artifacts connected the achromatic market.

He besides defended his actions, arguing that the townspeople should person a accidental successful what happens to the artifacts, citing the removal of treasures from the colony of San Francisco Caxonos successful Oaxaca’s Northern Sierra.

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An INAH excavation there successful the precocious 1990s uncovered six tombs with invaluable Zapotec pieces — including a golden pectoral — from the Late Postclassic play (1300 to 1521 AD). The archaeologists removed each the pieces without informing the community, which, lone years later, discovered the objects were housed successful a Mexico City museum. They person since been returned and tin beryllium viewed astatine the section assemblage museum.

“I similar that radical safeguard their section treasures,” Señor Blue wrote, “I anticipation INAH volition supply them with a museum, but they volition accidental determination are nary resources.”

INAH has confirmed that the postulation of artifacts recovered successful San Pedro — discovered aft a section pistillate gathering epazote successful the fields extracurricular the municipality came crossed a spread successful the crushed — are portion of a pre-Hispanic funerary discourse that corresponds to the Late Postclassic play and exhibits chiseled characteristics of the Mixtec taste tradition.

With reports from El País, Excelsior and El Universal