Five ancient shaft tombs full of human stays and burial offerings have been uncovered in central Mexico.
The chilling discovery was made during excavations linked to a serious railway project in Tula, Hidalgo.
Archaeologists found one chamber containing the stays of eight people alongside 47 miniature ceramic vessels, with several bodies buried in seated positions and offerings placed at their feet.
Among the many artefacts recovered were fragments of a semi-circular mother-of-pearl pendant, plaques constructed from the small material, a small shell and decorated vessels.
Researchers from the Archaeological Salvage Programme, led by archaeologist Víctor Heredia Guillén, has been on site since September 2025.
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They’ve now documented greater than a dozen individual and collective burials at the location, including the stays of youngsters, teenagers and adults.
Mexico’s culture secretary, Claudia Curiel de Icaza, said the find ‘provides information concerning the ways of life, beliefs, and social organisation of those that inhabited this region greater than a thousand years ago, and confirms that infrastructure development may be accompanied by rigorous research and the preservation of heritage.’
The tombs were carved into tepetate, a hardened volcanic soil found across the region, beneath the stays of ancient homes and courtyards dating back almost 1,800 years.
A lot of the structures uncovered belong to the Teotihuacan civilisation, which was distinguished between AD225 and 550
The culture is known for constructing the enormous pyramids at Teotihuacan, which gave it its name, and existed centuries before the Aztecs.
Archaeologists first identified the location after spotting fragments of ancient pottery scattered across the surface. Test excavations revealed the foundations of residential compounds.
The settlement formed a part of a wider network of Teotihuacan-linked communities spread across northern Tula dating from AD 200 to 650.
These include Chingú, considered a regional centre of Teotihuacan expansion, in addition to El Tesoro, Acoculco, El Llano, and La Malinche.
Last yr, liquid mercury was present in the Quetzalcoatl temple – often known as the Feathered Serpent Pyramid – in the traditional city of Teotihuacan.
Experts consider it can have been regarded as a ‘gateway to the underworld’.
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