The September 2012 issue of the National Speleological Society News (United States) reports a unique archaeological find near a small town in the eastern highlands of Oaxaca. More than 40 figures sculpted from mud were found inside “a river-filled cave with over one kilometer of passages,” writes explorer Tamara Ballensky. “They varied in size from about two to eight feet in length. The majority of the figures resembled humans … One of the most detailed female figures appeared to wear a beaded necklace and had tattoo-like designs on her shoulders.”
Ballensky was a member of an expedition consisting of five U.S. cavers and four local explorers. Several of the Americans came upon the mud sculptures deep inside the cave, to the surprise of local guides who had previously found pottery and animal bones in the cavern, but nothing as dramatic as the larger-than-life mud figures lying in total darkness about 600 meters from the entrance. “These beautiful, mud bodies are the most extraordinary archaeological objects I have ever seen,” comments the speleologist.
Near the sculptures were found human skulls and bones, jars, obsidian blades and rock paintings of human faces and animals, as well as silhouettes of hands and numerous red “polka dots” on the wall whose meaning can only be guessed.Less difficult to guess is the significance of the mud sculptures, most of which are posed in sexually relevant positions, to such an extent that if this cave is ever opened to tourism, it will probably be rated “for adults only.”
The cave, known as La Cueva del Rey, was named by local people after a powerful king of the Mixe ethnic group, which lived in the mountains of Oaxaca and whose enemies were the Zapotecs. Legend says that during a battle, the Zapotecs set fire to a mountain top to trap the Mixes, but Con-Doy, (the Burnt King) escaped their clutches through a cave which – in line with stories about Mexican caves still heard today – led the king and his party for a long distance underground until they exited in a distant city. The Mixes, who have long inhabited this remote, rocky part of the Sierra Madre Occidental, are thought by some to be descendants of the Olmecs, but according to their own legends their forefathers came from the Andes. They were referred to as “fierce and well-armed” by Hernán Cortés whose men were unable to subjugate them and to this day they are proud of never having been conquered by the Conquistadores.
The explorers of La Cueva del Rey presented their findings to Dr. Marcus Winter of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH), who tentatively fixed the age of the mud sculptures at 2,000 years before present or older, based on stylistic similarities to artifacts in Oaxaca whose dates are well known. He suggests that the sculptors and painters belonged to the Mixe-Zoque ethnic and linguistic tradition. In reference to the mud sculptures, Dr. Winter states: “Caves in Mesoamerica are commonly considered portals to the underworld, which in some cases may be the interior of sacred mountains, sources of abundance and fertility. In the Maya area, caves are sometimes associated with female genitalia and in some cases eroticism and fertility … It is worth noting here that, according to the Popul Vuh, the Quiché Maya creation myth, the gods sculpted the first humans of clay…”
How the mud figures have survived for two millennia, lying on an embankment only inches from a river, is not explained in the article, but it is quite likely that many more studies will be carried out in La Cueva del Rey once the news of its treasures reaches the archaeological community and the world at large.
Note: in this article, we have changed the name of the cave and eliminated the name of the local town in accordance with the wishes of the archaeologists and explorers who are studying the mud statues and other discoveries. Speleologists all over the world are sometimes obliged to do this in order to protect the extremely delicate underground environment from unthinking visitors who, in one second, can destroy precious formations or artifacts which the cave has been protecting for thousands or sometimes tens of thousands of years. We thank the exploration team and Dr. Marcus Winter of INAH for allowing us to break the story of these extraordinary finds in Mexico.