Mérida (Mexico) (EFE).- Mexican archaeologists discovered an offering of 16 flint and obsidian knives in the pre-Hispanic city of Kulubá, in the southern state of Yucatán, near a sacrificial altar.
“The offering was found on the platform of the semi-subterranean deposits that is part of the central square of Kulubá, which belongs to the municipality of Tizimín,” Alfredo Barrera Rubio, a researcher at the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) revealed to EFE this Saturday. .
The structure where the offering niche was located is located to the southwest of the central plaza of that Maya-Toltec site, which had a commercial relationship with Ek Balam and Chichén Itzá.
Kulubá, whose most recent findings were revealed at the XII International Congress of Mayanists that took place in Mexico City, has five Palaces: de los Mascarones, de la U, Los Chenes, de los Pilares and de la Ocupación de los Itzáes.
The symbology of the offering
The knife offering was discovered during the fourth season of excavation work and corresponds to the second and last construction phase of the platform: the Late Classic (600-900 BC) and the Terminal Classic (850-1,050 BC).
“The importance of the offering is its ritual character, since the structure had a function, a symbolism within the worldview of the ancient settlers,” said the researcher.
The expert said that “what is interesting is that the offering invites sacrifice, because these types of knives were used for sacrifices.”
The lithic offering was on one side of the platform of the semi-subterranean deposits that has a stone slab that was used for sacrifices, offerings, and inside, tribute products were stored, such as cocoa, salt, and ramón seeds.
Regarding the sacrifices, Barrera Rubio said that “if Kulubá has a sacrifice platform, then there were human and animal sacrifices in general.”
A valuable find
The archaeologist Cristian Hernández González, researcher of the lithic material of the Kulubá Project, highlighted the importance of the offering in the site that was an enclave of Chichén Itzá.
“The offering is made up of 16 pieces: three of flint and 13 of obsidian, materials that are not available in the Yucatan peninsula, brought from faraway places, such as Guatemala and central Mexico,” he explained.
The archaeologist revealed that “according to a macroscopic study of footprints, the knives were never used.”
“The flint and obsidian knives were manufactured for the platform of the deposits and that gives relevance to the lithic offering,” he asserted.
Human remains in the Palace of the Pillars
Regarding the human remains found in the four seasons in Kulubá, Barrera Rubio assured that none of them belong to a local Mayan dignitary.
“We found secondary burials and a kind of ossuary, but the 12 most recent finds in the Palacio de los Pilares had no offerings, which indicates that they were sacrificed slaves or captives,” he said.
On another side of the Mayan palace they found only skulls “that were thrown in a space where there were no offerings, it means that these people were not elite.”