By Yasemin Saplakoglu - Staff Writer 13 hours ago History
The tunnel was decorated in "petroglyphs" and stucco reliefs.
The east end of the tunnel, where the water exited, was decorated in petroglyphs and stucco reliefs.
(Image: © Edith Camacho INAH)
Archaeologists have uncovered a 17th-century tunnel filled with indigenous rock carvings in the city of Ecatepec in Mexico. The tunnel likely served as part of a floodgate for a dike — through which water entered on one side and exited on the other — that was created to control the constant flooding that ravaged the lands.
The carvings decorating the east end of the 27.6-foot-long (8.4 meters) tunnel include 11 pre-Hispanic images — or those that date back to the Native Americans that lived in the area before 1521 when it was conquered by the Spanish — in the form of etchings into the rock called "petroglyphs" and stucco reliefs. The reliefs were created by sculpting an image and then painting it with limestone, said Raúl García Chávez, coordinator of the salvage and enhancement project for the dike.
The carvings include a "chimalli" or war shield, a flint point and the head of a bird of prey, while the stucco reliefs resemble raindrops.
The raindrop symbols were found on the upper part of the keystone — the top stone that holds the arch together — also on the east end of the tunnel where the water exited; these symbols could represent a link with Tlaloc, the Aztec god of rain, Chávez told Live Science. The lower part of the keystone is engraved with an image of a temple. On the west side, where the water once entered the tunnel, the researchers found one more petroglyph which they are currently studying. They also found four iron nails and two 21-foot-long (6.5 m) wooden beams.
More:
https://www.livescience.com/17th-century-tunnel-discovered-mexico.html?utm_source=notification
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