28 May 2023 The Future is the Product of the Past

INAH Archaeologists recover the coyote-man of Tacámbaro

Archaeologists win the coyote-man trial that lasted 30 years in Mexico.

The litigation regarding the coyote-man of Tacámbaro, an important archaeological item of Tarascan civilization, has been completed, and the court has determined that the statue is “property of the nation.”

Archaeologists from the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) unearthed an important statue from the Tarascan culture almost 30 years ago for the INAH Michoacán Center.

The coyote-man of Tacámbaro was discovered during drainage works in the Llanos de Canícuaro neighborhood, municipality of Tacámbaro de Codallos, where during antiquity the Tarascan civilization had constructed the city of Tzintzuntza (meaning “place of the hummingbirds” in the Purépecha language.)

The sculpture depicts a coyote-man perched on a throne made of basalt, measuring 1.08 meters tall by 45 cm wide, and was held on private property owned by the Hernández family until INAH recovered the sculpture through Mexico’s Federal Law on Monuments and Archaeological, Artistic and Historical Zones.

Photo: INAH

The sculpture depicts a coyote-man perched on a throne made of basalt, measuring 1.08 meters tall by 45 cm wide.

It was held in private ownership by the Hernández family until INAH saved the statue through Mexico’s Federal Law on Monuments and Archaeological, Artistic and Historical Zones.

The INAH Michoacán Center held a press conference to announce the court ruling about the sculpture. INAH Michoacán manager Marco Antonio Rodriguez Espinosa and Tacámbaro de Codallos mayor Artemio Moriya Sánchez thanked the Hernández Family for keeping the National Historic Heritage statue in their home during the 30-year trial and handing it over to officials after the lawsuit’s outcome was announced.

Archaeologist José Luis Punzo said: “Representations of coyotes and a dozen coyote-man figures have been found in Tzintzuntzan and Ihuatzio, very similar in their form to the one from Tacámbaro, but are generally smaller in size ranging from 40 to 50 centimeters.”

“We know that the last lords of Tzintzuntzan, who wrote the Relacion de Michoacán, were the so-called uacúsecha, the ‘lineage of the eagle’. Next to this was another large city on Lake Pátzcuaro, Ihuatzio, which means ‘place of coyotes’, where most of these sculptures have been located. One of the hypotheses is that the coyote-man sculptures could represent a dynasty that ruled this place, even before the Uacúsecha history was written” added Punzo.

The Tarascan civilization (also known as the Purépecha) was a Mesoamerican civilization that governed significant sections of western Mexico during the Post-Classic Period (AD 1400-1521).

The sculpture of the coyote-man of Tacámbaro is located on the facility of the INAH Michoacán Center, where it is preserved for restoration and research.

INAH

Cover Photo: INAH

Banner
Related Post

The Oklahoma City Museum of Art will launch “The Painters of Pompeii” on June 26

23 June 2021

23 June 2021

A number of collection highlights will travel to North America for the first time as part of the exhibition The...

Underwater Archaeologists Discover a 7,000-Year-Old Road in Croatia

8 May 2023

8 May 2023

A team of underwater archaeologists from the University of Zadar has discovered the sunken ruins of a 7,000-year-old road that...

6,000-year-old island settlement found off the Croatian coast

24 June 2021

24 June 2021

Archaeologist Mate Parica, a professor at the University of Zadar, noticed something unusual while examining satellite images of Croatia‘s coastline....

The First Dinosaurs Discovered in Japan From the Late Cretaceous Period

30 April 2021

30 April 2021

Yamatosaurus Izanagii, a new genus, and species of hadrosaur or duck-billed dinosaur have been discovered on one of Japan’s southern...

Human blood proteins were found in the red paint on a 1,000-year-old gold mask from Peru

27 October 2021

27 October 2021

Traces of human blood have been discovered in the red paint that decorated a gold mask found on the remains...

A 4,500-year-old rope remains were discovered at Turkey’s Seyitömer mound

26 December 2021

26 December 2021

In the rescue excavation carried out in the mound, which is located within the license border of Çelikler Seyitömer Electricity...

Archaeologists may have uncovered a 13th-century castle in Shropshire

7 August 2021

7 August 2021

Archaeologists have been working on a mound of land in Wem, Shropshire, that belongs to Soulton Hall, Elizabethan mansion and...

Archaeologists discovered the secret ingredient that made Mayan plaster durable

20 April 2023

20 April 2023

Ancient Mayan masons had their own secrets for making lime plasters, mortars, and plasters, which they used to build their...

Visit Baalbek’s Famous Temples with a Free 3d Virtual Tour

10 April 2021

10 April 2021

Baalbek, which has traces of settlement since 9000 BC, was one of the cornerstones of ancient civilizations. The famous Baalbek temple...

Staging of religion on rock paintings that are thousands of years old in southern Egypt desert

10 May 2023

10 May 2023

Egyptologists at the University of Bonn and the University of Aswan want to systematically record hundreds of petroglyphs and inscriptions...

A wash-basin decorated with 2500-year-old Mythological creatures and Chariot races was discovered in Izmir, Turkey

28 September 2022

28 September 2022

Unique ceramic figures were discovered in the excavations carried out this year in the ancient city of Klazomenai in the...

Collectors In The Prehistoric World Recycled Old Stone Tools To Preserve The Memory Of Their Ancestors

16 March 2022

16 March 2022

A first-of-its-kind study at Tel Aviv University asks what drove prehistoric humans to collect and recycle flint tools that had...

12,000-Year-Old rock art may depict extinct giants of the ice age

13 March 2022

13 March 2022

South America was filled with ice age animals more than 12,000 years ago, including car-sized ground sloths, elephantine herbivores, and...

Restoration works for ancient Arch de Triumph in Palmyra to begin

22 March 2022

22 March 2022

Restoration works of the Arch of Triumph of the Ancient City of Palmyra, which was destroyed by the terrorist organization...

New research determines portable toilets of the ancient Roman world

11 February 2022

11 February 2022

New research published today reveals how archeologists can determine when a pot was used by Romans as a portable toilet,...

Comments
Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *