ArchaeOLogy > Up Close With a Zapotec Urn > The Discovery

Zapotec Urn: Yes, Lucy, it was. And I owe it all to Marshall Saville . He found me in 1898, on one of the first archaeological projects ever conducted in Mexico . Imagine—during his first year of digging, he found me! Can you believe the luck? Dr. Saville was an important figure in archaeology, and the first curator of Mexican archaeology at the American Museum of Natural History.

Zapotec Urn: He found me near a tomb in Xoxocotlán (ho-ho-coat-lan), a village in the valley of Oaxaca where the Zapotec once lived.

Zapotec Urn: Well, it wasn't easy. When the Zapotecs abandoned the site, all the buildings fell into ruin. Over hundreds of years, a mound of dirt and grass covered the tomb where I was buried. Dr. Saville had been excavating these mounds to find out what they were. At the same time, local people were planting crops in the area. One group started to dig a hole in one of the mounds because they wanted to destroy an ant nest that was eating their crops. As they were digging, they discovered a stone wall, which eventually lead them to me.

Zapotec Urn: Lucky for me, he recognized the importance of the wall because he had started to figure out that there were buildings hidden in the mounds. You see, in ancient Mexico, palaces and temples were built on stone bases or platforms. And important people were buried in these platforms. Dr. Saville realized that the stone wall was really the platform that would have supported an important building—and that he'd find tombs underneath. When he started to clear the rubble, there I was, just sitting on the floor as if I'd been waiting there for him all that time.

Zapotec Urn: Yes, I knew those other four urns well. After all, we were in that tomb together for over a thousand years. In fact, we had a hard time telling each other apart at first, since we're all large decorated clay funeral urns. Four of the five of us look alike, wearing masks of Cociyo and similar capes. One of us has no mask and a different cape, but we have never figured out why. I hope archaeologists can solve that mystery some day.