Astonishing 1,400-year-old Tomb Featuring Giant Owl Sculpture Discovered in Mexico
By Andy Corbley -Feb 2, 2026
The owl statue – Luis Gerardo Pena Torres, INAH, released
It’s being called the most significant archaeological discovery in a decade: a tomb dating back 1,400 years decorated with murals and carvings of exquisite preservation.
Belonging to one of Mexico’s non-Mayan native cultures, the Zapotecs, its most striking feature is a frieze of an enormous owl head, with a man’s face trapped in its beak.
Luis Gerardo Pena Torres, INAH, released
The Zapotecs are a pre-Colombian people who inhabited areas making up the modern Mexican state of Oaxaca as far back as the 6th century BCE, around the time this tomb dates to.
The earliest Spanish chronicles speak of the Zapotecs existing in a state of war with the Aztecs, and today, their descendants make up a recognized racial group in the modern Mexican state numbering in the hundreds of thousands, speaking a language of the same name.
Located in San Pablo Huitzo, the tomb is decorated with murals in green, white, blue, and red pigments that show scenes associated with funerary traditions, a statement from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) explains.
“It’s the most significant archaeological discovery of the last decade in Mexico due to the level of preservation and the information it provides,” said President Claudia Sheinbaum in a press briefing in the days following the discovery’s announcement.
More:
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/astonishing-1400-year-old-tomb-featuring-giant-owl-sculpture-discovered-in-mexico/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Other images from Navaho, Pueblo, other sources, appear, as well. . .
The Google images look like things made for tourists, maybe.
News
By Kristina Killgrove
published January 26, 2026
The president of Mexico called the discovery of a 1,400-year-old Zapotec tomb in Oaxaca the "most significant archaeological discovery in a decade."
a side view of an ancient tomb with a large owl sculpture with a human head in its beak
A sculpted owl, whose beak covers the painted face of a Zapotec lord, decorates the front of a 1,400-year-old tomb in Oaxaca. (Image credit: Luis Gerardo Peña Torres/INAH)
Archaeologists in Mexico have discovered a 1,400-year-old tomb from the Zapotec culture that features well-preserved details, including a sculpture of a wide-eyed owl with a man in its beak, multicolored murals and calendrical carvings.
Officials found the tomb after following up on an anonymous report of looting at the site. Their investigation revealed the "most significant archaeological discovery in a decade in Mexico," Mexico's president, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, announced at a Jan. 23 news conference in Spanish.
The tomb was discovered in San Pablo Huitzo, a municipality in Oaxaca in southern Mexico, in 2025. It dates to about A.D. 600, when the Indigenous Zapotecs — also known as the "Cloud People" — flourished in the area. The Zapotec civilization was established around 700 B.C. and collapsed due to the Spanish conquest in 1521. However, hundreds of thousands of Zapotec-speaking people still live in Mexico today.
At the entrance to the newly announced tomb, archaeologists found a large carved owl whose beak opens to reveal the painted face of a Zapotec lord. In ancient Zapotec culture, the owl represented death and power, suggesting it held in its mouth a portrait of the ancestor the tomb honors, according to a translated statement from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).
More:
https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/1-400-year-old-zapotec-tomb-discovered-in-mexico-features-enormous-owl-sculpture-symbolizing-death
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