Astonishing 1,400-year-old Tomb Featuring Giant Owl Sculpture Discovered in Mexico [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

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/