54. Possible Relatives in the Americas

Tequixquiac carving (State of Mexico, Mexico)

by George Weber

Location of Tequixquiac

The Tequixquiac carving (also known as the Barzena carving after its finder) is a carving representing the face of a dog, wolf or coyote. It was carved from the sacrum of a leistocene and now long extinct camelid species.

The carving was found in 1870 by Mariano Barcena and published in 1882. The discovery was made at a depth of 12 m below surface in pleistocene deposits dasted to around 40,000 years in the valley of Mexico, 67.5 km (42 miles) north of Mexico City. The artefact was subsequently "lost" in the 1890s but re-discovered in 1956. Studies done on the carving have largely confirmed its authenticity although the age of the artefact remains unclear because we donot know whether the carving had been done soon after the animal's death or long after.

The carving is the earliest example of true art found in the Americas so far. The true purpose and meaning of the carving, as well as the culture that produced it, remain unknown.

The site also has produced stone tools (flakes, scrapers) and splinters of mammoth bones worked into awls.

The Tequixquiac (or Barzena) carving

 

Some of the stone tools found in association with the Tequixquiac carving.

Among web-sites with further information are:

 - http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-7316(196107)27%3A1%3C46%3ADITAON%3E2.0.CO%3B2-M

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Last change 15 January 2007