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skywizard
16th September 2013, 16:31
Here's another one guys The Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca Head. In 1933, archeologist Jose Garcia Payon discovered an interesting burial site. Located under a pyramid like structure, with other grave goods (including gold, copper, turquoise, pottery, and the like) Payon found a small, terracotta head shaped in the Roman style. The grave was dated to 1476-1510 A.D. This begs the question: how did a Roman artifact find its way into a Mexican burial site in the late 1400s? Could this head, if indeed Roman in origin, indicate a pre-Columbian Trans-Atlantic contact?

“An assessment of the case was made in 2001 by Romeo H. Hristov of University of New Mexico and Santiago Genovés T. of National Autonomous University of Mexico. This result clears up the doubts of Colonial manufacture of the artifact, and makes the hypothesis of Roman origin –among other possibilities- applicable.

The identification of the head as Roman work from the II-III century A.D. has been further confirmed by Bernard Andreae, a director emeritus of the German Institute of Archaeology in Rome, Italy. According to Andreae "[the head] is without any doubt Roman, and the lab analysis has confirmed that it is ancient. The stylistic examination tells us more precisely that it is a Roman work from around the II century A.D., and the hairstyle and the shape of the beard present the typical traits of the Severian emperors period [193-235 A.D.], exactly in the ‘fashion’ of the epoch."

On the other hand, an examination of the field notes of the archaeologist in charge of the excavation as well as the site itself have not revealed, in either case, signs of possible disturbances of the context (Hristov and Genovés 1999). A thermoluminescence test performed in 1995 by P. Schaaf and G.A. Wagner in the FS Archäometrie unit in Heidelberg, Germany, established its age range to somewhere between the 9th century BC and the middle of the 13th century AD, confirming its pre-colonial provenance.

However, Schaaf and Wagner have objected to the way the dates were described by Hristov and Genoves. Bernard Andreae of the German Institute of Archaeology in Rome, Italy, who examined photographs of the artifact, stated that he believed that it was Roman and proposed the 2nd century AD as its date of origin, based on the hairstyle and the beard.”

http://projectavalon.net/forum4/attachment.php?attachmentid=21088&d=1365460159

Some believe the head is a hoax, planted at the dig site. (why is this not a surprise to me!) More likely I would think that the head made its way to Mexico via trade, if anything…. still that’s quite a journey for the time.

peace...
skywizard