Archaeologists discover ceremonial offering in Mexican pyramid
Archaeologists discover ceremonial offering in Mexican pyramid
Archaeologists say they have dug to the very core of Mexico's tallest pyramid and found the original ceremonial offering placed on the site before construction began.
7:49AM GMT 14 Dec 2011
The offering includes a green stone mask so delicately carved and detailed that archaeologists believe it may have been a portrait. Archaeologists also found 11 ceremonial clay pots dedicated to the rain god Tlaloc.
The National Institute of Anthropology and History says the offering was laid on a rubble base where the Sun pyramid in Teotihuacan was erected in about A.D. 50.
Experts followed an old tunnel dug through the pyramid by researchers in the 1930s that narrowly missed the centre, and then dug small extensions and exploratory shafts off it.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/mexico/8955069/Archaeologists-discover-ceremonial-offering-in-Mexican-pyramid.html
Pyramid of the Sun, taken from the Pyramid of the Moon.
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[font size=1] The trove of offerings uncovered at the core of Teotihuacan’s Pyramid of the Sun includes a mask so lifelike
it might have been a portrait. (Credit: Mauricio Marat/INAH)[/font]
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A trove of ceremonial offerings has been discovered at the base of Teotihuacan’s Pyramid of the Sun, archaeologists from Mexico’s National Anthropology and History Institute (INAH) announced yesterday. The items, which include a green stone mask, pieces of pottery and animal bones, might have been part of a consecration ceremony held when workers broke ground on the massive structure more than 1,900 years ago, they said.
Founded by an as-yet-unidentified group around 100 B.C., the ruined city of Teotihuacan features some of the largest pyramids built in the pre-Columbian Americas, along with temples, palaces, apartment-style complexes and remarkably preserved murals. At its height the settlement may have been home to some 200,000 people. By the time the Aztecs discovered the once-thriving hub around 1300, however, it had been abandoned for centuries, perhaps as a result of famine, drought or warfare.
Roughly 200 feet high and 700 feet wide, the Pyramid of the Sun towers over Teotihuacan’s other buildings. A temple once perched on its tallest steppe, accessible via precipitous stone staircases. The pyramid was built atop a tunnel-like cave, and archaeologists have spent decades exploring its chambers in search of clues about the imposing structure’s significance. Some experts believe it served as a royal tomb, while others have speculated that it represented a portal to the underworld.
For the last few years, INAH researchers have been inching toward the pyramid’s core, entering long-sealed tunnels and using ground-penetrating radar to navigate the maze. On Tuesday they revealed the discovery of a collection of treasures on a pile of rubble at the pyramid’s center. Thought to have been given as offerings to the gods, the items include pieces of obsidian, pottery, animal bones and three human figures; one of these, a delicately carved serpentine mask, is so lifelike that archaeologists believe it may have been a portrait. The trove’s position within the structure suggests it was placed there before construction began, INAH archaeologist Enrique Perez Cortes said in a statement.
More:
http://www.history.com/news/2011/12/14/offerings-discovered-at-base-of-teotihuacans-pyramid-of-the-sun/
It's beautiful, but it appears not to have eye holes!
I can't believe you found an in situ photo. 
One crystal skull, please! 