Archaeologists Baffled by 1,900-Year-Old Weapons in Remote Cave

Ancient hunting instruments dated to around 1,900 years ago have been discovered in a remote cave in Mexico—and archaeologists said they were puzzled by the location of the find.

The hunting instruments were first spotted in a small gallery of the Cueva del Tesoro (Treasure Cave)—located in the central state of Querétaro—by members of a cavers association, the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said in a press release.

The cavers subsequently notified INAH, and eventually, archaeologists with the institute were dispatched to investigate the cave.

The archaeologists, under the supervision of the cavers, had to ascend more than 600 feet from the bottom of a ravine to reach the entrance of the cavity. They then had to pass through a narrow passageway until they reached the gallery.

Within the gallery, the archaeologists identified an ancient atlatl (a spear- or dart-thrower) and two wooden darts, as well as some modified logs that were probably used for digging but may have been used as multifunctional tools.

During their explorations, the INAH researchers did not find any other pre-Hispanic archaeological artifacts in the cave that would have enabled them to propose an explanation for how and why the hunting instruments ended up in the cave. However, an analysis of the samples will be announced on Saturday at a lecture series held in the Templo Mayor Museum, Mexico City.

One of the archaeologists, Carlos Viramontes, said the hunting instruments provide evidence of hunter-gatherer societies, which were present in the region since around 7000 B.C., or 9,000 years ago. Among the traces that these hunter-gatherers left behind are hundreds of rock art sites.

"Three decades ago, what we knew about these groups was based on sources from the 16th century, which depicted them as barbarians, and it was not until the end of the 1950s that the foundations were laid to delve deeper into the subject," Viramontes said in the press release.

"In 1989, the INAH Querétaro Center recorded elements with similar dating in Mesa de León, a site near the Cueva del Tesoro, where we now recover the atlatl and the darts—pieces that add to this puzzle to understand hunter-gatherer societies, whose presence in the region dates back at least 9,000 years, and who survived two more centuries after the arrival of the Spanish."

The dryness of the environment in the Treasure Cave allowed for the preservation of the hunting instruments, the age of which was determined using radiocarbon dating techniques. This gave a possible age range of A.D. 7-132.

The INAH archaeologists said the mystery of the latest discoveries will persist until new investigations are carried out in the areas surrounding the cave. This may enable experts to determine how and why these instruments were left there.

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