New research has bring out a grave historical error at Palacio de Cortés in Mexico . It was long get into that a skeleton on display at the palace was that of a Spanish Thelonious Monk – but a new psychoanalysis has establish that it actually probably belonged to an Aztec woman .
Palacio de Cortés in the metropolis of Cuernavaca was damage bythe deadly Puebla earthquakein September 2017 , spark a renovation undertaking to restore the construction to its former glory . During the regaining workplace , anthropologist from Mexico ’s National Institute of Anthropology and History ( INAH ) took a fresh look at the supposed monk buried in the castle .
While most believed the organic structure belong to a Spanish “ human beings of the fabric ” name Juan Leyva , the identity element of this person was never certain .
Excavations of the Palacio de Cortés skeleton in the early 1970s.Image credit: Juan Dubernard Chauveau/INAH
The label that has been accompanying the remains for almost 50 age take as so : “ Burial found in situ of a man with deformed vertebrae . Traditionally it is stated that it may be the monk Juan Leyva , who served the Marchioness Doña Juana de Zúñiga de Arellano , married woman of Hernán Cortés and resident of this palace , however , due to the eccentric of position it may be an indigenous burial . ”
To fix the mystery once and for all , INAH research worker launch a detailed archeological analysis of the clay and its mise en scene .
Wear - and - bust on their tooth indicate the someone was 30 and 40 years old when they die . Despite their “ deformed vertebrae ” , they found no grounds of disease in the skeleton , leaving it incertain how the someone died .
A more recent image of the skeleton.Image credit: INAH
Based on the size of their humerus ( an upper arm bone ) , the investigator suggest they were around 147 centimeter ( under 4 foot 10 column inch ) marvelous . The wide soma of the pelvis also distinctly show that the skeleton was feminine .
Crucially , the written report suggest the body dates to an era span 1450 to 1500 cerium . SinceEuropean colonizersdid not arrive in modern - dayMexicountil 1511 CE , we can safely don this is not the body of a Spanish man .
or else , the researchers argue that the people belonged to a pre - Hispanic grouping , most likely the Tlahuica people of Central Mexico . The Palace of Cortés was only retrace by the Spanish in the 1520s , so it appears the structure was built around this pre - existent tomb from a previous era .
“ It is more related to a pre - Latino burial , which could belong to the contact point or originally , ” Jorge Angulo , an archaeologist with the INAH , said in astatement .
He added that the former hypothesis did n’t make sense because it was very strange “ that a clergyman was buried outside his community , even more so that his burying system was not associated with the Catholic canon of the metre . ”
In visible light of this body of work , the archaeological display has recently been reopened with a fresh certificate , which state that the burying belong to a “ Tlahuica Woman . ”
