Archaeologists discover cave in Mexico filled with 1,000-year-old Mayan ceramics in near-perfect condition

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Mexican archaeologists have discovered a cave at the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza containing around 200 ceramic vessels in nearly perfect condition.

The items appear to date to around AD 1000 and contain bone fragments and burnt offering materials, according to the National Institute of Anthropology and History.

Exploration of the cave began last year after indigenous people living in the area told experts about it, said archaeologist Guillermo de Anda.

The 155 ceramic braziers – containers used for burning – and incense pots found by the experts bear the likeness of Tlaloc, the rain god of central Mexico. Small clay boxes were among the other vessels found.

Mr De Anda said the objects were “completely untouched”.

The team of explorers had been searching for an underground water system before finding the sacred cave.

The ancient Mayans had their own rain god, Chaac, and may have imported Tlaloc from other pre-Hispanic cultures.

Mr De Anda said the Mayans would have had to crawl on their bellies through the extremely narrow cave to deposit the offerings inside a few larger, higher chambers. The offerings were meant to ask for rain, the experts believe.

It emerged that the cave had been discovered, but not fully explored, by local people around 50 years ago.

They told an archaeologist about the cave but he ordered it sealed – possibly to protect it – and only issued a brief report that was forgotten in Mexican government archives.

The archaeologists studying the objects plan to leave them all in the cave after their analysis.

Known as Balamku, the cave is about 1.7 miles east of the main pyramid of Kukulkan, also known as El Castillo or “The Castle”.

Mr De Anda and his team have been exploring Chichen Itza to establish the routes and sites of the Mayan underground water system.

A series of sinkhole lakes known as cenotes are visible on the surface of the site, but there are other, undiscovered water sites beneath the labyrinth of pyramids, patios and temples.

Water was always central to Chichen Itza, whose name means “at the mouth of the well of the water wizards” in the Maya language.

Mr De Anda said experts had crawled a few hundred metres into the cave, which in places is just 40cm high, in hopes of finding the connection to a cenote believed to lie under the pyramid of Kukulkan.

“Let’s hope this leads us there. That is part of the reason why we are entering these sites, to find a connection to the cenote under the Castillo,” he said.

Additional reporting by Associated Press