CAs usual, prehistorians have claimed that this case was a fraud. Bad luck for them, in 1972, three figurines were analyzed by the thermoluminescence method in the laboratories of the Pennsylvania Museum (USA). The figurines date back to at least 2 BCE. Acambaro has thus been authenticated.
In 1923, Waldemar Julsrud, a trader of German origin, and Padre Fray José Marie Martinez discovered the archaeological site of Chupicuaro dating from pre-classical times and containing vases, bowls and figurines from the oldest known Indian culture. , named after the site and dating to 1 BC, predated the Tarascan Indians, the oldest known Indian culture at that time.
A few years later, in July 1944, Waldemar Julsrud, then aged 69 made a resounding discovery in Acambaro, a small Mexican town located less than 300 km northwest of Mexico City, in the province of Guanajuato.
As he rode on horseback along a ditch near Bull Hill, accompanied by one of his employees, a farmer named Odilon Tinajero, his attention was caught by a piece of ceramic emerging from the ground. Despite his expertise in the pre-Columbian and Indian civilizations of this continent, the style of the statuette is completely unknown to him.
He then asks Tinajero to dig and bring him any similar pieces he could find. Tinajero shows up a few days later with a wheelbarrow full of these statuettes. Julsrud was amazed at the style and variety of the figures. He made a deal with his employee: he would pay him 1 peso for all the whole figurines brought back but nothing for the damaged ones, which he still had to give him. This well-known maneuver of rewarding mining workers aims to prevent the theft or embezzlement of precious objects. In addition, the interest of the reward in this case should encourage the farmer to be careful and careful to prevent the statuettes from being damaged.
The figurines were discovered in groups of 20 to 40 inside wells at a depth ranging from approximately 1m to 20m. They were not funeral wells, because only 1 skulls were found during excavations. The hypothesis put forward by Mr. Julsrud is that these would have been hastily buried to protect them from the looting of the first Spanish settlers (or perhaps something else, as we will see that the composition and the dating of these artifacts pose a big problem).
A total of more than 33 ceramic objects (in a very large majority), stone, jade and obsidian have been found. They are all unique, no copy is similar to the other. They vary in size, from a few centimeters to less than a meter. Six different types of clay were used, all were made by the so-called open fire method, which requires a huge open fire and a large amount of wood, the baking temperature of the clay biscuit must indeed go up to 500 degree.
In spite of their great diversity, they can be grouped, by their design, by hundreds or even by thousands, as coming from different cultures. Mr. Julsrud never sought to trade his discovery, his goal was scientific and his desire to protect a heritage that he considered unique for humanity has never been faulted. He has continued to fight for serious scientific studies, dating, analysis of clay samples to verify the provenances, or the approximation with other artifacts are realized. Pain for him.
But why such a rejection, such a disinterest of scientists and archaeologists for the subject?
Well, one of the main reasons for rejecting this discovery is the scenes that represent these figurines, their very representations.
They represent, among other things, dinosaurs, unknown animals, reptiles, some with avian traits; some seem to indicate a form of domestication of small reptiles and small dinosaurs, great apes, finally, many represent unknown deities, everyday life and its usual objects (pipes, musical instruments, etc.)
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