As promised, my uncle finally took me to the site where he had previously found many pre-Columbian artifacts.
This is his collection. Most notable, and probably my favorite, is the small pipe to smoke herb. At yet another site, he found the two silver objects (post-Columbian), still with candle wax inside.
Yesterday, the stars finally aligned, so to speak, and we were able to set off along the old cobblestone road at the edge of town around 5:00 pm. We had to wait until that time because the site we were headed to, allegedly the tomb of a witch doctor, sits in on the edge of a parcel of land belonging to someone else.
The land is a maguey farm. When the plants are big and sweet enough, the leaves are cut off and the "pineapple" is sent to be processed into tequila.
We began our excavation in the ditch that separates this land from the adjacent plot. Almost immediately, we began to find some objects!
Finding shards of pottery is quite common in these parts. At least we knew we were in the right spot. There was also lots of natural limestone in the soil.
A few more tiny shards of terra cotta came up. Then I found what appeared to bea small black stone. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was charcoal! Saul told me that he didn't know why, but usually when there is a burial site there is a layer of charcoal above it. Perhaps this was part of the funerary ritual.
Then I found a bone! It was obviously much older than the animal bones laying around that we walked passed on the way to the burial site.
In total, we must have spent about an hour and a half there but, unfortunately, we failed to find anything else. Before leaving, I buried the bone again so that it might find peace.
Despite not finding much, we still enjoyed the experience. It would have been great to have items in our collection that we found ourselves. Pretty much everything I have are items that other people have found while working the soil. People know we like that kind of stuff and they are generally uninterested so they give it to us.
Hee are some highlights from our existing collection.
The beads are interesting with some sometimes resembling flying saucers.
Arrowheads are more common up in the nearby mountain.
Animal and human figure fragments.
Intact vessels like this one are a rare find.
This might have been a small teapot or something similar.
This land is ancient and full of history. Artifacts are everywhere. One family's pig even found a clay vessel full of gold coins, along with an anima that spoke to them. It's all a matter of luck, or maybe fate. We weren't lucky yesterday but at least we passed the time.
I'm looking forward to making an expedition to another site of interest soon!