Mexico Reroutes $8 Billion Train to Protect Pre-Hispanic Cave Art

The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) announced last week that Mexico will alter the course of a planned $8 billion passenger train connecting Mexico City to Querétaro. This decision follows the discovery of 16 pre-Hispanic artworks along the proposed route. Unearthed in January in Hidalgo, these artworks include paintings and petroglyphs from the Postclassic period (900 CE to 1521) as well as prehistoric figures that are over 4,000 years old. Among the significant findings are an anthropomorphic figure holding a chimalli and a depiction of the deity Tlaloc. Archaeologist Abel José Romero García has associated the iconography with the Toltec city of Tula. Agreements between INAH and the Ministry of Defense will safeguard these archaeological treasures, adding to earlier discoveries.