Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-27gpq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T10:33:44.909Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

MESOAMERICAN EVIDENCE OF PRE-COLUMBIAN TRANSOCEANIC CONTACTS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 1999

Romeo Hristov
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, P.O. Box 750336, Dallas, TX 75275-0336, USA
Santiago Genovés
Affiliation:
Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas-UNAM, Ciudad Universitaria 04510, México DF, Mexico

Abstract

In this article we discuss the results of the re-examination of a terracotta head of supposed Roman origin found in a pre-Hispanic burial offering near Mexico City. A thermoluminescent age test performed in 1995 at the Forschungsstelle Archäometrie in Heidelberg, Germany, set the age limits of the artifact at 1780 ± 400 b.p., which is consistent with the Roman-origin hypothesis. A review of the circumstances of this discovery did not demonstrate any sign of possible post-Columbian intrusion and permits the acceptance of the object as the first hard evidence from Mesoamerica to support pre-Hispanic transoceanic contacts between the Old and New Worlds.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)