Possible ossuary discovered during Mexico City-Querétaro train construction, Digi Mart USA News (Mexico City): Following an archaeological rescue operation along the route of the Mexico City-Querétaro Passenger Train, specialists from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) discovered a deposit of human bones that probably was an ossuary. It may date to the Late Postclassic period (1200–1519 CE) or to the period of contact with the Spanish (1519–1535 CE).
Mexico’s Secretary of Culture, Claudia Curiel de Icaza, said a possible ossuary raises questions about how ancient communities in the area treated and remembered their dead during a time of profound change. She said INAH would study the associated materials rigorously and explain what they reveal.
On September 17, 2026, the first bone remains were located during earthworks for the railway track near the Buenavista terminal in Mexico City. Excavations were carried out under INAH supervision as an archaeological rescue project coordinated by archaeologist Víctor Francisco Heredia Guillén.
After excavating to a depth of 1.40 meters, crews found skulls, jaws, parts of hips, femur fragments, ribs and teeth. Further down, the ossuary was found, described as a funerary deposit without anatomical arrangement, according to field archaeologist Josué Castillo Sánchez.
So far, nine skeletons have been counted. Two show cranial modifications, and five jaws and large bones, including radii, tibiae and ilia, are in good condition.
The type of alterations, as well as the age and sex of the individuals, will be determined after analysis at the Physical Anthropology Laboratory (LAF).
Domestic ceramics associated with the remains date to the Aztec III period (1350–1520 CE), including plates, pots and salt vessels used for salt extraction in the former Lake Texcoco. Also recovered were seven miniature spindle whorls, a pair of figurines, polished stone tools including four fragments of metate and mortar hands, and small blades, mostly green obsidian, possibly from the Sierra de las Navajas deposit in Hidalgo.
Together, the bone and ceramic elements could correspond to the final years of the pre-Hispanic period and to the colonial era (1535–1821). LAF head José Manuel Cervantes Pérez said the find occurred within the former calpulli of Nonoalco, one of the 19 pre-Hispanic neighborhoods of the Tlatelolco islet, which could provide information about the funerary practices of the time.
The remains were also located near the San Miguel Nonoalco church, built in the 16th century, which served as a visiting chapel for Franciscan friars from the Convent of Santiago Tlatelolco. Cervantes Pérez noted that other ossuaries found in Mexico City have been linked to the viceregal period or the contact period, while the presence of pre-Hispanic material is also notable.
Physical anthropologist Abril Machain Castillo, in charge of exhuming the human remains, said one feature that identifies the find as an ossuary is that no small or irregular pieces were found, only preservable elements such as skulls and long bones. She explained that the individuals were originally buried in a place used for other burials, and the earlier remains were moved to a different site, in this case the ossuary.
After in-situ recording, the materials were transferred to the project’s physical anthropology, lithic and ceramic laboratories in Tula de Allende and Tepeji del Río de Ocampo, Hidalgo, where they will undergo cleaning and restoration before further analysis and storage.
