The Representative Office of the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI) in Yucatan delivered 212 pre-Hispanic ceramic pieces, bone fragments, and carved stones to the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), which were housed in Valladolid’s Coordinating Center of Indigenous Peoples and belonged to the Maya civilization.
The close relationship that exists between the Institute and the Maya indigenous peoples made it possible for the people of the Mayan communities to deliver the pieces to INPI personnel years ago when it was the National Indigenous Institute (INI) and the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples (CDI).
The head of the INPI Yucatan Dr. Domitilo Carballo Cámara asked the INAH for the valuation of the objects and these to be handed over for study, restoration and to know what period they belong to and then be exhibited in a museum, since some of the pieces were found in the Puuc area, in the eastern part of the state.
“In order to avoid that the pieces continue to deteriorate over time, an intervention was requested through an official letter to INAH to classify each one of these objects that are of great historical value for our culture,” said Dr. Domitilo Carballo.
The act of delivery-reception was carried out at the CICC of Valladolid under the relevant sanitary measures where the director of the center Aurelio Castañeda González, the head of the INPI Legal Department Rosa Elena Uc Polanco, Juan Gilberto Navarrete Correa in charge of the Support Program in representation of the Indigenous Education (PAEI) and INAH staff made up of José Arturo Chab Cárdenas, Juan Octavio Juárez Rodríguez, Ricardo Arturo Gutiérrez López and Hilario Reyes Zepeda.
Among the pieces delivered are carved stones, vessels, skeletal remains, stone heads and objects used in offerings, INAH representatives stated that this is an unprecedented act since it is a large historical lot that will be analyzed, restored and then exhibited, in coordination with the INPI.
The pieces were taken to Pisté (municipality of Tinúm) right next to the archaeological zone of Chichén Itzá where they will be studied by experts in archeology and history.
