A rare archaeological find has been lost forever thanks to unrestrained urban development and poor government oversight in Chimalhuacán, just 19 kilometers east of Mexico City.

The State of México municipality built, with the endorsement of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), a theater just 80 meters away from clearly identified archaeological remains of an ancient ceremonial center.

Construction of the Municipal Theater of Chimalhuacán began in 2012 on a contested, 28,000-square-meter piece of land, where the historic El Molino ranch had once stood.

The grounds were expropriated by the state in 2010 on the basis that the visible remains found there “lacked historic, artistic and/or cultural value,” despite being catalogued as a historic site by INAH.

Citizens of Chimalhuacán blocked the construction during its early stages, and it was then when thousands of archaeological remains were discovered and rescued by the people themselves. To this day small clay and stone figurines, beads and countless other objects can be found in local homes.

At the time, interim mayor Rosalba Pineda denied that any archaeological objects of significance had been found on the construction site, but INAH ordered the suspension of the project until an assessment of the area was made.

That same year, INAH issued the first result of its assessment, in which it agreed with the municipal government, declaring that “no historical, colonial, or pre-hispanic construction has been found or damaged in the ‘recorded area’”.

However, months later, the same group of specialists presented its final report, where they documented the existence of a pre-hispanic structure and enumerated a long list of objects that had been found.

Those objects, pottery and carved and polished stone figurines, said the report, were found close to a structure built circa 1300 AD, one of few such architectural remains found in the Mexico Basin from that era.

Despite all this, INAH released the property to the authorities of Chimalhuacán.

Today, the brand new 200-million-peso Municipal Theater — with 1,700 seats, an orchestra stage and an art exhibit area — stands on the site.

Francisco Dorantes Díaz is a lawyer specializing in heritage sites, and compares this “ignominious” case to that of the demolished chapel in Tlaxcala, lamenting that in both cases “archaeological remains just disappear overnight.”

Dorantes is certain that several constitutional and federal archaeological laws were violated during the construction of the theater.

“This is a very serious case of violation of human rights and damage to the people’s cultural heritage, and the authorities have failed to provide a specific and concrete answer to this very serious situation.”

Source: Excélsior (sp)