Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the United Mexican States

08/02/2022 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 08/03/2022 09:28

Mexico recovers 428 archaeological artifacts repatriated from the United States

  • The INAH received objects from Mexico's desert cultures, such as projectile points, flint knives, shell and bone artifacts, marine fossils and organic items.
  • They were confiscated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and turned over to the Mexican consulate in Portland.

The Culture Ministry, through the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), received from the Foreign Ministry 428 archaeological objects repatriated from the United States.

During the event held at the Foreign Ministry to receive the pieces, the steps taken by the U.S. government were highlighted. U.S. Customs and Border Protection confiscated the items, which are from the ancient cultures of northern Mexico, and delivered them to the Mexican consulate in Portland, Oregon.

INAH Deputy Director Jaime Alejandro Bautista led the ceremony together with Salvador Tinajero, deputy legal consultant at the Foreign Ministry, saying that the INAH's preliminary opinion is that the objects, sent to Mexico via diplomatic pouch, date from the Late Postclassic period (900-1600 AD) of Mexico's desert cultures, located in what is today northern Mexico and the southern United States.

The objects (flint projectile points and scrapers, shell and bone artifacts, and two knives with their original handles) "are representative of the semi-nomadic hunter-gatherer communities," said the archaeologist.

Among the objects delivered to the Foreign Ministry, there are two organic items: a huarache sandal and a fragment of a petate floor mat, in a fair state of conservation. The lot also includes various marine fossils of the genus Exogyra dated to the Cretaceous period, with an estimated age of 60 million years.

Archaeologist Alejandro Bautista said that each of the 428 pieces will be registered in the INAH Public Registry of Archaeological and Historical Monuments and Zones and may become part of various museum exhibitions. He emphasized the importance of collaborating with foreign governments to promote the restitution of artifacts to their nations of origin, and called on people in general not to participate in the looting of heritage sites and the illicit trafficking of historical and archaeological goods. One of the consequences of these crimes is the loss of contextual information for the objects.

Actions such as these give continuity to the efforts being made to combat the illicit trafficking of cultural property and to repatriate objects of national heritage that are removed illegally from Mexico. #MiPatrimonioNoSeVende #MyHeritageIsNotForSale

Óscar Macías Betancourt from the Foreign Ministry Legal Department and Ramón Flores Cardoso and Alberto Yáñez Trejo from the INAH Public Registry Office were also present at the ceremony.