Archaeological dig finds that ancient groups incinerated and buried their departed in pots

The pots emphasized by their variety of shapes and forms; some represent pumpkins, others are oval shaped with two perforations, or with a tall neck and a larger mouth (like flower pots). They also found earthenware bowls, one of these was decorated. All the ceramic collection belongs to what is known as the “Tradicion Trincheras”, from the lower desert zone of Sonora.

From the pots, they recovered the cremated remains of almost 150 individuals (some pots contained two individuals’ remains), some of which were incinerated with rock beads, crystal quartz, frog shaped earrings, bracelets and shell rings. This is concluded as most of the materials were burnt and fragmented.

According to Villalpando Canchola, the process of incineration was at high temperatures (for hours or maybe days), until the pyre cooled off. The remains were cleaned, manipulated and then deposited in the ceramic objects which explain the absence of charcoal and the pyre residue inside the pots on “Loma de las cremaciones”.

In the pyre digging, they recovered “carbonized tree trunks, charcoal and ash concentrations: stone beads, pots, rings and shell bracelets, bones of carbonized animals and small charred human bones.

The investigators James T Watson and Jessica Cerezo Roman, from the Anthropology school of the University of Arizona, lead the remains’ analysis; also in this same institution they are making tests to determine their precise date.

All these findings and interpretations will be a part of a museographic script of what will be the permanent exposition of the Visiting Center of Cerro de Trincheras, the first archaeological zone open to the public in Sonora, which in 2012 received almost three thousand visitors, most of the originating from the north of Mexico and southern United States.

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