A very interesting day here. A reminder that I live in a small village somewhere in Mexico which was once property of the Moctezuma family, and there are local legends of the treasure being buried here.
Our builder was building a low wall behind the house to protect the house from rare torrential rains which have been known to penetrate the brick walls, to my wife's rage and horror. At the corner on the west end, yesterday he encountered a "cave". The dirt here is called something like tepetate, and is believed to be what in some locations is eventually turned into travertine marble. It is very hard, very high content of what equates to dust of marble, and the bank of the arroyo which divides the town in two pieces is nearly 20 feet high, and does not cave off like ordinary dirt, even over 50 or 100 years. Hard and very strong.
The "cave" was a hollow place, about a foot below our walkway. About 5 feet long, 1.5 feet wide, and a foot deep.
We had some discussion. I told them if they wanted to explore it today, they would get paid like always. They liked that idea a lot.
So, after some more work on the wall, they started digging. What I wanted to know, is that cave natural, or the result of soil compacting after man made digging projects. In other words, would they encounter tepetate as they dug, or soft black dirt.
Well, it is man-made, in a place with no known reason to dig like that. The hard dirt, tepetate, has a hole in it, filled with black dirt. They dug down 1.90 meters, around six feet, and it was black dirt all the way, approximately 60 cm. wide. At the same time, the black dirt ran off at 250 degrees, no idea how far, but also 60 cm wide.
Someone dug down there. It was still black dirt at 1.90 meters depth, and when he said he wanted to stop, he took a large bar and rammed it down. It sank in hidden mud, to the depth of 2.50 meters. It rained heavily last night, so they think the mud was where the water stopped from the rain. Tepetate does not easily change to mud, so at some time in history, someone dug a narrow hole through the tepetate down to six feet deep. And, also off at an angle.
They found charcoal from a wood fire, not much but some, starting at 1.2 meters, and found more at the 1.90 meter level. I put it in a plastic bag with a label. I wonder how much it costs for carbon dating of charcoal
There weren't too many reasons for people in times past to dig holes. Of course, they dug wells. But, in this case, there were plenty of springs on this mountain side, including a major one a hundred yards away in the old Moctezuma house. Several up the hill not far, and a major spring that even with deep wells runs at least slowly all year, sufficient to run water down a ditch to this location before deep wells. So, with a sparse population, there would have been no need to dig a well in this location.
Second, of course for burial purposes.
And, of course to bury gold.
Today, of course, we dig for foundations of houses, or to quarry rocks, but there are no suitable rocks for quarrying here. And, none of these would involve a hole in tepatate 60 cm wide, and branching off a foot below the surface of the earth.
I took pictures, and we agreed to continue with the wall. They wanted to fill the hole with rocks. I asked them to use sand from the sand pile, and they agreed. We also agreed someday when I feel rich, we will "dig a well" 1 X 1.5 meters, around 1.5 meters distance at 250 degrees from the hole, and see what is down there.
The obvious most likely outcome is nothing found. Second most likely, some sort of cadaver. Still, hope springs eternal in the heart of man.
We talked while they dug. The son, still living, of the owner now deceased, who sold this land to my BIL, said when he was a boy, they saw a rabbit enter a hole, and decided to dig down. He alleges they found a tunnel down there. He is another person with a drinking problem at times. Still, drunks do not always lie.
Also, I have mentioned that someone locally found an old body where he was digging for a house footing. These guys know the same people, and have the same memory problem, not remembering their faces or names.
The true story was they were digging, and found not one, but six bodies down there. The teeth were like ivory. One of them is a grave-digger when his family and friends need that service. He has encountered many skulls in the cemetery, because when they bury another person in the same grave, they need to dig up the old one, and put the new one underneath, sometimes a very unpleasant job. He said teeth do not normally look like ivory. I have no opinion.
The owner ordered them off the place, I suppose fewer witnesses? And, put all the bones and skulls in a paper cement bag, and buried it not far away. The skulls were adult size.
They also claim a tunnel exits from the local church. It is believed to be old, because church records as digitalized by the LDS show a few records around 1609, but large quantities starting around 1620. After that, it is presumed burials would go in the church cemetery, which was obsoleted by Benito Juarez when he prohibited the church from controlling burials and weddings.
Our builder was building a low wall behind the house to protect the house from rare torrential rains which have been known to penetrate the brick walls, to my wife's rage and horror. At the corner on the west end, yesterday he encountered a "cave". The dirt here is called something like tepetate, and is believed to be what in some locations is eventually turned into travertine marble. It is very hard, very high content of what equates to dust of marble, and the bank of the arroyo which divides the town in two pieces is nearly 20 feet high, and does not cave off like ordinary dirt, even over 50 or 100 years. Hard and very strong.
The "cave" was a hollow place, about a foot below our walkway. About 5 feet long, 1.5 feet wide, and a foot deep.
We had some discussion. I told them if they wanted to explore it today, they would get paid like always. They liked that idea a lot.
So, after some more work on the wall, they started digging. What I wanted to know, is that cave natural, or the result of soil compacting after man made digging projects. In other words, would they encounter tepetate as they dug, or soft black dirt.
Well, it is man-made, in a place with no known reason to dig like that. The hard dirt, tepetate, has a hole in it, filled with black dirt. They dug down 1.90 meters, around six feet, and it was black dirt all the way, approximately 60 cm. wide. At the same time, the black dirt ran off at 250 degrees, no idea how far, but also 60 cm wide.
Someone dug down there. It was still black dirt at 1.90 meters depth, and when he said he wanted to stop, he took a large bar and rammed it down. It sank in hidden mud, to the depth of 2.50 meters. It rained heavily last night, so they think the mud was where the water stopped from the rain. Tepetate does not easily change to mud, so at some time in history, someone dug a narrow hole through the tepetate down to six feet deep. And, also off at an angle.
They found charcoal from a wood fire, not much but some, starting at 1.2 meters, and found more at the 1.90 meter level. I put it in a plastic bag with a label. I wonder how much it costs for carbon dating of charcoal
There weren't too many reasons for people in times past to dig holes. Of course, they dug wells. But, in this case, there were plenty of springs on this mountain side, including a major one a hundred yards away in the old Moctezuma house. Several up the hill not far, and a major spring that even with deep wells runs at least slowly all year, sufficient to run water down a ditch to this location before deep wells. So, with a sparse population, there would have been no need to dig a well in this location.
Second, of course for burial purposes.
And, of course to bury gold.
Today, of course, we dig for foundations of houses, or to quarry rocks, but there are no suitable rocks for quarrying here. And, none of these would involve a hole in tepatate 60 cm wide, and branching off a foot below the surface of the earth.
I took pictures, and we agreed to continue with the wall. They wanted to fill the hole with rocks. I asked them to use sand from the sand pile, and they agreed. We also agreed someday when I feel rich, we will "dig a well" 1 X 1.5 meters, around 1.5 meters distance at 250 degrees from the hole, and see what is down there.
The obvious most likely outcome is nothing found. Second most likely, some sort of cadaver. Still, hope springs eternal in the heart of man.
We talked while they dug. The son, still living, of the owner now deceased, who sold this land to my BIL, said when he was a boy, they saw a rabbit enter a hole, and decided to dig down. He alleges they found a tunnel down there. He is another person with a drinking problem at times. Still, drunks do not always lie.
Also, I have mentioned that someone locally found an old body where he was digging for a house footing. These guys know the same people, and have the same memory problem, not remembering their faces or names.
The true story was they were digging, and found not one, but six bodies down there. The teeth were like ivory. One of them is a grave-digger when his family and friends need that service. He has encountered many skulls in the cemetery, because when they bury another person in the same grave, they need to dig up the old one, and put the new one underneath, sometimes a very unpleasant job. He said teeth do not normally look like ivory. I have no opinion.
The owner ordered them off the place, I suppose fewer witnesses? And, put all the bones and skulls in a paper cement bag, and buried it not far away. The skulls were adult size.
They also claim a tunnel exits from the local church. It is believed to be old, because church records as digitalized by the LDS show a few records around 1609, but large quantities starting around 1620. After that, it is presumed burials would go in the church cemetery, which was obsoleted by Benito Juarez when he prohibited the church from controlling burials and weddings.
