Before Teotihuacan, there was Tlalancaleca. And the largest Huehueteotl sculpture in Latin America is sitting in a small rural museum almost no one knows about. 3,100 years old. Peer-reviewed.

The largest Huehueteotl sculpture in Latin America is sitting in a small community museum in rural Mexico — and almost no one knows it exists.

Huehueteotl, the Old God of Fire, was one of the oldest deities in Mesoamerica. This monumental sculpture was found at Tlalancaleca, Puebla — a 3,100-year-old urban center that preceded and likely influenced Teotihuacan.

The site was excavated by the Tlalancaleca Archaeological Project, led by Dr. Shigeru Kabata (UDLAP) and Dr. Tatsuya Murakami (Tulane University), funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

Published in Antiquity (Cambridge, 2017) and Radiocarbon (Cambridge, 2025).

📍 Museo Comunitario de San Matías Tlalancaleca, Puebla, México

🔗 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/abs/development-of-an-early-city-in-central-mexico-the-tlalancaleca-archaeological-project/050CFB8C2C427628C896B560C318AE43.  Escribe algo para. X