Decorated Human Jaw Unearthed in Mexico

According to a ongoing study of a 1300 year old carved and painted human mandible discovered in a ceremonial area at the Zapotec site of Dainzu- Macuilxo, located in southern Mexico. The jaw bone is thought to have been worn as a pendant. The excavation team also recovered thousands of fragments of smashed ceramic whistles may have made owl-like sounds, while the figurines may have represented Xipe Totec, a Mesoamerican god associated with human sacrifice and agriculture. But Pink and the researchers think the decorated human bones belonged to ancestors of the site's residents, who were probably going into the tombs of their ancestors and bringing the remains of their ancestors out.