1,300-year-old pots found in Argentina

Buenos Aires, Aug 19 (IANS/EFE) A family in Argentina have found eight pots, believed to be around 1,300 years old, buried in the patio of their house.

The pots are believed to have belonged to indigenous people from the province of Jujuy, and were found by brothers Franco and Gonzalo Carrazana as they were digging up their patio to start building an addition to their home in Tilcara town.

“The first piece appeared when we had dug some 40 cm. Then another pot appeared that was next to a third,” Roberto Carrazana, their uncle, said.

“When we started to dig up the whole space, the fourth pot appeared. And as we went ahead slowly, we realised that more began to appear, unbroken. That’s when we got in touch with the archaeologists,” he said.

Archaeologists at the Tilcara Interdisciplinary Institute are continuing with the excavations to determine whether other valuable objects are present in the area where the Omaguaca Indians lived over a millennium ago.

The tubular pots, measuring 1.3 metres in height, date from around the year 700 A.D., Humberto Mamani, the head of the group of archaeologists, said.

–IANS/EFE