Infrastructure often advances with a certain indifference to the ground it breaks, but in Mexico, a multi-billion-dollar rail project is yielding to the deeper history of the landscape. President Claudia Sheinbaum announced that the planned passenger route connecting Mexico City to Querétaro will be diverted following the discovery of 16 pre-Hispanic artworks, including paintings and petroglyphs, along the path in the state of Hidalgo.
The findings, documented by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), represent a chronological bridge across Mesoamerican history. Some of the rock paintings date to the Postclassic period—roughly 900 CE until the Spanish conquest in 1521—a time defined by the ascendancy of the Aztec Empire. Other figures are far older, reaching back more than 4,000 years into what archaeologists categorize as prehistory.
The decision to reroute the $8 billion transit line highlights the persistent tension between Mexico’s modernization efforts and its commitment to its archaeological heritage. While the rail project remains a centerpiece of national infrastructure, the preservation of these human and animal-like figures suggests that, at least in this instance, the traces of the past are being treated as more than mere obstacles to progress.
With reporting from Hyperallergic.
Source · Hyperallergic
