A new exhibition at the Museums of the Central Bank of Costa Rica is inviting visitors to view pre-Columbian stamps not simply as decorative objects, but as an early form of visual communication. Repetir para recordar. Sellos precolombinos, or Repeat to Remember: Pre-Columbian Stamps, opened July 22 beneath the Plaza de la Cultura in downtown San José. The temporary exhibition brings together more than 70 archaeological objects, including clay stamps and ceramic figures.

Unlike postal stamps, these objects were handheld tools used to press repeated images onto different surfaces. They were made in flat and cylindrical forms and carried geometric patterns, spirals, human figures and animal designs.

Researchers once believed the objects were used mainly to decorate the body.

A study of more than 300 stamps from the museum's archaeological collection now suggests their purpose was much broader.

The findings indicate that pre-Columbian communities also used the stamps to mark textiles and ceramic vessels. Their repeated designs may have communicated a person's identity, social position, community membership and cultural beliefs. Some stamps appear to have served as molds for producing other ceremonial objects. Others may have functioned almost like personal signatures associated with people of high rank.

The oldest examples found in Costa Rica date to approximately 500 B.C. and come mainly from the Central Caribbean and North Pacific regions.

Archaeologists have recovered stamps from living areas as well as burial sites, where they were placed among funeral offerings. The exhibition grew from research led by archaeologist and curator Priscilla Molina Muñoz.

Museum collection specialists manually traced the impressions produced by the stamps, using conservation methods that allowed them to document the patterns without damaging the objects. Those impressions help visitors understand what the designs would have looked like after being transferred to skin, cloth or pottery.

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https://ticotimes.net/2026/07/26/costa-rica-pre-columbian-stamps-exhibition

The Inca made long pilgrimages across rugged Andes mountain trails in preparation for the empire’s sacred ritual, Capacocha. They endured weeks of climbing, carrying offerings, and spiritual paraphernalia. They took with them sacrificial offerings that included the children and young women who would be sacrificed. The Inca believed the children would achieve divinity, becoming messengers who moved between the worlds of ancestors, humans, and mountain gods. The messengers would appeal to the gods for fertile fields, good weather, and a strong, expanding Inca state.

New Study Examines Capacocha Pilgrimages and Ritual Sacrifice

A recent scientific study, Pilgrimage to Sacrifice: Mechanisms, Causes, and Time of Death of the Western Andean Capacocha of the Southern Tawantinsuyu, presents a detailed investigation into two Capacocha cases from the western slope of the Andes. Researchers examined the discoveries of Cerro Esmeralda, located in the coastal Atacama Desert of northern Chile, and Cerro El Plomo, in the high mountains of central Chile. The study combines archaeological evidence, forensic analysis, radiology, and environmental data. Using advanced scanning technology and chemical analysis, the scientists were able to determine the cause of death and how the bodies were preserved in a mummified state at the top of high-altitude mountains. 

The Boy of Cerro El Plomo

The first case is known as the Boy of Cerro El Plomo, discovered in 1954 at an altitude of 5400 meters. Previous analysis attributed his death to hypothermia that occurred during an Inca ceremony. According to the study, computed tomography (CT) scanning and forensic investigation found evidence of a cranial trauma that happened during a Capacocha sacrifice.

The leaders of the study, Verónica Silva Pinto, a doctoral researcher in the Department of Prehistory, Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Valencia, and Domingo C. Salazar-García, a senior lecturer in the same department, believe their research reinterprets past analyses of Capacocha sacrificial victims:

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• https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/final-ascent-new-study-reveals-how-inca-conducted-capacocha-sacrifices

Deep in the underground waters of a cenote in Quintana Roo, divers have documented the skeletal remains of a young woman who may have lived in pre-Columbian times, Mexican authorities revealed last week.

Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said custodians of the Yaakun cenote near Playa del Carmen reported the find after technical divers spotted submerged materials in late 2025.

Within months, underwater archaeologist Gustavo García García led a five-day survey, conducted at depths of 42 to 53 meters (138 to 174 feet), that confirmed a cluster of human bones and, about 30 meters away, ceramic vessels.

Preliminary analysis indicates the individual — who has been named Yatzil — was between 18 and 25 years old, based on skeletal features and limited dental wear.

Researchers have identified long bones, the pelvis, a cranium and part of a mandible with three molars.

Her remains, still submerged in a sloping chamber about 45 meters below the surface, are considered well preserved due to stable underwater conditions, including low light and temperature.

The ceramics — mostly globular pots likely used domestically in the eastern Maya region — may date to the Late Postclassic period (1200–1521 AD), according to INAH.

However, researchers are being cautious about assigning a precise date or cultural affiliation to Yatzil’s remains, noting that her chronology is still unknown despite the ceramics likely dating to the pre-Columbian period (before the Spanish conquest in the early 1500s).

INAH specialists say they will wait for DNA from a tooth scheduled to be removed in a second field session in 2027 before drawing firmer conclusions.

Authorities have launched the Cenote Yaakun Research Project to document and protect the site. A perimeter has been established, and divers are urged not to disturb the materials.

Culture Minister Claudia Curiel de Icaza emphasized the importance of working with the local communities on discoveries such as this one.

“Each archaeological find that we manage to protect,” she said in a press release, “strengthens our knowledge about the cultures that inhabited this territory and reaffirms that heritage is a shared responsibility.”

The Yaakun project is the latest underwater discovery on Mexico’s Caribbean coast, where at least 11 prehistoric skeletons were found in flooded caves and cenotes between Playa del Carmen and Tulum in recent decades. One of them, reported earlier this year, may be around 8,000 years old.

https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/skeletal-remains-playa-del-carmen-cenote/

https://gizmodo.com/archaeologists-finally-know-the-name-of-a-maya-mathematician-astronomer-2000784827

Little can be said about this head’s identity and meaning, although the deep, dramatic furrows that line the face suggest age and the crest that curves across the top of the head has been compared to that of a bird. Such heads were one element of the regalia used in an ancient ballgame associated with complex mythology and equally elaborate art production on Mexico’s Gulf Coast, in present-day Veracruz.

The Native people of Hispaniola were long believed to have died out. But a journalist’s search for their descendants turned up surprising results

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/who-were-taino-original-inhabitants-columbus-island-73824867/

The mysterious Inca Empire is a source of endless fascination to many, representing the largest and most elaborate society of pre-Columbian America.

But long before the west coast of South America was ruled by the Incas, an even more enigmatic society inhabited the Andes, and we're still finding fragments of their ancient story today.

This older empire was called the Tiwanaku polity (previously known as the Tiwanaku state). At their peak, they may have only numbered 10,000 to 20,000 people.

What scarce details we do know about the Tiwanaku polity come from archaeological finds, uncovering a trail of clues about the Tiwanaku people and their long-gone culture.

A major piece of the puzzle came in 2019.

During an archaeological dive and excavation in the waters of the Khoa Reef, near the Island of the Sun in Bolivia's Lake Titicaca, researchers found submerged evidence of ritual offerings made to supernatural deities – suggesting religion existed in this part of the world far earlier than we thought.

"People often associate the Island of the Sun with the Incas because it was an important pilgrimage location for them and because they left behind numerous ceremonial buildings and offerings on and around this island," explainedanthropologist Jose Capriles from Pennsylvania State University in 2019 when the team unveiled their discoveries, detailed in a paper published in PNAS.

"Our research shows that the Tiwanaku people, who developed in Lake Titicaca between 500 and 1100 CE, were the first people to offer items of value to religious deities in the area."

https://www.sciencealert.com/the-mysterious-civilization-that-pre-dated-the-incas-by-500-years

About three hundred miles southwest of Chicago lies the largest pre-Columbian site north of Mexico: Cahokia Mounds. From around 1050 to 1350 A.D., Cahokia was the largest city in North America, with a population of between 15,000 and 20,000. The 2,200-acre site, located in what’s now Collinsville, Illinois, has 80 of the original 120 earthen mounds, which served as public buildings and burial mounds. The largest of these is Monks Mound, which rises one hundred feet and overlooks the Mississippi River. Visitors can climb a stairway to the top, where signage provides historical information. The view at the top is phenomenal, though I wouldn’t recommend making the trek at the hottest part of the day, as I did. (An Augmented Reality app is also available for download, which serves as a tour of the site and helps you experience the area as it existed a thousand years ago.) 

https://chicagoreader.com/city-life/broke-day-trips-cahokia-mounds/

Almond-shaped eyes with purple spondylus shell pupils. Large nose, ears, and pointed head. Curled copper-wired whiskers are also attached to his face, and nacre (mother of pearl) is applied around the neckline. Unclothed with hands bound by a rope behind his back. The head is removable, which exposes the attached copper spatula and hollowed-out lower body. The fearsome Moche captured their enemy and humiliated them by removing their clothing and parading them before sacrifice. Removal of his head could symbolize the tribute of taking a trophy head.