PXL_20250424_232830017

Sat, 14 Feb 2026 07:49:22 +0100

THE INSIDE OF A SHAFT TOMB

The continuity of a life after death was manifest in the
tradition of shaft and chamber tombs, a practice that began around the
800 B.C. until 650 AD.

These tombs were excavated in the subsoil, in a substrate conformed
by volcanic pits and sandstone layers that allowed the
stability necessary for its construction. For this purpose,
stone, wood, and bone implements, as well as fiber receptacles
and skins for the milling and extraction of the waste material.

The depth of vertical wells or shafts varies from one meter to
17 and 22 meters, as in the tombs of El Arenal and San Juan de los Arcos
in Jalisco. It was common to have a shaft per grave, but they can be found
up to five graves connected for one or up to three shots. The input of
the chamber was covered with large stone slabs or metates, and the shot could
filling with earth and on occasions with some offerings.

Shooting and camera tombs are sacred spaces, reproductions of the
underworld, of the place where the dead lived.

The reproduction of the shaft tomb
is similar to the tomb of Huitzilapa in Jalisco built in 65 AD.
This restitution is presented with pre-Hispanic materials from different
sites in the West to depict what these tombs were like and their
offerings.