Tomb 1 Complex

16.9519°N, 96.7572°W.

The Tomb 1 Complex at Zaachila in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, is a Late Postclassic pyramidal mound containing two intact royal tombs of the Mixtec kings who succeeded the Zapotec at this site after the fourteenth-century Mixtec expansion. The tombs were excavated by Roberto Gallegos for INAH in 1962 and yielded a remarkable assemblage including gold pectorals, jade, turquoise mosaics, and carved bone — comparable in richness to the famous Tomb 7 at Monte Albán. The mound was built up over earlier Zapotec construction phases between approximately 1200 and 1500 CE. The interior tombs are entered through a stepped masonry façade with carved stone reliefs of the death gods Mictlantecuhtli and his consort. Zaachila remained inhabited as a Mixtec capital through the Spanish Conquest.

The Tomb 1 Complex is a pyramid containing burials whose contents matched the richness of the tombs that had been opened a generation earlier across the valley.