Archeologists
National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) archaeologists work at a tunnel that may lead to a royal tombs discovered at the ancient city of Teotihuacan, in this May 9, 2011 INAH handout picture made available to Reuters October 29, 2014. A sacred tunnel discovered in the ancient Mexican city of Teotihuacan is filled with thousands of ritual objects and may lead to royal tombs, the lead Mexican archaeologist on the project said on Wednesday. The entrance to the 1,800-year-old tunnel was first discovered in 2003, and its contents came to light thanks to excavations by remote-control robots and then human researchers, archeologist Sergio Gomez told reporters. Reuters

Archeologists have discovered 100 stone structures and artifacts in the Eilat Mountains in Israel. The mountains are in the very dry zone of the Negev Desert.

The items found include stone circles measuring 1.5 to 2.5 metres across with penis-shaped installations that point toward the circles. There are also stones reaching 80 centimetres height, stone bowls and stone carvings with shapes like humans, NBC reports.

The site are estimated to be 8,000 years old, said archeologists who found 44 such sites in an area that covers only 0.8 square kilometres, making the density of the cult site phenomenal.

The Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society published the findings recently. The article said that some sort of rites took place in those sites, apparently animal sacrifice was one of them. The basis of that theory is the presence of animal bones.

The archeologists are trying to decipher the meaning of the structures and artifacts as they point out the symbols of death and fertility in the sites. They cite the discovery of vulva-shaped holes cut into some of the stones, while the circles where the phallus-shaped structures appear to represent the female gender.

In an email to Live Science, Uzi Avner, researcher with the Arav-Dead Sea Science Center, wrote, “The circle is a female symbol, and the elongated cell is a male one.”

He adds that death is represented by the upside down position of the burial of the stone objects, although in one instance, only the very top was visible on the surface.

The archeologists noted that fertility and death go hand-in-hand in a lot of cultures, and their combination is viewed in anthropological studies as linked to ancestral cult.

To contact the writer, email: v.hernandez@ibtimes.com.au