Abstract :
During the 1970s, excavations at El Zapotal revealed a Late Classic period ossuary with multiple burials, sumptuous funerary
offerings, and life-sized terracotta sculpture individually on a par with the Chinese national treasures from Xi’an. Less known are
murals adorning a U-shaped banquette centering on the monumental clay sculpture of a skeletal Death God.
Wyllie, through the assistance of Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Veracruz, produced drawings of the now
deteriorating paintings. The murals form part of a larger narrative program integrating sculpture, architectural elements, burial
offerings, and human osteological remains connected with Mesoamerican underworld stories of creation.
