See New Discoveries at the Mysterious City of the Jaguar...

One of the more remarkable objects spied in the cache during the February 2015 expeditions was the head of a were-jaguar, just peeking out of the ground, almost completely obscured in vegetation. It was attached to this metate, or ceremonial seat.

PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVE YODER, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Some of the ritual vessels at the site, including this one, sported vulture heads along the rims. The significance of the vulture is not known. The legs show a woven-knot motif whose meaning is obscure.PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVE YODER, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

A vessel with bird ornaments, possibly vultures, recovered from the cache of artifacts.PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVE YODER, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

A small ceramic figurine recovered from the cache, badly weathered by the highly acidic rainforest soil.PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVE YODER, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

A small ceremonial metate left as an offering.PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVE YODER, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

A simple ritual vessel found in the cache. Residue analysis may eventually show what it might have contained.PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVE YODER, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

This stone figure of a vulture was found in the center of the cache, in a position of great importance, surrounded by ritual vessels and stone seats.PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVE YODER, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Some of the vessels, including this one, had carvings that appear to be a “death figure,” possibly representing the cadaver of an important person in the form of a “mummy bundle” tied up and ready for burial.PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVE YODER, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

A simple ritual metate found in the cache, too small to have been used for grinding corn.PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVE YODER, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

This leg of a broken metate has pseudo-glyphs on it that vaguely resemble a Maya sky band, an abstract depiction of the night sky; the knot-like design in the center panel was found on many of the objects in the cache.PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVE YODER, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

The excavation revealed that the objects had been carefully placed together, all at one time, on a prepared floor of red clay. They were arranged around a key object: an enigmatic sculpture of a vulture with partially spread wings. Ritual stone vessels surrounded it, their rims decorated with vultures and snakes. Some vessels had carvings depicting a strange humanoid figure with a triangular head, hollow eyes, and an open mouth on a withered-looking body. Fisher thinks these might depict a “death figure,” perhaps the bundled corpse of an ancestor prepared for burial.

Around the central cluster of artifacts, Fisher and his team exposed many stone “metates,” which look like curved tables with three legs used for grinding corn, but much larger and more ornate. They are believed to be seats of power, and many in the cache were carved with animal figures and geometric designs. This group included the “were-jaguar” head, which gave the city its name, thought to represent a shaman in a half-animal, half-human state. The artifacts probably date to the Mesoamerican Post-Classic phase, between AD 1000 and 1520.

The Pre-Columbian city was discovered in 2013 using an aerial survey methodcalled lidar that uses pulses of laser light to map the ground. The city was hidden under triple-canopy jungle in an unexplored valley, ringed by mountains, in a remote region known as La Mosquitia. Archaeologists first entered the ruins in February, 2015 and happened upon the cache on the second day of exploration. (See “Exclusive: Lost City Discovered in the Honduran Rain Forest.”)