Grottos of Juxtlahuaca

Juxtlahuaca is a cave system in Guerrero, Mexico, containing some of the earliest sophisticated painted art in Mesoamerica, dated to the Early Preclassic period (ca. 1200-900 BC). The Olmec-style murals, located over a kilometer deep inside the cave, include a 2-meter-tall scene of human dominance, a red Feathered Serpent with green plumes, and a red jaguar. First professionally documented in the 1960s by Gillett Griffin and Carlo Gay, the cave also contains the Hall of the Dead with a dozen ancient skeletons covered in stalactite crust. It is the only known example of non-Maya deep cave art in Mesoamerica.