Mar 4
2025

The “Gateway to the Underworld“ sculpture.

The Olmec sculpture, known as the “Gateway to the Underworld“ or Monument 9, has returned to the city of Chalcatzingo, “the place of the precious jades”, in the Mexican state of Morelos. On February 12, 2025, at the beginning of the Mesoamerican calendar count, it came back to the foot of the mountain called Cerro Ancho on whose walls it was carved 2,500 years ago, and from which it had been taken away for an odyssey through the hands of collectors for more than six decades.

At the end of the 1950s, the sculpture had been fragmented into 25 parts for illegal sale.

A diplomatic collaboration over 20 years between the governments of the United States and Mexico had researched the whereabouts of the Olmec monument with the aim of its repatriation.

After its return to its homeland in May 2023, the sculpture remained for 21 months in the Regional Museum of the Peoples of Morelos, Palacio de Cortés, in Cuernavaca to be restored by specialists of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).

Return of the “Gateway to the Underworld“ sculpture.Return of the “Gateway to the Underworld“ sculpture.

Moving the piece now, weighing one ton, 1.80 meters high and 1.50 meters wide, required precise handling of the forklift that took it out of the Palacio de Cortés and placed it on a truck.

Thus, it set out on the way under the custody of the National Guard.

After 75 kilometers by road, the Cerro Ancho hill appeared at the horizon. There, the ancient rulers had ordered to sculpt scenes in stone that narrated and proclaimed their alliance with the Olmec gods. It is likely that the Portal to the Underworld was part of that iconographic program.

Return of the “Gateway to the Underworld“ sculpture.Return of the “Gateway to the Underworld“ sculpture.

Now, many people were waiting at the entrance of Chalcatzingo, receiving the stone as if it had never left the area, with the affection and respect that a distant ancestor deserves.

A large procession, adorned with paper strips and flowers, crowded the main street. At the front, a group of pre-Hispanic dancers fumed the air with copal, followed by the official procession with municipal, local and INAH authorities, plus groups of students with pompoms in their hands.

With cheers of “Viva Chalca!” and “Yes we did it!”, the valuable cargo arrived at its new home, the Museum of Chalcatzingo. Its placement there was again a careful maneuver.

Return of the “Gateway to the Underworld“ sculpture.

In the future, visitors to the museum will find an introduction to the history of Chalcatzingo, a city built on the slopes of the three sacred hills Delgado, Ancho and Tenango. The museum‘s collection, including the newly returned Monument 9, showcases the Olmec civilization, which some scientists see as the predecessor of the Mayas.

“The engravings and pieces that will also be admired share a cosmogonic discourse, and are a sample of the skills” of Mayan culture, said Mario Córdova Tello, director of the Chalcatzingo Archaeological Project.

Source: National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH)

Photos: Maurico Marat / INAH

Video: Restauration of the sculpture