Museo de Tepexpan

The Museo de Tepexpan is one of the great mini-alternatives to the giant and sometimes unwieldy Anthropology Museum. As one of the lesser-known archaeological sites, it may be the least visited of all. This is likely to change as the Lago de Texcoco Park opens. The east of Mexico City expects a big increase in international visitors.

For now, visitors discover something unique and hard to believe. The museum began with the 1947 discovery of Tepexpan Man. At that time, the human remains were believed to be 10,000 years old. Five mammoths also found in the area proved to be that old. Much later uranium dating puts the age of the human remains at between 4,500 and 4,900 years, well after the mammoths in the area had died.

The collection of the Museum of Tepexpan, sometimes still called the Tepexpan Man Museum, is paleontological and based mostly on rock remains from the area. Stone tools that were found at the excavation site support a display based on the prehistory of the Valley of Mexico watershed. It’s a big area. The museum attempts to make a general survey of the entire basin. To do so, the collection also includes several “Preceramic Skulls,” that is, those from prior to the use of ceramic firing in the region.

The Museo de Tepexpan opened in 1958. The intent then was to house and make public what were thought to be the oldest human skeletal remains found in the Americas. Since then, the mission has evolved to better support the hypotheses that have evolved since then.

The museum stands in the Colonia Anahuac in the municipio Acolman in Mexico State. Most visits begin with a turn off from the Mexico-Pachuca highway to the turnoff  from the highway to Teotihuacan at the Tepexpan exit. The museum is on the left just a few dozen meters after the toll both.

Hours: Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.