Mexican experts find seeds, cloth around mummified child

MEXICO CITY – A CAT scan of a rolled-up straw mat found in a northern Mexico cave has revealed the mummified remains of a 1 1/2 year-old boy.

The country’s National Institute of Anthropology and History says that researchers trying to determine the age of the funeral bundle. But the institute said Sunday that organic materials in the cave in Tamaulipas state have been dated between 1,600 B.C. and 1,200 A.D.

The child’s body bore a piece of cloth, and bone and shell ornaments.

But perhaps just as interesting was a woven basket left near the body, apparently as an offering.

It contained 756 acorns and 52 ears of primitive corn, as well as squash stems.

The find may shed more light on the transition to sedentary agricultural communities in the region.