Archaeologists make unnerving 2,400-year-old discovery at top of ancient pyramid

I’ll be seeing these in my nightmares tonight…

Archaeologists excavating in Central America have made a rare discovery dating from over 2,000 years ago, and it’s not something you’d want to see next to you in a dark room.

The unexpected find was courtesy of University of Warsaw archaeologist Jan Szymański and his colleagues. Szymański was the lead on the project, having spent much of the last 15 years researching and writing papers on Mayan culture.

His latest discovery might just be his most eye-catching yet, as he and his colleagues stumbled upon five pretty creepy looking puppets on top of the ancient pyramid at the site of San Isidro in El Salvador.

The clay figures, known as Bolinas, are thought to be dated from around 400BC, making them over 2,400 years old.

It is the first discovery of still-intact Bolinas figures since 2012, when several – including one with a head that could turn – were discovered as offerings in a lavish burial at the Maya site of Tak’alik Ab’aj in Guatemala.

The ‘creepy’ figurines were discovered on top of an ancient pyramid at the site of San Isidro in El Salvador (J. Przedwojewska-Szymańska/PASI)

The figurines depict four females and one male, and were discovered atop a pyramid back in 2022, with the research findings published on Wednesday 5 March 2025.

In his published findings, Szymański suggests that the puppets may well have featured in some ‘public ritual’ in ancient times.

Fortunately, for any of you have watched too many horror films and are imagining these figures coming to life, they range from just 10cm to 30cm tall, so they wouldn’t pose much threat. However, they were mysteriously found in exact height order.

In an interview with Science magazine, Szymański said: “One of the most striking features of the puppets is their dramatic facial expression, which changes depending on the angle that we look at them from.”

At eye-level, the puppets appear angry; from above, they appear to be grinning; and from below, they look scared.

The male figurine showing tattoos or scarification (J. Przedwojewska-Szymańska/PASI)

Szymański added: “This is a conscious design, perhaps meant to enhance the gamut of ritual performances the puppets could have been used in. They are clay actors… When you hold them in your hand, sometimes they even look creepy because of their vivid expressions.”

Each of the puppets also had a removable head, drawing comparisons with modern day dolls, but the clay material that was used suggests that they were more likely used to re-enact religious scenes.

The archaeologist also suggests that the male figure they discovered may be ‘the first complete example found to date’ and is distinguished from the female figurines by ‘a delicately incised linear design that covers the face, depicting either a tattoo or scarification, a more elongated torso and shorter, thinner hips’.

Archaeologists continue to discover more and more historical sites, with a 4,000-year-old ‘Stonehenge-like’ discovery being found under a housing estate in Denmark recently.