Abstract
This article documents the gradual destruction of a sumptuous pre-Hispanic tomb that was unearthed in the late nineteenth century, and tracks how its contents were eventually dispersed to many different museum collections, where the artifacts were often jumbled, mislabeled and eventually condemned to insignificance. A similar fate occurred to the many early written descriptions, drawings and photographs that recorded the tomb's existence. At first the information about this important discovery seemed too hopelessly fragmented to be of any use to the archaeological discipline, or we thought, too unreliable to withstand the rigor of current scientific inquiry. However, using an approach that combines archival sources and extant archaeological collections we have been able to piece together a detailed history of the interventions that occurred on the site, identify much of the material that was removed, and reconstruct the tomb structure. As a result it is now possible to establish the tomb's temporality more accurately and to define how it relates to its immediate environs. With the memory of this monument restored, we hope it will once again be considered an important part of ancient Zapotec history, Oaxaca's archaeological record, and Mexico's cultural heritage.