With a little help from archaeologists, three giant cat slunk into view after spending thousands of years underground in central Mexico.

Olmec style made from a guard in a monolith of stone, jaguars or pumas sitting can possibly be part of a decorative wall slope with plenty of cups of big cats, experts suggest.
British Columbia approximately 700 sculptures, called the "triad of cats" by archaeologists, was discovered about 60 miles (one hundred kilometers) south of Mexico City on Chalcatzingo, an archaeological site known to have been attached to civilization Olmec.

It measures about 5 feet (1.5 meters) long and 3.6 meters (1.1 feet) wide, sculpture was originally housed in the hills, and its purpose was clearly visible in the village below, experts say .

The discovery is the latest of about 40 large stone carvings found on Chalcatzingo since 1935-many of them representing cats, said David Grove, an anthropologist at the University of Florida, who has conducted research in Chalcatzingo for 30 years from 1970.

As an example of Olmec art style, Grove added, "Triad cat" is "fantastic."

Former Billboard?

It took months to rebuild and restore the 11 experts fragments that make up the trio cut the cat. Meanwhile, researchers are assembling a theory in which the "Triad" is itself a pawn in a large puzzle.

"Feline Triad" may have been part of a collection of petroglyphs, which dotted the landscape Chalcatzingo, perhaps as a spiritual being "signs" along a pilgrimage route, the archaeologists suggest.

"One hypothesis is that time to 800-500 BC, was along the Frisian Chalcatzingo Cerro" or "Chalcatzingo hill", a project member Mario Cordova Tello, an archaeologist with the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said in a statement.

Traces of Olmec

Olmec occupation of southern and central Mexico around 1500-400 BC, and is considered by many to have a big impact on other Mesoamerican civilizations like the Maya and the Chalcatzingo people.

Although technically not Olmec themselves, the people of Chalcatzingo probably acted Olmec cities, said Grove, who was not involved in the latest discovery.

Olmec influences appear in the rock art site, for example the use of Olmec symbols. But unlike the Olmecs, who tend to carve three-dimensional sculptures, Chalcatzingo fork tends to create an image on a raised surface, such as, "a trio of cats."

Flaming Cats eyebrows suggest Supernatural

Many other cuts of big cats, domestic cats arrived in North America only a few centuries ago was found Chalcatzingo.

"Triad Cats," however, is unique in representing animals sitting, said Grove. Cats in the sculpture of the new features also seem supernatural, such as eyebrows and mouth swollen stylized masks reminiscent of the traditional Olmec.

Why are little threat to humans at that time, big cats such as Jaguar had been revered by many of the Mesoamerican cultures, Grove said. Often suggest the presence of Olmec art, cats were important Olmec religion and mythology, but their exact role is still unknown.

(See a photo of the Jaguar is alive first seen in central Mexico since 1900.)

"Anything that has to do with the mythology that is expressed in the cuts ... but I am still trying to figure out exactly what it is," said Grove. "Not much is known about the Olmec religion ".