Perhaps the Roman figurine can be explained in a similar fashion. This may be a Roman figurine, but it was introduced to Calixtlahuaca in the early days of the Spanish colonial period. It is not possible to tell, from the contents or context, whether the offering dates to the period before the Spanish conquest of Mexico or from the early Spanish colonial period. My continuing analyses of these materials may shed light on this issue in the future. This is a post-Roman European Christian figurine, introduced to Calixtlahuaca in the early days of the Spanish colonial period.
More research is needed.
There is a slight chance that this may actually be a Roman figurine that somehow made its way from Europe to Mexico in ancient times. It then may have been kept as a valuable good and ended up in a buried Postclassic offering at Calixtlahuaca. I seriously doubt this was the case, but it cannot be ruled out at this time. There are problems with the thermoluminescence dates reported by Hristov and Genoves. A scholarly article dealing with this issue is scheduled to appear in the journal Ancient Mesoamerica, and I will cite it properly and comment when it has been published.