Urban Influences at Rural Sites: Teotihuacán and its near Hinterlands

Project Results

NORTH SLOPES OF CERRO GORDO

TC-46 [22.5 Ha.]
Surveys and Surface Collections

We examined a section of this site (Figure 1 and Figure 2) which falls within the public lands of the town of Santa María Maquixco el Alto and ascertained that there are still remains of Teotihuacán period mounds present along with traces of the walls and stucco floors of a possible "apartment compound" excavated in 1963 (Charlton, 1994). Another such unit excavated at the same time appears to have disappeared as a result of erosion, agricultural activity, or road construction.

Unfortunately we were unable to conclude a secure and mutually acceptable agreement with the townspeople and their representative which would allow us to carry out the proposed investigations at this site. Given this situation we examined the possibility of carrying out the investigations proposed for TC-46 at another site nearby, TC-57 (Figure 1 and Figure 3).

TC-57 [8.2 Ha.]
Surveys and Surface Collections

Charlton and Otis Charlton examined TC-57 and noted that it still conformed to the description of Sanders with abundant stone and ceramic debris over the surface associated with some mounding suggesting the presence of traces of one or two houses below a modern terrace system constructed at the end of the 19th century or at the beginning of the 20th before the presence of heavy earth-moving agricultural equipment. After an initial survey we decided that the section which fell within the terrace system would be an acceptable alternative and serve in place of TC-46 taking into consideration the goals of the project (Figure 3).

In this site we carried out an intensive surface survey with surface collections from that part of the site located within the terrace system and characterized by remains of at least one domestic residence about 1 m in height and measuring approximately 120 m in length and varying between 40 and 80 m in width. The mound extended across several terraces and is covered with dense concentrations of large sherd fragments, fragments of manos and metates, and construction stone.

There is little evidence of earlier or later occupations. The extant mound which dates from Early Tlamimilolpa through Late Xolalpan/Metepec is probably representative of a modified "apartment compound" in a rural area. It is also possible that the mounding may represent two or more smaller structures, a determination which could not really be made without excavations which we did not have time to carry out. At the moment the preliminary analyses suggest that the site functioned as a rural agricultural community.

TC-73 [21 Ha.]
Surveys and Surface Collections

Within the rural zone north of Cerro Gordo we also examined TC-73 (Figure 1 and Figure 4), which Sanders had proposed as a provincial center. We carried out surveys over the entire surface of the site to determine its current condition and the state of preservation of the structures encountered and recorded previously (Sanders, 1994-96). We made surface collections within the areas of the site marked with diagonal hatching in Figure 4. Our observations permitted us to make some decisions about the probability of carrying out productive excavations here in the future.

We determined that the section of the site which contains the greatest number of Teotihuacán period domestic structures had been severely modified by heavy equipment used in agriculture, chisel ploughing, terrace building with bull-dozers, and discing of fields. As a result it appears that only a single domestic mound still preserves an archaeological integrity adequate for intensive investigations. The mound (Figure 4:18-41) has a height between 1 and 2 m, a length of 100 m and a width between 50 and 60 m. Some illicit excavations have exposed a east-west wall oriented at 77 degrees east of north. According to Kolb and Sanders (1996:584) this mound is equivalent to "apartment compounds" from TC-8 and from the urban center of Teotihuacán. They considered it to be much larger than the other residences of TC-73. Those, as we have noted above, have been severely modified.

Within the ceremonial core of the site (Figure 4) there still persist some traces of site planning with a central avenue oriented east-west (similar to the orientation of the East-West Avenue of Teotihuacán according to Sanders and Kolb, 1996) with public mounds and plazas. In our surveys we encountered a great deal of destruction through agricultural expansion and through illicit excavations into all of the mounds.

Although the surveys and surface collections from the residential complexes in the east and south-east of the site clearly show traces of Teotihuacán period (Early Tlamimilolpa through Late Xolalpan/Metepec) construction and occupation, the ceramics from the surface of the public structures in the west of the site have fewer sherds and the majority of those are Late Aztec in date. Obviously it is possible that the destruction which has occurred may have mixed and hidden the Teotihuacán period occupation and that the Aztec sherds originate in more recent deposits built over the Teotihuacán structures. In order to resolve this problem we will have to carry out excavations. At the present time there still is sufficient preservation to justify excavations with the goal of determining the chronology and orientation of public structures and the orientation and internal structure and size of at least the one well-preserved residential structure.

Previous Page  |  Table of Contents  |  Next Page

Return to top of page