Northeastern Yucatán Project:
Archaeological Survey in the Northeastern Corner of Yucatán, México

The Site of Sinsimato (Colonia Yucatán)

Possible true name: Sinsinbahtok. Other names referring to the same place: Cincinbahtok, Sinsinbuk, Simsimche, Zimzimche, and Simsimcha.

The name Sinsimato received by this proto-colonial settlement was probably due to a pronunciation error on the side of the settlers, as almost for sure the site was in fact Sinsinbahtok. This latter name is a reconstruction of "Cincinbahtok," reported in 1582 as a route that served the doctrinary capital of Dzonotaké (Roys, op. cit.:104).

A map presented by Tomás López in 1801, only shows two main houses of ancient ranches in this region, south of the port of El Cuyo: Misnebalam and Sincinbuk, being the latter similar to Simsimché or Simsimchá in more modern maps, (Ibidem). In 1848, a map drawn up by Santiago de Nigra de San Martín was found, where the site is referred to as Zimzimche (Antochiw, op. cit.:map 136), and later in a map of 1859 by Antonio Cubas, the location of Simsimchen as an intermediate point to reach Misnebalam is still shown, followed by Labcah, Monte Bravo and Yalahau; and southwest of Simsimchen is Dzonotaké, located approximately as shown in modern maps (Ibid.:display VIII). Still in another map from 1901 which is a sketch of the military staff, it is shown once again as Simsimche, but already connected through roads with Misnebalam to the north, and Chancenote to the south; the latter probably was, at some point, the doctrinary capital (Ibid.:map 147).

For particular reasons, Roys favored the idea that the Sinsimato that settlers had mentioned was located in the area where the timber town of Colonia Yucatán was founded.

In effect, I also support the notion that the modern Colonia Yucatán was a part of the ancient Maya settlement of Sinsimato. According to the testimonies of the majority of the population, a group of structures was found east of the Colonia Yucatán–La Sierra road, where when the timber industry was at its peak, there was a sign that showed the way to the archaeological site, which read: A las ruinas, (to the ruins), with an arrow that pointed east. Probably this group of structures included the building reported by William R. Coe (Coe II, 1952:189-192) (see section corresponding to the site of Teapa), where a substructure was described with architectural characteristics similar to those of substructures 1 and 46 from the site of Dzibilchaltún, as also to others reported for the site of Oxkintok and Acancéh. After Coe’s visit in 1952, this group of structures, together with the one reported, were completely destroyed, and only some foundations were left, as well as partial alignments of what way back in time used to be monumental masonry constructions (Photo 10). Also, at the same place where Coe found the substructure, it supposedly existed, according to town witnesses, a pyramid building with rounded corners that supported a room with circular characteristics in its upper part.

Still, basal alignments may be partially observed in the pasture grounds of modern ranches. The site of Teapa seems to correspond to the same group of structures, although researchers are sometimes confused and think that Colonia Yucatán and Teapa are two different sites; in fact, the structures are the same, though they may be reached through two different roads from each one of the towns.

The modern towns of Colonia Yucatán, La Sierra and Teapa are separated by short distances and may be enclosed in a radius of 1.5 kilometers, so that Sinsimato could very easily have embraced, extensionwise, these three modern towns.

Sinsimato, similarly to the way Nohcachí was spatially located, encompassed extended lands occupied by groups of structures or monumental plazas, at times separated from one another nearly 500 meters, while structures of smaller dimensions were found in the available spaces left by the major groups.

In the case of Sinsimato, unfortunately, 90% of the masonry constructions were destroyed, including all the monumental ones. The material obtained from this unfortunate destruction was used to elaborate the bell tower and the front part of the catholic temple of Colonia Yucatán, as also for a variety of constructions created in the timber factory of the town.

During the growth of the timber industry, when the houses that form the present settlement of Colonia Yucatán were built–according to the inhabitants’ sayings–a pre-hispanic pyramid some 7 meters high was destroyed and the place used to build a movie theatre and a bowling area in the town’s plaza. Two other structures of similar dimensions were demolished to build the police station and the wooden school, respectively. It would seem that in pre-hispanic times the three structures formed a large plaza, as shown by the arrangement of the modern structures to which they were related. As mentioned before, all three structures were of similar dimensions, from 7 to 8 meters high, and that’s all that is known about their architectural characteristics, as they only appeared as promontories with a pyramidal shape.

In the surroundings of Teapa one can still find a portion of what once used to be the residential areas of Sinsimato, represented by small platforms whose upper part supported houses made of perishable materials. These constructions had been arranged to form small patios, where assumedly large families coexisted (Photo 12).

The water source for the supply of the population was not a problem, as they used water from the natural cenotes that were distributed throughout the area. In La Sierra, there is one on the southeast side of the church (Photo 11), another one exists in the vicinities of Teapa, and yet another one is visible nearby the structures visited by W.R. Coe. An additional cenote, similar to that of La Sierra, is found within the premises of the timber mill. Another cenote may be found near the earth’s surface in the lands of the modern town of Emiliano Zapata, 2 kilometers southwest of Colonia Yucatán. For what it seems, Sinsimato most certainly did not suffer a scarcity of water, the vital liquid, which by all means was easily obtained.

Oviedo refers that two leagues before reaching Sinsimato, a good number of copal trees had grown, a resin used as incense in pyramids and oratories, as also in sacrifices and other special occasions. It was also traded and taken to other regions; in this new town, the Spanish spent only one night before heading to Chuaca (Oviedo, op. cit., III:230).

Apparently, these trees are no longer there, and we ignore whether in fact they ever existed, as the trees in most of the territories assumedly visited by the expedition of Montejo the Adelantado, were cut down to open pasture grounds for the bovine cattle; we should as well keep in mind that in this region a powerful timber industry developed in the past, and in other words, this is equivalent to saying that woods were felled.

Testimonies from local people indicate that adjacent to where the pre-hispanic structures used to be, there were abundant "mount-type" prune trees as well as polbox (a native fruit of the region).

The region also includes small savannas in the surroundings, not too close to the settlement, although so far only three may be recognized: one to the east, one to the south and another one to the southwest. There are several aguadas and rejolladas both within the modern towns of Colonia Yucatán, La Sierra and Teapa, and out of their boundaries, in the vicinities (Photo 13).

The 1579 historical-geographical accounts of the Government of Yucatán, in the Relación de Diego Sarmiento de Figueron about Sinsimato, read as follows:

"The town of Sinsimato, which falls within the province of Chiquinchel, and that I have also inherited for the reasons previously explained, is sixteen leagues away from this Villa de Valladolid, of which it is a subject, and is located in its northern portion; it is six leagues away from its doctrinal capital, with badly opened and twisted roads, while the leagues were not too long; this seat of Sinsimato and the numerous population it housed was besieged, as it was surrounded by savannas and lands covered with grass meadows; this town was the nearest one to the village of Chuaca, and they were at war with the natives of Chuaca, having built for their defense unmortared stone walls, in a way that they could protect themselves and resist the enemies. These Indians, who were catechized by the priests, were moved several times from their seat, and with all that moving they consumed themselves, and as they requested to return to their homeland and original seat, I, as their encomendero, have so requested, and after they settled, in a period of maybe three years, of the original six hundred Indians only eight were left, whom I have long ago released from tribute, and they are by nature so indolent and lazy, that even having been released of tribute they do not feel like cultivating for their subsistence any kind of food, but rather, they are at all times lying down as idlers, and as the lands are rich in fruits and game they use no other food, and thus, they are ill and pale because this food does not include the essential bread. And in this settlement, they are somehow more content. This is what we have been able to understand about this people" (Garza, op. cit.:218-219).

As to the location of Sinsimato, the encomendero states that the village was located amidst savannas and grass meadows, but he fails to specify whether the savannas were at a short distance or not; and as I mentioned before, there are indeed savannas in the surroundings of the modern town of Colonia Yucatán, although they are not so close as the savannas that surround the ancient village of Chohuac-há. He also indicates that Sinsimato was sixteen leagues north of Valladolid, which is at least approximately consistent with the location of modern Colonia Yucatán, located northeast. Other interesting information is that this town was the closest one to Chauaca, and in fact, no other towns are reported at that time and in that region, and in some old maps the name of Simsimché (Sinsimato) is already present, being one of the settlements that are closer to Chauaca. On the other hand it is said that the people of Sinsimato were at war with Chauaca, and this suggests that to fight against such a big and populated town as this one used to be, it had to be a town of a similar size as otherwise they would probably loose the battles, and the only archaeological site showing such dimensions in this region, fit to face such a confrontation, was the area of Sinsimato, while the rest of the region was occupied by smaller settlements. It would seem that only the site of Sinsimato could have been at war with Chauaca, in addition to Dzonotaké, which also had problems with it, as reported by Oviedo in his Historia General y Natural de las Indias. The encomendero Sarmiento also refers to Sinsimato’s abundance of fruit trees, and it should be recalled that in previous paragraphs we have mentioned that the early settlers of Colonia Yucatán had testified that "among the ruins there were many prune trees and trees of a fruit called polbox."

For all of the above we support the idea that Sinsimato was in fact located somewhere between the three modern towns mentioned several times in this text: Colonia Yucatán, La Sierra and Teapa. Oviedo refers to Sinsimato as a town larger than Cachi (Nohcachí), and the only settlement that may be reconstructed to locate Sinsimato is the area occupied by the three towns referred to, although at present the major constructions are no longer visible, inasmuch as what has survived to this day is but the shadow of what this village used to be, together with the testimonies of those who settled in the ’40s, in the XXth century, who still remember the greatness of this outstanding Maya center, one that survived until the eve of the conquest of Yucatán.

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