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

Site 4 (Nohcachí)

Its real name remains so far unknown. Other names which may refer to this place are: Cachi, Nocachi, Nocaché, Tequeaque, Atequeaque, and Yocajeque.

The site of Nohcachí is located at a distance of 12 km in a straight line to the east of Colonia Yucatán, and at the same distance in a straight line, but this time towards the northwest, from the town of Kantunilín. The archaeological site is reached through the Colonia Yucatán–Kantunilkín road, in the direction of the latter and across the border of Quintana Roo; halfway of the road mentioned above, one must take a detour north, which corresponds to a sacbé (the post #217 of the CFE is a good landmark to see where one must take this detour), and then proceed approximately 4 km to find a number of old houses, property of some ranches from the region. One such ranch bears the ancient name of Nohcachí, which used to belong to a village; although in the maps by INEGI, it is shown as Nocaché. The groups of structures may be seen at both sides of the road and are covered by trees taller than others found in the area.

The earliest information about this settlement occurs in different historic accounts about the Spanish conquest, being Oviedo the chronicler, who provided the richest details about this town, as the extension of the place and its remarkable commercial activity were characteristics that immediately caught his attention. Assumedly, the town had a plaque (platform) with a long post stuck on top of it, similar to a pole, where they would tie and punish offenders such as adulterous persons or thieves, and they were tied sometimes on their knees and sometimes in a standing position. Also, many people attended the place for commercial transactions, and they had a large market with plenty of dealers (sales-people and consumers) offering different products and goods: supplies and food. The Spanish observed that the place was ruled by certain people that were some kinds of sheriffs and judges, who owned a house by the market, used as a consistory where conflicts were solved as they occurred, granting each of the disputing parties that which justly corresponded (Oviedo, op. cit., III:229:230).

After taking a two days rest at Nohcachí, the Spanish expedition proceeded towards a different town ahead, larger than others they had seen and known, and whose name was Cincimato (Sinsimato) (Ibid.).

Today, the archaeological remains of Nohcachí, even though they have been severely looted, are still an example of their ancient greatness. There are at least four major groups of monumental structures in an area a little larger than 500 x 500 meters, with smaller platforms in the surroundings, together with water wells and rejolladas (Figure 8).

Probably the larger and most important group is the one located northeast, and although in its present condition it is hard to establish what the original shape was, it may be inferred that it was a large platform slightly over 2 meters in height, with evidence in its upper portion of the presence of buildings, maybe of rooms with masonry walls and roofs made of perishable materials. Northeast of the platform and attached to it, there is a pyramidal building about 8 meters high which was also penetrated by looters; still in its upper levels, parts of the retaining walls of the construction system are visible, and in some areas, stones fixed with mortar are present (Photo 30). A similar pyramid has been identified scarcely 10 meters to the north.

Another group of structures is located southeast, approximately 600 meters away of the main group, wherefrom a pyramid approximately 6 meters high rises, with several minor structures around it (Photo 31).

Towards the southwest, we found another group of mounds, and here our attention was caught by a large two-story platform with stairways facing north and supporting in its upper part, the remains of what once was a room which might have served as an altar; this is the best preserved building found so far in the site (Photo 32).

And 200 meters north, there is another platform of similar dimensions, but more intensely looted, with a sascabera on its north side. This construction forms a plaza of approximately 40 x 80 meters, together with another extended construction that limited the west side, and a small mound with a portion of a cave or sascabera which limits the east edge, while at north, it is delimited by another platform with a pyramidal structure approximately 5 meters high that rests on its northern upper portion. Northeast of this platform and pyramid lies a large and deep rejollada with a cave on the east bank, at the natural ground level.

Approximately 200 meters northeast of the main group, there is a group of monumental structures consisting of two large platforms, a little over 2 meters in height. The one on the west side supports a building 4 meters high, which partly delimits its north side; attached to it, there is a lower and extended construction completing the limits of the northern side of the platform. As to the platform on the east side, it shows in its upper portion, rooms that occupied its four edges. Less then 100 meters away from this big complex, in a northeastern direction, there is a small group which forms a small plaza or patio whose main structure is limiting the north, while the structures smaller in volume delimit the remaining sides. East of this small group, there’s a deep savanna, which way back in time might have been a large lagoon that supplied the place with fresh water; I would even be in favor of suggesting that this was the site of Yocajeque ("Yoh cah ek") referred to in the Relación de Valladolid, a place where a big star fell and formed a lagoon (Garza, op. cit., II:33). Yoh cah ek seems to have been a landmark in the XVIth century to delimit the lands that belonged to Chohuac-há in the year 1543, when the Villa de Valladolid was founded (Ibid.).

South of the main corral of the Nohcachí ranch, a metate fragment was recovered, and in a portion of the superficial area of the place, ceramic was collected for analysis (Photo 33).

Actually, this archaeological site is very large compared to others described in this report and found in this area; thus, this would be indicating that this is the number one candidate to be the settlement of Cachi that the Spanish came across after their two-month stay in the port of Conil, after penetrating in the peninsula to proceed with the conquest, in 1528. This would also be supported by the fact that in the place where the site is located, a ranch still maintains the ancient name of Nohcachí, as we said elsewhere in this report.

According to the testimonies of the present owners of the Nohcachí ranch, this was an unavoidable place for all those who traveled to the port of Chiquilá (Conil), or in other words, since ancient times, there was a road that led to the coast before the Kantunilquín–Chiquilá road, now in use, was built.

On the other side, there’s a discussion on whether the settlement is in fact the legendary Cachi of Spanish historians, or one of the many sites located in the vicinities of that area.

The name of Cachi or Nocachi seems in fact to derive from another name, and could be a differed pronunciation of the true Maya name. Nocachí is the most complete word used to designate this town. A different and perhaps more accurate suggestion could be that of Yoh Cah Ek, a place that is said to be a bordering landmark of the province of Valladolid in the Relación of 1579, where it is mentioned (Ibid.). Actually, the Relación refers to it as Yocajeque, while the author reconstructs the name as Yoh Cah Ek in Maya, and what is interesting about this document is that after mentioning this name, the port of Conil is referred to as the last point in the continent, and we now know that Nocachí at that time was somewhere on the way towards the port of Conil; in addition it was an important site, as the conquerors had passed by in their first incursion to the east.

If we take the Relación de Atequeaque, also from 1579, we see that author de la Garza takes it as if it were the town of Cehac; could this perhaps be the site of Yocajeque as mentioned in the Relación de Valladolid?

To this day, the location of the town known as Cehac is uncertain, and the only known reference informs that it was four leagues away from Chancenote, the doctrinal capital, and that it was located at some point in the royal road belonging to the town and port of Conil. With this data, some researchers have situated on the map the assumed town of Cehac in one point as a probable location (Roys, op. cit.:fig. page 102; Garza, op. cit. II: fig. page 440) and this location is close to the archaeological site of Nohcachí, recently discovered.

The site of Nohcachí, provided it really is the Cachi settlement mentioned in the conquest documents, is consistent with the location given for Tequeaque in the Relación of that town: four leagues (a very relative unit measure) from Chancenote towards the port of Conil. Should this be correct, then consequently the name of Cehac that the author de la Garza has rebuilt, would in fact be the town of Nohcachí. We are not saying that Cehac doesn’t exist, but rather that these could be two different places; up to now though, the only thing we know almost for sure is that Nohcachí was the town that lay on the way to Conil.

Consequently, if Tequeaque and Nohcachí were in fact one and the same town, it means that at a certain point, it was a part of the doctrinal capital of Chancenote, just like Sinsimato (both sites are located at a similar distance from Chancenote in a straight line), and the doctrine was taught by the Franciscan friars based on that capital. The town was placed on a mount (a term used to define woods with tall trees) and had a church made of perishable materials with silk ornaments in the sacristy. There was a choirmaster with local singers. The town had 400 contributors and by 1579, this number had decreased to 28, who contributed 50 ducats per year; the town had very rich soil and subsistence resources and fruit trees were abundant (Garza, op. cit:284, Rel. de Atequeaque).

By the mid XIXth century, the so-called chorographic album of Yucatán was written, probably by Don Juan Pío Pérez, as suggested by the Mayanist Alfredo Barrera Vázquez before his passing. This work, which remained unfinished, is called Diccionario Corográfico Estadístico de Yucatán, and only listed and recorded the ranches, haciendas, towns, etc., whose names began with the letter "A" and on through the "G". This dictionary includes the name of Cachi, listed as a ranch with 20 inhabitants that belonged to the town of Labcaj (Solferino) in the Tizimín County. This information was originated sometime between 1825 and 1845 (Brito, op. cit.:27-28).

Today, the site of Nohcachí exhibits abundant ramón trees which survived to the development of grazing fields for the cattle, and are still found on top of the remains of the archaeological settlement. There are cenotes, pre-hispanic wells and large rejolladas in the area.

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