Tlahuica Ruins Near Cuernavaca


By Dr. Michael E. Smith, Professor of Anthropology, University at Albany (State University of New York)
  VERSION EN ESPANOL: TOQUE AQUI!
This page describes some of the major archaeological ruins of the Tlahuica culture. These are located in the Mexican state of Morelos, in and around the modern city of Cuernavaca. The focus is on major excavated sites where architecture has been restored for viewing today.

Award1.gif - 2.6 K Aztec culture was composed of many distinct ethnic groups that occupied the central Mexican highlands in the centuries before the Spanish conquest of 1521. The Tlahuica were the Aztec group living in what is now the state of Morelos. Archaeologically, the Tlahuica culture dates to the final centuries before the arrival of Spanish conquerors in 1521. The Tlahuica peoples migrated into Morelos in the Early Aztec period (AD 1100-1350), also known as the Middle Postclassic period in Mesoamerica. The Tlahuica expanded their numbers and influence in the Late Aztec period (AD 1350-1521), also known as the Late Postclassic period. Because Tlahuica culture was one variant of the more inclusive Aztec culture of central Mexico, some Tlahuica traits and practices were shared by all the Aztec peoples and some were unique. Readers are encouraged to consult the publications listed under each site for additional information.

For more information about the Tlahuica peoples: Click Here.

The following archaeological ruins are described below. You may scroll through the entire document, or you can jump to an individual ruin by clicking on its name here:
Teopanzolco

Palacio de Cortés Site

Coatetelco

Tepozteco

Yautepec

Other Tlahuica Sites

Teopanzolco

LOCATION:

Teopanzolco is located in the city of Cuernavaca, just northeast of the railroad station. The site is an official archaeological zone maintained by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. There is a modest admission fee Tuesday-Saturday; admission is free Sundays and the zone is closed Mondays.

DESCRIPTION OF RUINS:

The present archaeological zone consists of a public plaza surrounded by various structures, including a large pyramid, numerous low platforms, and other structures. The architecture dates to the Early Aztec period (as determined by the ceramics). The pyramid is one of the few surviving examples of the Aztec twin-stair pyramid style popular in the Early Aztec period, AD 1100-1350 (the Mexica Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan, located in modern Mexico City, was a Late Aztec structure built in the earlier style). Across the plaza from the pyramid is a row of low stone platforms that were bases for altars. Excavations in one of these turned up a mass sacrificial burial consisting of skulls from decapitated individuals and offerings of pottery vessels and other items. There are several partially-excavated buildings in the zone whose functions are uncertain.

Map of Tlahuica city centers Teopanzolco was an Early Aztec site that was apparently abandoned during the Late Aztec period (AD 1350-1521). This judgment is based upon my study of ceramics excavated in various structures at the zone. These ceramics form the basis for the definition of the "Teopanzolco Ceramic Complex."

ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELDWORK:

According to local legend, the Teopanzolco pyramid was discovered during the Mexican Revolution of 1910 when the Zapatista troops were bombarding downtown Cuernavaca. Cannons were placed on top of a large mound, an ideal location overlooking downtown. The vibrations of the cannons caused the dirt to move, exposing the stone walls of the temples on top of the pyramid. After the revolution, archaeologist Alfonso Caso excavated the pyramid and restored the architecture. The restoration is interesting, because two stages of construction were left visible to the public. Mesoamerican pyramids were constructed in numerous stages, but most reconstructions leave only the final stage visible.

Various other Mexican archaeologists have excavated at Teopanzolco over the years, including Eduardo Noguera and Román Piña Chán, Roberto Gallegos, and Jorge Angulo. I analyzed ceramics from Jorge Angulo’s excavations. Ceramic vessels from the sacrificial burial are on display in the Palacio de Cortés Museum in Cuernavaca (although they are not identified as such in the exhibit).

IMPORTANCE:

The site of Teopanzolco is important for several reasons. The pyramid is one of the best examples of the Early Aztec twin-stair pyramid type, and shows the model that the Mexica imitated when building their Templo Mayor. The sacrificial burial provides dramatic evidence for human sacrifice among the Tlahuica in Early Aztec times. This shows that human sacrifice was practiced by Aztec groups other than the Mexica, and it provides time depth for the practice in Morelos. The burial exposes as a lie the statement Tlahuica informants made to Spaniards in 1570 that their ancestors did not carry out human sacrifices until they were forced to after being conquered by the Mexica. The archaeological record thus provides a correction to the biases of the written record.

In my view, Teopanzolco was the center of the original city of Cuauhnahuac, founded by the Tlahuica in the Early Aztec period. The size and grandeur of the pyramid and plaza are befitting a major Aztec city. For some unknown reason, the center of the city was then moved in Late Aztec times to what is now the center of Cuernavaca. We have no idea why the Teopanzolco zone was abandoned in the Late Aztec period.


You can click on these photos of buildings at Teopanzolco.

REFERENCES ON TEOPANZOLCO:

Angulo Villaseñor, Jorge
1976 Teopanzolco y Cuauhnahuac, Morelos. In Los Señoríos e Estados Militaristas, edited by Román Piña Chán, pp. 183-208. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.

Lagunas, Zaid and Carlos Serrano Sánchez
1972 Decapitación y desmembramiento corporal dn Teopanzolco, Morelos. In Religión en Mesoamérica. XII Mesa Redonda., edited by and Neomí Castillo Tejero Jaime Litvak King, pp. 429-34. Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología, Mexico City.

Marquina, Ignacio
1964 Arquitectura Prehispánica. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.

Noguera, Eduardo and Román Piña Chán
1956 Estratigrafía de Teopanzolco. In Revista Mexicana de Estudios Antropológicos 14:139-156.

Ordoñez, Ezequiel
1938 Las ruinas de Teopanzolco en Cuernavaca, Morelos. Revista Mexicana de Ingeniera y Arquitectura 16:609-622..

Smith, Michael E.
n.d. Tlahuica Ceramics: The Aztec-Period Ceramics of Morelos, Mexico, Monograph in preparation.

To Return to the Site List: Click Here

Palacio de Cortés Site

LOCATION:

The Palacio de Cortés site is located under the Palacio de Cortés on the zocalo in downtown Cuernavaca. The Palacio is a sixteenth-century Spanish building that now houses the major anthropology museum of Cuernavaca. Ruins of the Tlahuica structures can be seen in front of the Palacio and in several open patios of the museum.

DESCRIPTION OF FIELDWORK AND RUINS:

After the conquest of Mexico, Hernando Cortés built a large residence (the "Palacio de Cortés") in the middle of the new Spanish-Tlahuica city of Cuernavaca (renamed from Cuauhnahuac by the Spaniards, who evidently could not pronounce the Aztec name). He constructed the building over the ruins of the former palace of the king of Cuauhnahuac. Cuauhnahuac had been a powerful Aztec city-state, and the royal palace was probably quite extensive and luxurious. The Cortés palace served as a residence and then a civic building over the centuries.

Glyph for Cuauhnahuac In the early 1970’s the structure was renovated to turn it into a museum. In the process of this work, excavations were carried out into the Tlahuica and Spanish Colonial remains around and under the building. This fieldwork, directed by archaeologist Jorge Angulo Villaseñor, led to the exposure of various walls, floors, burials, and other features from the Tlahuica and Colonial periods. These were preserved where possible, mainly in front of the building and in several open patios inside. Later excavations by Wanda Tommasi de Magrelli in the Cuernavaca zocalo in front of the Palacio turned up remains related to the Palacio site.

IMPORTANCE:

The Palacio de Cortés site is one of the only Aztec royal palaces to be excavated by archaeologists. Unfortunately, little architecture was left after the building was destroyed by Cortés (a far-better preserved royal palace is being excavated at the site of Yautepec – see below). The ruins exposed today under the front steps of the museum provide one of the most graphic examples of the Spanish practice of constructing major buildings on top of the ruins of important Aztec structures. This practice, more commonly involving churches built on top of the rubble of pyramid-temples, was an ideological statement of Spanish control in their new colonies.

To archaeologists, Jorge Angulo’s excavations are important for the artifacts that were recovered. Test pits encountered stratigraphic evidence for the sequence of Early Aztec (Teopanzolco phase) deposits underneath Late Aztec (Tecpan phase) deposits, both sealed by Spanish Colonial deposits. I relied on artifacts from these deposits to establish the Tlahuica chronology of Cuernavaca. Thomas Charlton, Cynthia Otis Charlton, and Patricia Fournier studied the early Spanish colonial artifacts from the Palacio excavations.

REFERENCES ON THE PALACIO DE CORTES SITE:

Angulo Villaseñor, Jorge
1976 Teopanzolco y Cuauhnahuac, Morelos. In Los Señoríos e Estados Militaristas, edited by Román Piña Chán, pp. 183-208. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.

Angulo Villaseñor, Jorge
1979 Una Visión del Museo Cuauhnahuac en el Palacio de Cortés: Recopoliación Histórico-Arqueológico del Proceso de Cambio en el Estado de Morelos. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.

Smith, Michael E.
n.d. Tlahuica Ceramics: The Aztec-Period Ceramics of Morelos, Mexico, Monograph in preparation.

To Return to the Site List: Click Here
Photo of the Coatetelco pyramid

Coatetelco

LOCATION:

The Coatetelco site is located in the modern town of the same name in western Morelos. The town can be reached by the highway that goes by the ruins of Xochicalco; the well-marked turn-off is in Mazatepec several miles beyond Xochicalco. The site is several blocks up the road from the main church in Coatetelco. The site is an official I.N.A.H. archaeological zone, open daily except Monday.

DESCRIPTION OF RUINS:

Coatetelco was a medium-sized urban site in the Late Aztec period. The central part of the city has been excavated and restored, including a ball-court, a small temple-pyramid, and several other structures, all grouped around a public plaza. There is a small museum with finds from the site. The ball-court is an especially nice example of a small Mesoamerican ball-court. Excavations under the main stairway of the flanking platform encountered elite burials with hundreds of grave goods, including ceramic vessels, obsidian, jade, and copper-bronze objects. An unusual carefully-stacked pile of manos (basalt tools for grinding maize on a metate) was found adjacent to the ball-court; this is still visible today.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELDWORK:

Coatetelco was excavated in the 1970s by archaeologist Raúl Arana, who oversaw reconstruction of most of the architecture. Several minor excavations have been done since that time to keep the site in good condition. Ceramics from Arana’s excavations are described in my current monograph.

IMPORTANCE:

Coatetelco is important because it is one of the only small or medium-sized Aztec cities whose central precinct has been completely excavated. The ball-court is one of the few surviving from Aztec times, and the modest temple-pyramid shows that not all Aztec cities had large imposing pyramids as at Tenochtitlan or Teopanzolco. The museum has a good display of Tlahuica artifacts, including some impressive long-handle incense burners from the burials at the ball-court.

REFERENCES ON COATETELCO:

Angulo Villaseñor, Jorge
1978 El Museo de Cuauhtetelco: Guia Oficial. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.

Arana, Raul
1976 Trabajos Efectuados en Coatetelco. Unpublishd Report submitted to the Centro Regional Morelos, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.

< Smith, Michael E.
n.d. Tlahuica Ceramics: The Aztec-Period Ceramics of Morelos, Mexico, Monograph in preparation.

To Return to the Site List: Click Here
Photo of the Tepozteco pyramid

Tepozteco

LOCATION:

The Tepozteco site sits on top of cliffs overlooking the modern town of Tepoztlan. Tepoztlan can be reached by car or bus from Cuernavaca. To reach the site, visitors must climb a trail that leads off the end of the main street (the climb takes over an hour). As an official INAH archaeological zone, the site is open daily except Mondays.

DESCRIPTION OF RUINS:

Glyph for Tepoztlan. The major feature at the Tepozteco site is the Temple of Tepozteco, an Aztec/Tlahuica god. This is a small temple on a platform noteworthy for its carved inscriptions depicting various religious themes. As interpreted by Eduard Seler, and H.B. Nicholson, these carvings depict offerings and sacrifices related to the gods of pulque (an alcoholic drink used by the Aztecs). A stone panel with the name glyph of the Mexica king Ahuitzotl was recovered at this temple, and is now on display at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. Many authors attribute construction of the temple to Ahuitzotl based on the carving, but in fact the temple was probably built in Early Aztec times (AD 1100-1350), long before Ahuitzotl was born. The Mexica king probably sponsored a rebuilding or rededication of the structure.

Near the Tepozteco temple are a series of residential terraces with remains of Early Aztec-period occupation. This may have been a living area for priests or caretakers of the temple. The terraces are immediately above the steep cliffs, and have an excellent view of the town and valley of Tepoztlan.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELDWORK:

Little fieldwork has been done at the Tepozteco temple beyond periodic work directed at maintenance of the architecture. Jorge Angulo Villaseñor dug several test pits near the temple and also recovered artifacts from the construction fill. I analyzed ceramics from his excavations, and used these to define the "Tepozteco Ceramic Complex," an Early Aztec artifact assemblage. Giselle Canto, Hortensia de Vega Nova and Ana Maria Pelz of the Centro INAH en Morelos also excavated test pits near the temple in the early 1990s.

There has been little archaeological fieldwork in the modern town of Tepoztlan below the cliffs. Tepoztlan was an independent city-state in Aztec times, and the Aztec town probably lies under the modern town center. Various small Aztec-period structures have been located in the modern town. There is a good example of a sixteenth-century church and convent in Tepoztlan (now run by INAH and open to the public), and test excavations by Canto, de Vega, and Pelz uncovered Aztec-period deposits in the churchyard.

IMPORTANCE:

The Tepozteco temple is important for the pulque iconography, and for its location with a spectacular view of the region. The ceramics from the test pits and terraces are important for the definition of the Early Aztec Tepozteco Ceramic Complex.

REFERENCES ON TEPOZTECO:

de Vega Nova, Hortensia
1993 Informe Parcial del Proyecto Excavaciones Estratigráficas en Morelos. Unpublished report submitted to the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Cuernavaca, Morelos.

Marquina, Ignacio
1964 Arquitectura Prehispánica. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.

Nicholson, H.B.
1991 The Octli Cult in Late Pre-Hispanic Central Mexico. In: To Change Place: Aztec Ceremonial Landscapes, edited by Davíd Carrasco, pp. 158-187. University Press of Colorado, Niwot.

Seler, Eduard
1904 Temple pyramid of Tepoxtlan. In Mexican and Central American Antiquities, Calendar Systems, and History, edited by Charles P. Bowditch, pp. 341-52. Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin, no. 28, Washington, DC.

Smith, Michael E.
n.d. Tlahuica Ceramics: The Aztec-Period Ceramics of Morelos, Mexico, Monograph in preparation.

To Return to the Site List: Click Here


Photo of front of Yautepec palace.

Yautepec

LOCATION:

The site of Yautepec lies under the modern town of the same name, located on the free highway between Cuernavaca and Cuautla. The major ruin open to the public is a Tlahuica palace in the Barrio Rancho Nuevo, on the road into town from the south. The palace is close to the cemetery; the entrance is on a street parallel to the main road. The palace is an INAH archaeological zone, open most days.

DESCRIPTION OF RUINS:

The Yautepec palace is the only Aztec royal palace to be extensively excavated by archaeologists. It is a large mound (nearly 7,000 square meters, or 1.3 acres) at the edge of modern Yautepec, only part of which has been uncovered. The structure was a platform several meters high entered by a single stairway on the west side. On top of the platform are a series of rooms, courtyards, and passageways built of stone with lime plaster coverings. The walls were originally covered with elaborate polychrome murals, only fragments of which have survived.

Glyph for Yautepec Several blocks from the pyramid is an Aztec-period elite residential structure on the grounds of the public secondary school. The outer walls have been destroyed, but much of the interior was intact when excavated in 1993. Other Tlahuica houses and deposits excavated in 1993 were reburied and are not open for viewing today.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELDWORK:

The Yautepec palace is the subject of a long-term excavation under the direction of Hortensia de Vega Nova of the Centro INAH en Morelos. Fieldwork began in 1989 when the structure, a large mound, was threatened by the subdivision of a large parcel of land. In several seasons since that time, the western facade and steps have been excavated and restored, and about one-fourth of the top area has been cleared. The materials from these excavations are still being analyzed; some of the ceramics are on display at the Seguro Social community center in Yautepec.

In 1992 and 1993, archaeologists from the University at Albany under my direction surveyed the city of Yautepec and excavated Tlahuica houses and deposits in fourteen areas (see map below). The only excavation from this project that is open to the public is the elite residence in the school yard mentioned above.

For more information about the Albany project at Yautepec: Click Here

IMPORTANCE:

As the only Aztec royal palace to be extensively excavated, the Yautepec structure provides unique information on Aztec palaces. Royal palaces from Tenochtitlan and other cities in the Valley of Mexico were all destroyed or else their locations are unknown to archaeologists, and only small portions of the Cuauhnahuac royal palace in Cuernavaca survive today (see the Palacio de Cortés site above).

REFERENCES ON THE YAUTEPEC PALACE:

de Vega Nova, Hortensia and Pablo Mayer Guala
1990 Proyecto Yautepec, Morelos. Boletín del Consejo de Arqueología 1990: 94-101.

de Vega Nova, Hortensia and Pablo Mayer Guala
1991 Proyecto Yautepec. Boletín del Consejo de Arqueología 1991:79-84.

Smith, Michael E.
1996 The Aztecs. Blackwell Publishers, Oxford.

Smith, Michael E., Cynthia Heath-Smith, Ronald Kohler, Joan Odess, Sharon Spanogle and Timothy Sullivan
1994 The Size of the Aztec city of Yautepec: Urban Survey in Central Mexico. Ancient Mesoamerica 5:1-11.

To Return to the Site List: Click Here

OTHER TLAHUICA SITES:

Photo of peasant houses at Capilco.Many of the modern towns in Morelos are built over the ruins of Tlahuica cities and towns. Modern construction activities frequently turn up Tlahuica (and earlier) buildings, burials, and other deposits, and these finds are monitored by the Centro INAH en Morelos (Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia). A number of smaller Tlahuica sites have been surveyed or excavated by archaeologists, but few of these are open to the public (their remains are not very spectacular, and in many cases the architecture has not been judged worthy of restoration).

For information about the rural Tlahuica sites of Cuexcomate and Capilco: Click Here

Glyph for Hauxtepec Other Tlahuica sites with some fieldwork include Coatlan Viejo (a small city-state center surveyed by Roger Mason), Cuentepec (a city-state center surveyed by Osvaldo Sterpone), Zacatepechi (a small site excavated by Jaime Litvak King and Donovan Senter), Huaxtepec and Tepoztlan (two city-state capitals tested by Hortensia de Vega Nova, Giselle Canto and Ana Maria Pelz), and Tetla (an Early Aztec residence excavated by David Grove). Also, excavations at many pre-Tlahuica turned up evidence of Tlahuica occupations after the main occupations of the sites. These sites include Xochicalco, Chalcatzingo, Las Pilas, and Olintepec.

References:

Angulo Villaseñor, Jorge
1976 Teopanzolco y Cuauhnahuac, Morelos. In Los Señoríos e Estados Militaristas, edited by Román Piña Chán, pp. 183-208. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.

Angulo Villaseñor., Jorge and Raúl M. Arana A.
1988 La Cerámica de los Tlahuica. In Ensayos de Alfarería Prehispánica e Histórica de Mesoamérica: Homenaje a Eduardo Noguera Auza, edited by Mari Carmen Serra Puche and Carlos Navarrete Cáceres, pp. 343-385. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.

de Vega Nova, Hortensia
1993 Informe Parcial del Proyecto Excavaciones Estratigráficas en Morelos. Unpublished report submitted to the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Cuernavaca, Morelos.

Litvak King, Jaime
1970 El Valle de Xochicalco: Formación y Análisis de un Modelo Estadístico. PhD dissertation,, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

Mason, Roger D.
1980 Economic and Social Organization of an Aztec Provincial Center: Archaeological Research at Coatlan Viejo, Morelos, Mexico. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas.

Norr, Lynette
1987 The Excavation of a Postclassic House at Tetla. In Ancient Chalcatzingo, edited by David C. Grove, pp. 400-408. University of Texas Press, Austin.

Senter, Donovan C.
1980 Un estudio de la distribución de los tipos cerámicos del sitio de Zacatepechi, Morelos. Anales de Antropología 16:105-122.

Smith, Michael E.
1983 Postclassic Culture Change in Western Morelos, Mexico: The Development and Correlation of Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Chronologies. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois.

Smith, Michael E.
1992 Archaeological Research at Aztec-Period Rural Sites in Morelos, Mexico. Volume 1, Excavations and Architecture / Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Sitios Rurales de la Epoca Azteca en Morelos, Tomo 1: Excavaciones y Arquitectura. University of Pittsburgh Memoirs in Latin American Archaeology 4. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh. (bilingual site report).
.....For a description of this book: Click Here.

Smith, Michael E.
1996 The Aztecs. Blackwell Publishers, Oxford.
.....For a description of this book: Click Here.

Smith, Michael E.
n.d. Tlahuica Ceramics: The Aztec-Period Ceramics of Morelos, Mexico, Monograph in preparation.

Smith, Michael E. and Kenneth G. Hirth
1988 The Development of Prehispanic Cotton-spinning Technology in Western Morelos, Mexico. Journal of Field Archaeology 15:349-358

To Return to the Site List: Click Here

Pre-Tlahuica Ruins in Morelos:

The two best-known archaeological sites in Morelos pre-date the Tlahuica culture. Xochicalco in the western portion of the state is an impressive hilltop urban center dating primarily to the Epiclassic period (AD 700-900). The site has been the setting of major fieldwork projects by Kenneth G. Hirth (Pennsylvania State University) and Norberto González Crespo and Silvia Garza de González (Centro INAH en Morelos).

Chalcatzingo in southeastern Morelos was an important chiefdom center in the Middle Formative period (AD 1200-600). It is well known for the numerous "Olmec-style" rock carvings. Major excavations by David C. Grove (University of Illinois) provided important information on this site.

Information about Xochicalco, Chalcatzingo, and other archaeological sites in Morelos can be found at the: State of Morelos Tourism Web Page.

References:

Grove, David C.
1987 Ancient Chalcatzingo. University of Texas Press, Austin.

Hirth, Kenneth G.
1995 Urbanism, Militarism, and Architectural Design: An Analysis of Epiclassic Sociopoltical Structure at Xochicalco. Ancient Mesoamerica 6:237-250.

Hirth, Kenneth G. and Ann Cyphers Guillén
1988 Tiempo y asentamiento en Xochicalco. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.



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For More Information:
Tlahuica Peoples of Morelos || Tlahuica Culture Home Page ||
Tlahuica Peasant Sites || Excavations at Yautepec ||
Michael E. Smith's Home Page || Description of the book, THE AZTECS ||
Institute for Mesoamerican Studies home page ||


© 2003, Michael E. Smith (updated 10/30/03)