Xochicalco

Site information

• Official name: Archaeological Monuments Zone of Xochicalco
• Location: Municipalities of Temixco and Miacatlan, Mexico
• Type: Cultural
• Year of inscription: 1999

The Archaeological Monuments Zone of Xochicalco is a World Heritage Site designating the remains of a seventh-century Mesoamerican city. The remains are important both because of the art and architecture preserved there and the period of Mesoamerican history they represent. The art and architecture show influences from multiple Mesoamerican cultures and may indicate the presence in Xochicalco of a diverse artistic community.

While situated on a series of hills (including an artificial mound) poorly suited to agriculture, Xochicalco's central location and ease of fortification contributed to its importance as a center of trade and religion for the resurgent Olmeca-Xicallanca people who thrived in the period between the decline of nearby Teotihuacan and the spread of the Toltec Empire in the ninth century. While little is known about the Olmeca-Xicallancas, the unusually well-preserved remains of Xochicalco have contributed much of the material evidence archaeologists have amassed in their study of that empire.

History

Located in what is now South-Central Mexico, Xochicalco was built as a fortified city around 650 CE, on a site that had been inhabited for about eight hundred years by various groups. The construction of the fortifications, and the standing architecture that survived to the present, roughly coincide with the decline of Teotihuacan, a city-state near present-day Mexico City. At its peak, Teotihuacan was not only the most powerful city in the pre-Columbian Americas, but it was also one of the largest cities in the world, with a population of at least 125,000 inhabitants.

While Xochicalco was much smaller, home to twenty thousand people at its peak, some historians believe that Xochicalco's rise may have been connected to the fall of Teotihuacan. Archaeological evidence shows burning and other damage to civic structures of the city that could be attributed to the work of invaders. At the very least, Teotihuacan's decline, if caused by other factors (such as an internal revolt), created the opportunity for the rise of the competing empire with which Xochicalco was associated. Some scholars have pointed out region-wide socioeconomic disruption coinciding with Teotihuacan's decline, leading to the growth of city-states, including Xochicalco.

Xochicalco was built by the Olmeca-Xicallanca people, on a site which, while agriculturally poor, was well suited to the fortifications necessary to a religious and commercial center. Despite being one of the first Mesoamerican empires, little is known about the Olmeca-Xicallancas, though they were probably ethnic Maya and are known to have settled sites along the Gulf Coast, the Mixteca Alta, and at Cholula. Their power in what is now Central Mexico was considerable, especially during their resurgence between the fall of Teotihuacan and the rise of the Toltec Empire in the late eighth or early ninth century. The founding of Xochicalco was part of this resurgence, and the empire may have depended on the fortified city's strategic location for its trade network. The homeland of the Olmeca-Xicallancas is the subject of speculation, though one possibility is Campeche, which is also believed to be the origin of the specific Olmeca-Xicallancas who founded Xochicalco.

Most of Xochicalco was destroyed in a fire around 900 CE, with archaeological evidence indicating that survivors left the city in haste (leaving many of their belongings behind). A portion of the city on a lower slope apparently untouched by the fire remained inhabited, but the peak of Xochicalco's power and its importance to Mesoamerican trade was over. The Tlahuica people resettled the area around the early thirteenth century.

The ruins were rediscovered in the eighteenth century and visited by Prussian naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt, who published an illustrated description of his expedition, in 1803. Major archaeological work, including restoration of the Temple of the Plumed Serpents, began in the twentieth century.

Significance

Xochicalco was selected as a cultural World Heritage Site based on two criteria: it is a well-preserved example of a fortified city from the Epiclassic Period of Mesoamerica, and the art and architecture preserved in the site represent a unique combination of Mesoamerican cultural elements. The conservation of the surrounding area has included a forest rehabilitation program that reintroduced indigenous flora to the site.

The ruins of Xochicalco are found on three separate levels, the lowest of which includes the remains of the fortified city's defensive walls, and within those walls, some of the residences. The intermediate level is called the Market Ensemble by archaeologists and includes more residential buildings, the largest of three ball courts, the Plaza of the Stele of the Two Glyphs, and a causeway lined by altars marking the ceremonial year. The highest level includes temples and other monuments. The organization of the city shows a general association of class with the elevation of the different parts of the city, which was built on a series of hills: The most sacred buildings, and probably those used by rulers, are on the highest level, while those of purely practical purpose (housing workers and soldiers) are on the lowest, with the mercantile buildings in between.

The Main Plaza of the highest level is built on an artificial mound and includes two Mesoamerican step pyramids temples, one of which is known as the Pyramid of the Plumed Serpents. The four facades of this pyramid are decorated with bas relief sculptures of Quetzalcoatl, the Teotihuacan feathered serpent deity, surrounding human figures in a Mayan style, believed to be elites, such as priests and astronomers. The styles of art found on the temples and elsewhere are of a wide enough variety that some scholars hypothesize that Xochicalco was home to an artists' community that included members of multiple Mesoamerican cultures.

Bibliography

Archaeological Monuments Zone of Xochicalco. World Heritage List. World Heritage Cultural Centre, UNESCO, 2016. whc.unesco.org/en/list/939.

Corona-M., Eduardo. "Zoogeographical Affinities and the Use of Vertebrates in Xochicalco (Morelos, Mexico)." Quaternary International, vol. 180, no. 1, 2008, pp. 145–51.

Garza-Tarazon, Silvia, et al. "Storage at Xochicalco, Morelos, Mexico." Storage in Ancient Complex Societies, edited by Linda R. Manzanilla and Mitchell S. Rothman, Routledge, 2015, pp. 235–50.

Hirth, Kenneth. "Intermittent Crafting and Multicrafting at Xochicalco." Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, vol. 19, no. 1, March 2009, pp. 75–91. doi:10.1111/j.1551-8248.2009.01014.x.

Hirth, Kenneth, editor. Archaeological Research at Xochicalco. U of Utah P, 2000.

Leeming, David A. "Quetzalcoatl." Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion, SpringerLink, 2014, pp. 1456–57.