Cuicuilco is an archaeological site located on the southern shore of Lake Texcoco in the southeastern Valley of Mexico, in what is today the borough of Tlalpan in Mexico City.
Construction of the Cuicuilco pyramid began a few centuries BCE, during the Late Preclassic period of Mesoamerican history.PASTRANA, Alejandro and Patricia Fournier. Cuicuilco. In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures. The Civilizations of Mexico and Central America. Vol. 1. David Carrasco (ed.), pp. 290–292. New York: Oxford University Press. 2001 The site was occupied until its destruction by the eruption of Xitle, sometime between 245 and 315 CE.
Based on its date of occupation, Cuicuilco may be the oldest city in the Valley of Mexico and was roughly contemporary with, and possibly interacting with, the Olmecs of Mexico's Gulf Coast region (also known as the Olmec heartland).
Importance Based on known facts, it was the first important civic-religious center of the Mexican Highlands, its population probably including all the social strata and cultural traits that would characterize the altépetl (city-state) of classical Mesoamerica.
Cuicuilco also represents one of the early sites in Meso America to show state formation. There is evidence of a four tier settlement hierarchy as well as having made investments in architectural projects. It became a rival of the Teotihuacan which was also located in the Valley of Mexico (about 60 km to the northeast). Their interactions were mostly hostile and was personified by both cities taking defensive positions against each other throughout the Valley of Mexico.Spencer, Charles & Redmond, Elsa. (2004). Primary State Formation in Mesoamerica. Annual Review of Anthropology. 33. 173-199. 10.1146/annurev.anthro.33.070203.143823.
It was destroyed and abandoned following the eruption of the volcano Xitle, causing migrations and changes to the population and culminating in the consolidation of Teotihuacan as the ruler of the Central Highlands during the Early Classic period.
At the site are eight of the many housing and religious buildings that once existed and the remains of a hydraulic system that supplied water to the city. One of the pyramids was built in a strategic position, representing early prehispanic attempts to link religious concepts with cosmic events through building construction.
Etymology Though the etymology is unknown, according to Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (National Institute of Anthropology and History, INAH), American archaeologist and anthropologist Zelia Nuttall (1857–1933) believed that Cuicuilco means: “Place where songs and dances are made”.
History Cuicuilco was founded as a farming village, but provides evidence of early religious practices, including stone offerings and the use of ceramics as grave goods. The city grew around a large ceremonial center with pyramids and an associated urban area that included plazas and avenues bordering a series of small, shallow pools. These pools were fed by runoff from the nearby hills of Zacayuca and Zacaltepetl. The population at the city's peak is estimated at 20,000 people. The features of the site include terraces, various buildings, fortifications, and irrigation ditches and canals. The main known structure is a pyramidal basement built about 800–600 BCE.
Although this site produced a new ceramic tradition (around 600–200 BCE), it is considered that the overall site area was developed over several generations of inhabitants.
Archaeological evidence, ceramic and structures, indicate that Cuicuilco developed during the first millennium BCE, during the Preclassic, as a small settlement, its inhabitants interacting with other sites in the Basin of Mexico as well as relatively distant regions, e.g. Chupicuaro to the west and Monte Albán southeast.
Estimated occupation periods for Cuicuilco may be considered tentative at best. The earliest occupation is estimated in 1200 BCE, and included many farming villages of similar configuration and space distribution. During the period 1000–800 BCE, conical structures with an oval base were built. Specialists call these sites regional capitals, considering that they had higher hierarchy and functioned as integration centers, eventually becoming larger regional capitals.
If the great pyramid of Cuicuilco is an expression of this growth, then this level of development was reached between 800 and 600 BC, when it was built. If true, these proto-urban characteristics might have extended into the late Preclassic, with Cuicuilco weakening between 100 BCE and 1 CE, the time when Teotihuacan began to develop, later becoming an important urban center in the Classic period.
Beginning of the culture In the mid-Preclassic (c. 800 BCE), settlements emerged in the area, which slowly evolved and grew, becoming cities, subsequently developing into a major civic-ceremonial urban centers in the late Preclassic (c. 100 CE). With twenty thousand inhabitants, complex ritual systems, and social stratification, comparable to Teotihuacan during the Late Formative period.Pastrana, Alejandro, and Patricia Fournier. "Cuicuilco." In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures. : Oxford University Press, 2001
Some experts theorize that the development of the site, from its foundation, was due to its strategic location near the pass of Toluca, and near the shores of Lake Texcoco.
Under this perspective, although the place produced (around 600–200 BCE) a new ceramic tradition, is also evident that the region was configured by successive generations.
Culture growth Towards the late Preclassic period, around 150 BCE, Cuicuilco became an urban regional center, with a population estimated at 20,000 inhabitants, comparable with Teotihuacan at that time (cf. Sanders, 1981). Cuicuilco's development was affected by the eruption of the Xitle volcano, which formed a layer of lava that partially or completely covered the city's structures, whose extension is inferred to have reached nearly 400 hectares (cf. ibid.).
Physiological characteristics of the culture The inhabitants had round heads affected by direct or oblique tubular cranial deformation, the first being more common. Dental mutilation was practised. The average life span was 51 years, affected mainly by diseases like osteomyelitis.
Agriculture and food From their location, inhabitants had access to natural resources, as they were located approximately 4 km from Lake Xochimilco, and near the Sierra de las Cruces and Ajusco (cf. Sanders 1981: 173); In addition there were water springs and streams. Prehispanic groups managed to produce food. The economic base was centered on agriculture, probably supplemented by hunting, fishing and gathering; access to wood had to be simple, from nearby forests, and agricultural land in the vicinity of the nuclear portion of the site, buried today under meters of volcanic lava and modern buildings.
End of the culture The decline began in the early 1st century BCE, with the rise of Teotihuacan as a center of cultural and religious influence. By the year 400 CE, the Xitle volcano, located in the vicinity of Ajusco (Nahuatl: atl, xochitl, co, “water”, “flower”, “place”; “place of flowers in water”), and part of the Sierra de Ajusco-Chichinauhtzin, erupted, burying and destroying what still remained of Cuicuilco and Copilco (another important ceremonial center). This disaster led to the dispersion of Cuicuilca culture towards Toluca and Teotihuacan, which hosted a large part of the Cuicuilcas and incorporated many features of their culture.
It is considered that the Cuicuilco's decline (100 BCE to 1 CE) had a minor recovery in 1–150 CE, due to the presence of representations of fire deities.
Also, according to some other sources, a series of volcano eruptions and the destruction of Cuicuilco took place in the 1st century BC.Susan Toby Evans, David L. Webster, eds, Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America: An Encyclopedia. Routledge, 2013 p76
In spite of the abandonment of Cuicuilco as an important ceremonial center, people continued making offerings even after the site was covered by lava from the Xitle volcano, which happened around 400 CE or in the range 245 to 315 AD.
With Cuicuilco in ruins, Xitle erupted once again, covering much of the city in lava. This lava flow is evident based on excavation around the main pyramid. Excavations show a layer of lava separating the modern surface from the original, ancient surface. This shows much of the city was completely destroyed by the lava flows. This series of eruptions gave rise to Teotihuacan as the center of the Basin of Mexico.
From the beginning of the last century, “El Pedregal” was an attractive place to define the predecessor cultures of the Teotihuacan y Mexica cultures in the México basin. Investigations at Cuicuilco B demonstrated that the site's development was as a consequence of internal dynamics.
Archaeologists conclude that Cuicuilco was a prominent community prior to the emergence of Teotihuacan as an urban center, noting that the six small communities which some archeologists believe eventually combined to become Teotihuacan were founded and showing evidence of modest growth at the same time that Cuicuilco was building pyramids and public monuments. The city seems to have been abandoned around AD 150 to 200 after the eruption of a nearby volcano, Xitle, although the territory was reoccupied at a much later date. Pottery and other evidence suggest that refugees from the volcanic disaster migrated north and became part of the population pool of Teotihuacan, near the northern shore of the Lake Texcoco.
Archaeological site
The site of Cuicuilco is covered by a dense volcanic lava field known as the Pedregal de San Ángel. The lava covers an area of approximately 80 km2, including the foothills of the Ajusco mountain range and extending down to a nearby lake shore. A 1956 study concluded that the uneven lava deposits, reaching a depth over 10 m in areas, were a major factor in the preservation of Cuicuilco. The site is also inside a modern urban area, and is partially covered by buildings associated with the National University of Mexico. Only partial archaeological investigation has been possible, and modern building techniques have damaged the prehistoric city. Several 1990 archaeological finds at Cuicuilco, consisting of a circular pyramid constructed within a plaza with smaller structures associated with the agricultural system, were destroyed for the construction of a multi-storied office complex. Consequently, the true size and complexity of Cuicuilco may be difficult to ascertain.
Other investigations The prehispanic settlement and its surroundings, upon being covered by lava, were sealed and preserved. Archaeological materials above the lava were affected differently during the last 2000 years.
The lava flow sealed off the northern shore of the lake and appears to have created a marshy peat deposit in the eastern section. Multiple layers of volcanic ash from Xitle and possibly from Popocatepetl have been detected in the peat.
It has also been suggested that other volcanoes in the area may have played a role.
"No geological evidence under the Xitle flow suggests an earlier eruption, but another monogenetic volcano, Chichinautzin, was also active in the area prior to Xitle and is believed to have had a similarly large flow and to have resulted in similar ecological changes. The Yololica volcano also erupted at about the same time as Xitle, and its lava flows are only a few kilometers from Cuicuilco".Esther Pasztory, Teotihuacan: An Experiment in Living. University of Oklahoma Press, 1997