El Teúl - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Caxcan Culture – Archaeological Site





Name:	El Teúl archaeological site
Type	Mesoamerican archaeology
Location	Teúl Municipality Teúl de González Ortega Teúl de González Ortega is a municipality in the south of the state of Zacatecas, Mexico-History:Prior to Spanish conquest and colonization of El Teúl, the town and its surrounding valleys were primarily inhabited by Caxcan peoples... , Zacatecas Zacatecas Zacatecas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Zacatecas is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 58 municipalities and its capital city is Zacatecas....
Region	Mesoamerica Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...
Coordinates	21°28′08.57"N 103°28′03.34"W
Culture	Chichimeca Chichimeca Chichimeca was the name that the Nahua peoples of Mexico generically applied to a wide range of semi-nomadic peoples who inhabited the north of modern-day Mexico and southwestern United States, and carried the same sense as the European term "barbarian"... – Caxcan Caxcan The Caxcan were a partly nomadic indigenous people of Mexico. Under their leader, Francisco Tenamaztle, the Caxcan were allied with the Zacatecos against the Spaniards during the Mixtón Rebellion. During the rebellion, they were described as "the heart and the center of the Indian Rebellion". They...
Language	Nahuatl
Chronology	200 BCE – 1540 CE
Period	Mesoamerican Preclassical, Classical, Postclassical
Apogee
INAH Web Page	Non existent

El Teúl is an important archaeological mesoamerica

Mesoamerica

Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...

n site located on a hill with the same name in the Teúl municipality

Teúl de González Ortega

Teúl de González Ortega is a municipality in the south of the state of Zacatecas, Mexico-History:Prior to Spanish conquest and colonization of El Teúl, the town and its surrounding valleys were primarily inhabited by Caxcan peoples...

in the south of the Zacatecas

Zacatecas

Zacatecas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Zacatecas is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 58 municipalities and its capital city is Zacatecas....

State, Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, near the Jalisco

Jalisco

Jalisco officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in Western Mexico and divided in 125 municipalities and its capital city is Guadalajara.It is one of the more important states...

State.

This site had one of the first industrial zones of the continent; they manufactured copper and ceramics items, also found many archaeological materials of various kinds, such as: shell beads from shaft tombs, also earflaps with Teotihuacan motifs and polychrome ceramic Codex style. The objects found, were as a result of continuous occupation this site had, for at least one 1, 800 years, in contrast with other large cities like Teotihuacan and Monte Alban.

History

In the 16th century this area was called "north of the central Mexico plateau" that was never conquered by the Aztecs, "La Gran Chichimeca". It now comprises the States of Jalisco, Aguascalientes, Nayarit, Guanajuato, San Luis Potosí Durango, Coahuila and Zacatecas. The Aztec and spaniards called the residents of this great area, Chichimecas, although they were of different cultures, languages, or civilizations. It reported that four primary nations lived in what is now Zacatecas: the Caxcan

Caxcan

The Caxcan were a partly nomadic indigenous people of Mexico. Under their leader, Francisco Tenamaztle, the Caxcan were allied with the Zacatecos against the Spaniards during the Mixtón Rebellion. During the rebellion, they were described as "the heart and the center of the Indian Rebellion". They...

is, Guachichil

Guachichil

Of all the Chichimeca natives, the Guachichiles occupied the most extensive territory, stretching north to Saltillo in Coahuila and to the northern corners of Michoacán in the south...

Tepehuán

The Tepehuán are a Native American ethnic group in northwest Mexico, whose villages at the time of Spanish conquest spanned a large territory along the Sierra Madre Occidental from Chihuahua and Durango in the north to Jalisco in the south...

and Zacateco

Zacateco

The Zacatecos were an indigenous people inhabiting part of northern Mexico, one of the peoples called Chichimecas by the Aztecs. They lived in most of what is now the state of Zacatecas and the northeastern part of Durango. They have many direct descendants, but most of their culture and...

s. The state was named after the Zacatecos, it was the nickname given by the Aztecs to the Bufa hill inhabitants. Is a composed nahuatl word that means "inhabitants of the land where grass abounds", it derives from the zacatl, “Reed” or grass, and locative co.

The majority of its inhabitants were hunting nomads, but also settled in several places. Some parts of the territory, particularly the south was under Mesoamerican influence, while the rest of the territory formed part of what is now called Aridoamérica. Zacatecas has other important archaeological sites like La Quemada, located in the Villanueva municipality and Altavista in the Chalchihuites municipality. These areas have ceremonial buildings and pyramids with architectural features of the Mesoamerican cultures.

Chichimecs

Chichimeca was the name that the Nahua peoples of Mexico generically applied to a wide range of semi-nomad

Nomad

Nomadic people , commonly known as itinerants in modern-day contexts, are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location. There are an estimated 30-40 million nomads in the world. Many cultures have traditionally been nomadic, but...

ic peoples who inhabited the north of modern-day Mexico

Mexico

and southwestern United States

Southwestern United States

The Southwestern United States is a region defined in different ways by different sources. Broad definitions include nearly a quarter of the United States, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah...

, and carried the same sense as the European term "barbarian

Barbarian

Barbarian and savage are terms used to refer to a person who is perceived to be uncivilized. The word is often used either in a general reference to a member of a nation or ethnos, typically a tribal society as seen by an urban civilization either viewed as inferior, or admired as a noble savage...

". The name was adopted with a pejorative tone by the Spaniards when referring especially to the semi-nomadic hunter-gatherer

Hunter-gatherer

A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...

peoples of northern Mexico. In modern times only one ethnic group is customarily referred to as Chichimecs, namely the Chichimeca Jonaz

Chichimeca Jonaz

The Chichimeca Jonaz are a group of indigenous people living in Guanajuato and San Luis Potosí. In Guanajuato State the Chichimeca Jonaz people live in a community of San Luis de la Paz municipality. The settlement is 2,070 m above sea level...

, although lately this usage is being changed for simply "Jonáz" or their own name for themselves "Úza".

Many of the peoples called Chichimeca are virtually unknown today; few descriptions mention them and they seem to have been absorbed into mestizo

Mestizo

Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...

culture or into other indigenous ethnic groups. For example, virtually nothing is known about the peoples referred to as Guachichil
Guachichil
Of all the Chichimeca natives, the Guachichiles occupied the most extensive territory, stretching north to Saltillo in Coahuila and to the northern corners of Michoacán in the south...

es, Caxcan
Caxcan
The Caxcan were a partly nomadic indigenous people of Mexico. Under their leader, Francisco Tenamaztle, the Caxcan were allied with the Zacatecos against the Spaniards during the Mixtón Rebellion. During the rebellion, they were described as "the heart and the center of the Indian Rebellion". They...

es, Zacateco
Zacateco
The Zacatecos were an indigenous people inhabiting part of northern Mexico, one of the peoples called Chichimecas by the Aztecs. They lived in most of what is now the state of Zacatecas and the northeastern part of Durango. They have many direct descendants, but most of their culture and...

s, Tecuexe
Tecuexe
The Tecuexe were an indigenous group found in the eastern part of present day Guadalajara, Mexico-History:It is believed that the Tecuexe derived from the dispersion of Zacateco groups from La Quemada. Like the Zacatecos, the Tecuexe were a tribe belonging to the generic "Chichimeca" peoples...

s, or Guamare
Guamare
The Guamares were an indigenous group that were concentrated in the region of the present state of Guanajuato. They were part of the Chichimecas.The Guamares were centered in the Guanajuato Sierras, but some bands ranged as far east as Querétaro...

s. Others like the Opata
Opata
Opata is the collective name for three indigenous peoples native to the northern Mexican border state of Sonora. The whole of Opata territory encompasses the northeasterly and central part of the state...

or "Eudeve" are well described but extinct as a people.

Caxcanes

The Caxcan caxcanes o cazcanes were a partly nomadic people that spoke Uto-Aztecan languages

Uto-Aztecan languages

Uto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family consisting of over 30 languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found from the Great Basin of the Western United States , through western, central and southern Mexico Uto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family...

. The Caxcan were allied with the Zacatecos against the Spaniards during the Mixtón Rebellion

Mixtón Rebellion

The Mixtón War was fought from 1540 until 1542 between Spanish invaders and their Aztec and Tlaxcalan allies against the Caxcanes and other semi-nomadic Indians of the area of north western Mexico...

During the rebellion, they were described as "the heart and the center of the Indian Rebellion". They were famously led by Tenamaxtli

Tenamaxtli

Francisco Tenamaztle was a leader of the Caxcan Indians in Mexico during the Mixton War of 1540-1542. He was later put on trial in Spain...

. After the rebellion, they were at constant target by the Zacatecos and Guachichiles due to their ceasefire agreement with the Spaniards. Their principal religious and population centers were at Teul

Teúl de González Ortega

, Tlaltenango

Tlaltenango de Sánchez Román

The municipality of Tlaltenango de Sánchez Román is located in the southwestern portion of the Mexican state of Zacatecas. The average elevation of the municipality is 1,723 meters above sea level and the municipality covers an area of...

, Juchipila, and Teocaltiche

Teocaltiche

Teocaltiche is a city and municipality in the central-western Mexican state of Jalisco. Teocaltiche is located in the northeastern highlands region of Jalisco, commonly referred to in Spanish as "Los Altos de Jalisco"...

.

Represented the largest group and lived around El Teúl, Tlaltenango, Juchipila, Teocaltiche, Nochistlán, Aguascalientes, and Jalisco. Within the group, a subgroup called "tezoles" believed they descended from the 7 Aztlán tribes, searching for the land promised by Huitzilopochtli; this is known from the miscellaneous Chronicle of Father Antonio Tello, who noted that the caxcans have some similarity in language of the Aztecs; refers to "caxcans peoples are people who speaks almost the Aztec language and claimed to be Aztec descendants, but do not speak the language as cultured and refined as the Aztec".

It is also believed that as a consequence of the Chalchihuites collapse, there was a migration to the south, and would eventually become the caxcanes. The word caxcan means "there is no", and the name remained because "when the spaniards arrived and asked for food or other things, the people responded in their native language, "I do not have or there is no...".

The caxcans were conquerors, through their history, conquered and founded towns as Amecatl, Tuitlán, Juchipila, El Teúl, Nochistlán and Teocaltiche, "a center of Tecuexe warriors who were allied with caxcan neighbors, the Zacatecas and guachichiles".

The caxcans had a political and social system structured, had a larger village as capital, and several smaller dependent neighborhoods. Unlike other Chichimeca groups, the caxcans became sedentary due to their relations with otomíes

Otomi people

The Otomi people . Smaller Otomi populations exist in the states of Puebla, Mexico, Tlaxcala, Michoacán and Guanajuato. The Otomi language belonging to the Oto-Pamean branch of the Oto-Manguean language family is spoken in many different varieties some of which are not mutually intelligible.One of...

and Tarascos peoples.

Regional Trade

Nayarit

Nayarit officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Nayarit is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 20 municipalities and its capital city is Tepic.It is located in Western Mexico...

ceramics evidence has been found, in the coastal Nayarit region have found copper artifacts.

Absence thus far of copper oxide minerals as well as Nayarit ceramic on this site, infer of trade relations, and the possibility that foundries here manufactured ornaments for Nayarit. This opens an interesting debate on the old economies and regional trade.

It is known that the El Teúl inhabitants had links with the Atemajac Valley, the tequila Valley and the Sayula basin. Also with La Quemada and Chalchihuites (Zacatecas) in addition to relations with Bolaños and the aztatlán network, a culture located in Nayarit and Sinaloa.

Occupation Periods

It is believed that the site is one of the few places on the continent with an uninterrupted occupation from 200 BCE to 1531 CE. The occupation chronology is comparable with cities such as Cholula

Cholula

Cholula is a city and district located in the center west of the state of Puebla, next to the city of Puebla de Zaragoza, in central Mexico. Cholula is best known for its Great Pyramid, with the Nuestra Señora de los Remedios sanctuary on top and its numerous churches...

, Puebla.

It is possible that the site was a Caxcanes

Caxcan

ceremonial center, one of the most warrior groups against the Spanish invaders and those who were about to defeat them in the famous Mixtón war.

El Teúl caxcan occupation is estimated at two centuries (1350 / 1400 to 1531 CE). The destruction of the ceremonial area, this particular stage, occurred when the caxcans reused it a place of worship.

In Zacatecas, El Teúl was occupied at least six centuries before other ceremonial centers, such as La Quemada

La Quemada

La Quemada is a Mesoamerican archeological site, also known as Chicomóztoc. It is located in the Villanueva Municipality, in the state of Zacatecas, about 56 kilometers south of the city of Zacatecas on Federal Highway 54 Zacatecas–Guadalajara, in Mexico.- History :Given the distance between La...

and Altavista

Altavista (Zacatecas)

Alta Vista, o Chalchihuites, is a mesoamerican archaeological site near the municipality of Chalchihuites in the Mexican state of Zacatecas, in the northwest of Mexico...

, and was contemporary during the mid-classical and epiclassical periods, from 400 to 1000 CE, to be then occupied again 500 years after the abandonment.

Fire evidence has been found during the epiclassical period (600-900 CE.) such as “box tombs”. These are dated between 200 and 500 CE, evidence of changes in funerary patterns from shaft tombs to box tombs.

This is important because represents the time when western cultures begin to integrate to the Bajío

Bajío

The Bajío is a region of Central Mexico that includes the plains south of the Sierra de Guanajuato, in the state of Guanajuato, as well as parts of the states of Querétaro and Michoacán .In general parlance, it is usually associated with the States of Guanajuato and Querétaro, although it only...

and the Valley of Mexico.

So far it is not known who the caxcanes were and what their pottery was like. In relation to the occupation of this site, it is not known who built it originally and who lived here before the caxcans.

El Teúl was inhabited during 1,800 years, three times more than sites such as La Quemada, and Alta Vista, also in Zacatecas, they only had six centuries of occupation.

The Site

The site has a total area of 150 hectares; there is only exploration in an area of five to six hectares. The site is not yet open to the public.

Two pyramids and a portion of a ball game court have only been uncovered, several human burials were found, that reveal changes in funerary patterns of their former inhabitants.

Objects found reflect the life of the ancient inhabitants of the site, such as a fetus representation found in the pyramid at the altar.

Also found shell beads and green stone were found from shaft tombs, in addition to earflaps with Teotihuacan’s motifs and polychrome ceramic style Codex, among others.

Structures

Investigation and exploration work is ongoing, thus far several structures have been found:

Eastern Complex

This complex has the following reported structures:

Ballgame court, only half of the court has been explored, has two construction stages. The first corresponds to the epiclassical, while the late stage reveals a new construction with a very fine masonry which makes it a closed court; it dates from the early postclassical (900 to 1100 CE).
Two mound plaza (No information available)
Sunken patio. Several human burials were found, of the “Box Tomb Tradition”.

Sculpture

A prehispanic sculpture was found, representing a life-size decapitated ballgame player.

It is a stone sculpture dated between 900-1100 CE, there is evidence that it was intentionally manufactured without head, probably for the ball game rituals.

It is a cylindrical sculpture measuring 1.97 meters high, 52 centimeters in diameter, with an approximate weight of one ton, found on the south side, east of the ballgame court.

Also found fragments of another such sculpture at the other side, it is possible that there are other similar sculptures.

Furnace

An almost intact copper smelting furnace was found, one of the metallurgy problems is how to fire furnaces; evidence found indicate that corn cobs were apparently used, used as fuel and wick.

The prehispanic furnace built over 800 years ago, was used for copper smelter.

Finding this furnace is of great importance, is the oldest in prehispanic Mexico and was used during the early postclassical, i.e. between 900 and 1200 CE.

The furnace was built with Stone and masonry, has ashes and corn traces and burnt corn, that was used as fuel, these organic materials will allow a more precise dating.

In some Michoacán tarascan sites, have found structures resembling furnaces but very damaged, this is the first one complete, allowing analyzing aspects of technologies used, which was not known in Mexico.

Tombs

Seven graves of the so-called "shaft tomb” were found, characteristic of western cultures, and correspond to the late preclassical (200 BCE to 200 CE) period.

These are deep burials.

At the sunken patio, several human burials were found, depicting the box burial tradition. These burials are characterized by the flexed position of the human remains and placed in masonry “boxes”, with their respective offerings.

These burials are dated from 200 to 500 CE, and reflect funeral changes of the ancient inhabitants, from shaft tomb patterns to box burials.

External links

Gobierno del Estado de Zacatecas, Página oficial

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