Mixco Viejo
Encyclopedia
Chimaltenango (department)
Chimaltenango is a department of Guatemala. The capital is Chimaltenango. Located to the east are the departments of Guatemala, home to Guatemala City, and Sacatepéquez, while also bordered by the departments of El Quiché and Baja Verapaz to the north, Escuintla and Suchitepéquez to the south, and...
department of Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, some 50 km to the north of Guatemala City
Guatemala City
Guatemala City , is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Guatemala and Central America...
and 4km from the junction of the rivers Pixcaya and Motagua. It is a moderate sized ruined city of the Post-Classic Era
Mesoamerican chronology
Mesoamerican chronology divides the history of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica into several periods: the Paleo-Indian , the Archaic , the Preclassic , the Classic , and the Postclassic...
Maya civilization
Maya civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
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There is considerable confusion as to whether the site currently known as Mixco Viejo is the same as the Mixco Viejo described in Colonial documents.
Mixco Viejo in history
Mixco was the capital of the PocomamPoqomam language
Poqomam is a Mayan language, closely related to Poqomchi’. It is spoken by approximately 49,000 people in several small pockets in Guatemala, the largest of which is in the Alta Verapaz department but which extend to El Salvador....
Maya kingdom
Monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...
, and was sometimes known as Pocomam and Saqik'ajol Nimakaqapek in addition to Mixco. The site was founded on a defensive location mountain top in the 12th century. The peak population in the early 16th century may have been around 10,000 people. It was conquered by Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
Conquistador
Conquistador
Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
Pedro de Alvarado
Pedro de Alvarado
Pedro de Alvarado y Contreras was a Spanish conquistador and governor of Guatemala. He participated in the conquest of Cuba, in Juan de Grijalva's exploration of the coasts of Yucatan and the Gulf of Mexico, and in the conquest of Mexico led by Hernan Cortes...
in 1525 after a siege of more than 3 months. The Conquistadors then had the city burnt and depopulated.
The historical Mixco Viejo has been identified as Chinautla Viejo (Old Chinautla), near the modern town of Mixco
Mixco
Mixco is a municipality in the Guatemala department of Guatemala.Located next to the main Guatemala City municipality, over time it has become part of the Guatemala City Metropolitan Area. Most of Mixco is separated from the city by canyons, for which a multitude of bridges have been created. ...
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Archaeological site
Although the site now known as Mixco Viejo was traditionally considered the Pocomam capital, recent investigations have instead identified the ruins as the capital of the KaqchikelKaqchikel language
The Kaqchikel, or Kaqchiquel, language is an indigenous Mesoamerican language and a member of the Quichean–Mamean branch of the Mayan languages family. It is spoken by the indigenous Kaqchikel people in central Guatemala...
-speaking Chajoma
Chajomá
The Chajoma were a Kaqchikel-speaking Maya people of the Late Postclassic period, with a large kingdom in the highlands of Guatemala. According to the indigenous chronicles of the K'iche' and the Kaqchikel, there were three principal Postclassic highland kingdoms; the K'iche', the Kaqchikel and the...
Maya, and have suggested that its identification as the historical Mixco Viejo is the result of confusion in the interpretation of colonial records.
The ruins consist of 15 groups containing the remains of over 120 major structures, including temples, palaces, and courts for playing the Mesoamerican ballgame
Mesoamerican ballgame
The Mesoamerican ballgame or Tlatchtli in Náhuatl was a sport with ritual associations played since 1,000 B.C. by the pre-Columbian peoples of Ancient Mexico and Central America...
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Archeological excavations were carried out from 1954 through 1967 by the Musée de l'Homme
Musée de l'Homme
The Musée de l'Homme was created in 1937 by Paul Rivet for the 1937 Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne. It is the descendant of the Musée d'Ethnographie du Trocadéro, founded in 1878...
of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
under the direction of archaeologist Henri Lehmann, who certainly believed that he was excavating the Pocomam capital as described in Colonial records.
The site is open to the public and has a small museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
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