Tlatelolco (archaeological site)

View of site from southwest corner

Tlatelolco is an archaeological excavation site in Mexico City, Mexico where remains of the pre-Columbian city-state of the same name have been found. It is centered on the Plaza de las Tres Culturas. On one side of the square is an excavated Aztec site, on a second is a seventeenth-century church called the Templo de Santiago, and on the third stands a mid-20th-century modern office complex, formerly housing the Mexican Foreign Ministry, and since 2005 used as the Centro Cultural Universitario of UNAM (National University of Mexico).

At the main temple of Tlatelolco, archeologists recently discovered a pyramid within the visible temple; the pyramid is more than 700 years old. This indicates that the site is older than previously thought, according to the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (National Institute of Anthropology and History; INAH). Because this pyramid has design features similar to pyramids found in Tenayuca and Tenochtitlan, this site may prove to be the first mixed Aztec and Tlatelolca construction found in Mexico.

Site

In the archaeological area there are temples dedicated to Mexican deities such as Quetzalcoatl, Ehecatl and Huītzilōpōchtli. Prehispanic structures are mainly distributed to the south and north of the so-called Templo Mayor, in Mexico City. Some of the most important identified buildings are:

Location of buildings in Tlatelolco: 1) Temple of Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl, 2) Overlapping circular altars, 3) Tzompantli Altar of the south courtyard, 4) Calendar temple, 5) The Palace, 6) Temple of the Paintings, 7) Templo mayor - Phase II, 8) Stages of construction of the Major Temple, 9) The lovers of Tlatelolco, 10) West Platform, 11) The Great Basement, 12) Road Tepeyac, 13) Northern boundary of the enclosure, 14) North Tzomplantli altar, 15) College of Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco, 16) Plaza de las Tres Culturas, 17) Zona Chica, 18) Towards Tecpan and 19) Caja de agua, mural painting of 1536.

• Major Temple. It is the largest structure; it is located in the central part of the area and the characteristics of stage II resemble those of Tenayuca and the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan. It is a platform of three bodies with wide steps split in two by central and lateral alfardas. Apparently, this building was taller than that of Tenochtitlan.

• Calendar Temple. It shows a board decorated with unusual reliefs at the first three trecenas of the pre-Hispanic calendar Tōnalpōhualli. It is the only minor temple with double staircase. In its main façade a mural painting with the creative deities of the pre-Hispanic calendar is shown.

• Temple R or Wind Complexes. It is a structure in whose upper part remains of an adoration dedicated to Ehecatl, corresponding to an earlier stage. In front of it were found burials and offerings composed of children –inside pots–, shells, stones and ceramic figurines.

• The Palace. It is a structure composed of four small rooms with a central courtyard and an altar, as well as Remains of a wide portal.

• Altar V. It is a minor building with four concentric staircases apparently dedicated to Tlāloc.

• Temple of Paintings (buildings X and L). Three of the facades of the building L are topped with fists in high relief. This building owes its name to the mural painting of its facades, panels and alfardas. The design of the talud-tableau is identical to that found in the red temples of the Tenochtitlan ceremonial enclosure.

Lovers of Tlatelolco.

• Coatepantli. It means "wall of snakes" and it is a construction that framed the space that connects with the north causeway towards Tepeyac.

• Altar Tzompantli (Temple). It is characterized by a glyph at the top of the southern alfarda. In this temple were located skulls of decapitated perforated by the parietals.

Aztec glyph of Tlatelolco.

• Altar D1. It is located in front of the north entrance of Coatepantli, and reduced access to the north courtyard.

• Temples I and J. Buildings joined by a huge platform, of which only the western half has been discovered. Temple I is the only building built entirely with pink quarry ashlery, like partitions. Building J shows similar but smaller features.

• Lovers of Tlatelolco. There was found a burial of 54 people with their respective offerings, they were part of many more considered the victims of the war of year 1473 between Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco. Representative of these 54 people is this couple being him 55 years old and she 35 years old. As they found themselves hugged they were called "The Lovers of Tlatelolco".

Discovery of mass grave

On 10 February 2009, INAH archaeologists announced the discovery of a mass grave containing forty-nine human skeletons, laid out in neat lines on their backs, with their arms crossed and wrapped in maguey leaves. The archaeologists located the skeletons in a 13-by-32-foot (four-by-10-meter) burial site as they took part in a search for a palace complex at the Tlatelolco site. The grave was determined to be from the period of the Spanish conquest.

The remains found include those of forty-five young adults, two children, a teenager, and an elderly person wearing a ring that potentially signifies a higher status. Most of the young men were tall, and several had broken bones that had healed, characteristics of warriors.

The team expects to locate at least 50 additional bodies. The grave contained evidence both of Aztec rituals, such as offerings of incense and animal sacrifice, and Spanish elements, such as buttons and a bit of glass.

Salvador Guilliem, head of the site for the governmental archaeology institute, expressed his astonishment at the find:

"We were completely taken by surprise. We didn't expect to find this massive funeral complex."

He said that it was likely that the indigenous people buried in this grave died while fighting the invading Spanish. They may also have died due to infectious diseases, such as the hemorrhagic fever epidemics in 1545 and 1576, which caused the deaths of a large proportion of the native population. Susan Gillespie of the University of Florida suggested an alternative theory: that the men may have been held as prisoners by the Spanish for some time and executed later.

The site differs from most other Spanish conquest-era graves in the area, because of the manner in which the bodies were buried. The burial was similar to those according to Christian customs of the time. This is in contrast to the thousands of graves found in other Aztec cities, where bodies were found en masse without ritual arrangement. Guilliem added: "It is a mass grave, but they were very carefully buried."

External links

• Tres Culturas