Text: (preliminary draft only -- absolutely no quotation)
Copyright © 2003 Manuel Aguilar and James Brady. All rights reserved.
The site of Acatzingo Viejo is located about 4 km southeast of the
present day town of Acatzingo, Puebla, Mexico and just south of the
Puebla-Veracruz highway. The site was surveyed and recorded by the Proyecto
Acatzingo-Tepeaca in 1995. All that remains of the site is a 7 m high
pyramid, which is flanked on either side by low lateral platforms. It
appears that the site was more extensive at one time judging by the
sherds and artifacts strewn across the heavily plowed fields that surround
the remaining architecture. Test excavation established that the site
was occupied from the Late Classic/Early Post Classic into the early
Colonial Period. As part of that project, a series of small caves along
the edge of the site, some 450 m east of the central plaza [Figure 1],
were recorded by Miguel Medina.
As part of an on-going project conducted by the Mesoamerican Research
Foundation under the direction of Tim Tucker, the caves were remapped
in August of 2000. The study of these caves provided an opportunity
to demonstrate the historical character of the Map of Cuauhtinchan No.
2 which had been drawn in the area in the 16th Century. It was possible
to observe from the top of Cerro Tlaxcanyo, next to the town of Tepeaca,
that the region delimited by the volcanoes Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl
to the west, the Malinche Volcano to the north, the Pico de Orizaba
to the east and the Sierra Tentzon to the south, had been faithfully
rendered by the indigenous artist. Relative position of landmarks is
depicted with exactness while there is greater imprecision in scale,
as the cartographer manipulated distances to fit the important features
into a rectangular format. The map was made in the sixteenth century
with the purpose of legitimizing land claims against the confusions
and dispossessions created first by the Aztec domination and later by
the Spanish Conquest. It also presents a historical account of the Toltec-Chichimec
migrations and their settlement in the towns of the Valley of Puebla.
During the mapping of Acatzingo Viejo, it was possible to establish
the geographic location of a group of caves that appear in the Map of
Cuauhtinchan No. 2.
The current study focuses on this complex of caves built along a natural
escarpment of approximately 5 meters high. Six extant caves had been
excavated into the fairly sheer face of volcanic ash [Figure 2]. Five
of the six are located south of a recently constructed road leading
to a Pemex installation.
In evaluating the discoveries it should be stressed that all the caves
are located in a small, crescent-shaped segment of escarpment. The size
of the escarpment is small enough that it placed some constraints on
the size of the caves so that all would fit. This suggests that the
placement in this single, naturally bounded feature was intentional
and important. The fact that they were placed in close proximity to
each other made it possible to view all at the same time if the underbrush
were cleared. Thus, the close proximity within a naturally bounded landscape
feature suggests that the caves were meant to be part of a single complex.
The fact that the caves are found in a stratum of volcanic ash, which
is non-karstic, is also significant because it is clear that the features
are not natural and must have been excavated. This is important because
the form and placement of the caves will then reflect conscious decisions
of their makers rather than the whim of nature. Elaborate artificial
caves may provide important data on exactly what the structures were
designed to represent. In examining the map of the escarpment, it is
clear that the area destroyed by the construction of the road was large
enough to contain a cave similar in size to the other six. The layout
of the other six also suggests that one should have been placed there.
Interviews by all of the authors with local informants verified that
the road had destroyed a seventh cave. Thus, in its original form, the
Acatzingo Viejo complex consisted of seven cavities.
DISCUSSION
In attempting to put the Acatzingo Viejo discoveries in a larger social,
historical and theoretical framework we would note that geographer Erich
Isaac has proposed that, as ideal polar opposites, there are two basic
religious orientations. The first seeks the justification of human existence
in the act of creation itself while the second orientation finds it
in a divine charter or covenant. Ritual in the second case will repeatedly
reference the covenant and landscape modifications will be minimal.
In societies that see creation as the central justification of human
existence, Isaac says that "the attempt will be made to reproduce
the cosmic plan in the landscape with greater or lesser effect upon
the land, depending on the elaborateness of reproduction attempted."
While the concept of the covenant is not unknown in Mesoamerica, cosmology
definitely focuses on the act of creation.
This observation is supported by Angel García-Zambrano's discussion
of contact period rituals of foundation from throughout Mesoamerica.
He notes that people attempted to find a spot with certain types of
features. He says that:
Essentially, Mesoamerican migrants searched for an environment with
specific characteristics that comprised several symbolic levels. …
Such a place had to recall the mythical moment when the earth was created:
an aquatic universe framed by four mountains with a fifth elevation
protruding in the middle of the water. The mountain at the core had
to be dotted with caves and springs, and sometimes surrounded by smaller
hills. A setting like this duplicated, and forever would freeze, the
primordial scene when the waters and the sky separated and the earth
sprouted upwards.
The fact that there were once seven caves at Acatzingo Viejo immediately
suggests a relationship with the Chicomoztoc. Perhaps the best known
representation of the Chicomoztoc is that found in the Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca
with its seven internal chambers [Figure 3]. It should be noted, however,
that within the indigenous sources there is no consensus on the physical
form. In some ethnohistoric documents the mythical place is portrayed
as a linear arrangement of seven discrete caves. The linear arrangement
in the Codex Vaticanus A and the Atlas de Duran closely resemble the
arrangement noted at Acatzingo Viejo [Figure 4]. We believe that this
alignment of seven caves is definitely a recreation of Chicomoztoc made
by the Chichimecs as a reconstruction of their mythical place of origin.
Unfortunately, as already mentioned, the seventh cave was destroyed
about seven years ago by the construction of a road that leads to a
PEMEX installation, however ethnographic data have confirmed the existence
of the now lost cave.
Nahua groups conceived of the archetypal homeland or place of creation
and origin as the Chicomoztoc, or "place of the seven caves."
All of the important 16th century chronicles, both indigenous and Spanish,
make reference to this place and present pictorial representations in
some of the codices. The Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas
mentions an island called Aztlan (Place of whiteness or of the herons)
that was surrounded by a lake. On one of the shores was a mountain named
Colhuacan (twisted hill) that contained the seven caves. Durán
considered Aztlan, Colhuacan and Chicomoztoc to be different names for
the same place of origin located to the north of New Spain, near Florida.
The seven Nahua tribes that populated the Valley of Mexico came from
this place [Figure 5].
The Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca and the Map of Cuauhtinchan No. 2 narrate
and illustrate a different story of the exodus from Chicomoztoc. In
these sources, it was the seven Chichimec peoples, who settled in the
valleys of Cholula and Puebla that emerged from the caves [Figure 6].
The Map of Cuauhtinchan No. 2 illustrates the significance of the act
of leaving the cave as a metaphor for the act of creation by conducting
the New Fire ceremony. This ritual portrayed the exit of human beings
from the womb of the earth as the start of time [Figure 7]. The same
document also mentions that in Chicomoztoc the Chichimecs performed
penance for four days, fasting and letting their blood. The perforation
of the septum of the Chichimec chiefs as a ritual that made them tlatoanis
was also performed in Chicomoztoc. This symbolized the conversion of
the nomadic Chichimecs into the civilized Toltecs. Thus, in this case
the caves played a role as places of transformation and legitimization
of the lineages and genealogies of the groups that held power.
The aforementioned chronicles motivated historians to search for the
location of Chicomoztoc. Sahagún places it in Cerro Coliuhquitepetl
on the territorial boundary between the Mexica and the Michuaca (Tarascans
of Michoacan). Kirchoff locates it in Cerro Culiacan, near the town
of San Isidro Culiacan in the state of Guanajuato. Jiménez Moreno
put in the Tula-Xilotepec region in the state of Hidalgo and Chavero
placed it in the region of the present city of Culiacan in the state
of Sinaloa. Both Torquemada and Clavijero identified it with the ruins
of La Quemada in the state of Zacatecas. Most modern authorities tend
to consider Chicomoztoc as a mythical rather than actual place. Chicomoztoc
represents the idea of the emergence of human beings from cavities in
the body of the Earth. As time passed, the guardians of the Mesoamerican
tradition preserved their sense of identity and origin by recreating
the Chicomoztoc at their sites either by taking advantage of natural
caves or by excavating them. In this sense, all the chroniclers and
historians are correct, because many Chicomoztocs existed in all parts
of Mesoamerica.
Another important factor that needs to be stressed is that the ceremonial
plaza at Acatzingo Viejo is located above the escarpment containing
the row of seven caves. The caves are, therefore, associated with the
site's core and major pyramidal structure. The complex is not unique
in this respect but rather appears to be part of an established Central
Mexican tradition. Perhaps the best known example is the artificial
cave, shaped like a female uterus, beneath the Pyramid of the Sun at
Teotihuacan [Figure 8]. We suspect that the many segments of stone drains
found in the cave are part of a system that channeled rain water from
the pyramid into the cave. As the cave filled and water flowed out the
entrance, it would appear that the cave was built over a spring. In
many ways the Aztec Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan replicates all of the
symbolic features of the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan. According
to the legend recorded by Alvarado Tezozomoc, the Templo Mayor is built
at the spot where the Aztecs found an eagle on a cactus holding a serpent.
What is less well known is that the cactus was growing over two caves
from which water issued. The Acatzingo Viejo complex should, therefore,
be seen as part of a pattern found in numerous places which dates from
the Preclassic all the way to the conquest.
The question that arises is why the ancient inhabitance of Acatzingo
Viejo would construct this symbol at their site. In his study of the
rituals that accompanied the foundation of a new community, García-Zambrano
has argued that throughout Mesoamerica indigenous peoples looked for
spots that recalled the mythical moment of creation. The cave was the
critical element so that, "These cavities, when ritually dedicated
to the divinities, became the pulsating heart of the new town, providing
the cosmogonic referents that legitimized the settlers' right for occupying
that space and for the ruler's authority over that site." Nor is
there any doubt about what the cave was suppose to represent. García-Zambrano,
once again, observes that, "Many times, the grotto was manually
excavated to approximate its shape to that of the mythological cave
with internal niches. The grotto alluded to the mythological place of
origin that preceded all intent of migration: Chicomoztoc, Apoala, Tulan
Zuyua, and Chalchiuitlapazco." The Acatzingo Viejo cave complex,
therefore, was the ritual heart of the community that legitimized the
very settlement. We can see in the Map of Cuauhtinchan No. 2 that the
cave complex has a clear relationship with the foundation of the town
of Acatzingo Viejo. The rulers Itztlapoca ("obsidian-smoke")
and Apanecatl, who came from Tepeaca in the year 4 Calli [Figure 9],
are depicted as seated next to the cave. Thus, the seven caves symbolize
the establishment of the settlement and the origin of a new ruling dynasty.
Just as pyramids are artificial recreations of the primordial mountain,
the Chicomoztoc represents the cave from which humans emerged. Taken
together, the two constructions became a powerful statement that Acatzingo
Viejo had been built at the very center of the cosmos because the primordial
mountain and the place of human creation both define this spot. The
importance of centering sites is a well recognized Mesoamerican preoccupation.
The cave complex also represents the generative womb of the Earth that
is at the same time the guardian of the natural forces such as wind
and water. This relates to Eliade's observation of the center as a place
of inexhaustible abundance. Thus, the holiness of the complex made it
an appropriate landmark around which to build a temple. The mountain/cave
symbol comes to represent the very basis of ethnic identity. As noted,
this deep relationship between people and the mythic Chicomoztoc was
so deep that people were identified with the cave itself throughout
Mesoamerica. |