Prehistoric Mesoamerica by Richard E. W. Adams

Author:Richard E. W. Adams
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
ISBN: 0806137029
Published: 2005-10-04T04:21:51+00:00

Xochicalco

This city is located in some rather grim terrain of western Morelos, and, in fact, on some of the worst agricultural land available. However, it appears that this may have been one of the reasons for the choice of location; its availability in a situation of powerful neighbors who already occupied the best lands. Hirth’s report on his intensive project has developed and synthesized his own work and that of his predecessors (Hirth 1984, 2000). The following account depends largely on his published material.

The substantial Classic-period population around the hilltops of what was later Xochicalco did not support an urban center or public architecture other than a few temples. After a.d. 650 a fortress city was built on top of a series of adjacent hills, eventually covering a zone of 4 square kilometers (1.5 square miles). A series of five extensive terrace systems sculpted the main hill for human occupation, and an internal road system connected the various parts of the city. The topmost zone, with the famous Temple of the Plumed Serpent, was a very private place with limited access. The remains of twenty-six plaques run around the top of the temple’s platform (figs. 7-1, 7-2). Each plaque shows a ruler with a speech scroll, a variable element (a place-name), and two additional glyphs—the false-teeth glyph and a quartered ball. These last two glyphs indicate tribute. Therefore, it appears that Xochicalco conquered and extracted tribute from twenty-six different places. Other parts of the artistic program indicate aggressive militarism and possibly the presence of warrior societies akin to those in later Aztec times. A nearby extensive palace was the residence of the governing elite. Three stelae were found in this group, with depictions of the rulers

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