Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T03:24:55.790Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Urbanism, Militarism, and Architectural Design: An Analysis of Epidassic sociopolitical structure at Xochicalco

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2010

Kenneth G. Hirth
Kenneth G. Hirth
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, 409 Carpenter Hall, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The form and organization of urban architecture is examined at the central Mexico site of Xochicalco to reconstruct aspects of both its internal community structure and regional political organization during the Epiclassic period (A.D. 700-900). Analysis of the site's defensive architecture provides unique information about the city's internal design. Dry moats, walled roads, and steep terrace facades subdivide the community into a series of population segments that on the basis of both size and architecture type resemble ward divisions found in central Mexico cities at the time of Conquest. Furthermore, Xochicalco does not have a single defensive perimeter characteristic of a strongly centralized polity; instead, it possesses a series of defensive precincts located on the hills and ridges adjacent to Cerro Xochicalco that are equivalent in form and redundant in function. The model that best approximates the segmentary nature of this structure is that of a regional confederacy dominated by Xochicalco during the Epiclassic.

Resumen

Este estudio presenta un resumen del diseño y la organizatión arquitectónica en la ciudad de Xochicalco, Morelos, en el altiplano central de México durante el epiclásico (700-900 d.C). El propósito de este análisis es la identificatión de la estructura social interna de la comumdad urbana y el papel que tenía en el sistema política en el occidente de Morelos. El estudio se basa en un análisis arquitectónico, el cual proporciona datos muy informativos sobre el plan defensivo y su impacto sobre el diseño urbano. El sitio está dividido por fosos defensivos, calzadas amurralladas y las fachadas de terrazas grandes en una serie de unidades las cuales, por medio del tamaño de su población y el tipo de arquitectura ceremonial, representan un nivel de organizatión parecido a los barrios reportados en las ciudades del altiplano en el momento de la Conquista. También en Xochicalco se encuentran conjuntos múltiples e independientes que fueron construidos con sus defensas propias. Esto es interesante porque suguiere que el sistema politico está caracterizado por una organizatión segmentaria y no centralizada. Es muy posible que la organizatión política que produjo este patrón arquitectónico fuera una confederatión de comunidades bajo el dominio de Xochicalco durante el epiclásico.

Type
Articles
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 6 , Spring 1995 , pp. 237 - 250
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ramirez, Alzate y, Antonio, Joseph 1791 Description de las antiguedades de Xochicalco, dedicada a los senores de la actual expedition maritima alrededor del orbe. Suplemento a la Gazeta de Literatura, Mexico.Google Scholar
Armillas, Pedro 1944 Oztuma, Guerrero. Revista Mexicana de Estudios Antropo-logicos 6:165–174.Google Scholar
Armillas, Pedro 1948 Fortalezas mexicanas. Cuadernos Americanos 7:143–163.Google Scholar
Armillas, Pedro 1951 Mesoamerican Fortifications. Antiquity 25:77–86.Google Scholar
Bernal, Ignacio 1980 The History of Mexican Archaeology. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Blanton, Richard E. 1972 Prehistoric Settlement Patterns of the Ixtapalapa Peninsula Region, Mexico. Occasional Papers in Anthropology No. 6. Pennsylvania State University, University Park.Google Scholar
Blanton, Richard E. 1978 Monte A Ibdn: Settlement Patterns at the Ancient Zapotec Capital. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Canseco Vincourt, Jorge 1966 La guerra sagrada. Instituto Nacional de Antropoiogia e Historia, Mexico.Google Scholar
Carmack, Robert M. 1981 The Quiche Mayas of Utatlan. University Press of Oklahoma, Norman.Google Scholar
Carrasco, Pedro 1964a Family Structure of Sixteenth-Century Tepoztlan. In Process and Pattern in Culture: Essays in Honor of Julian H. Steward, edited by Manners, Robert A., pp. 185–210. Aldine, Chicago.Google Scholar
Carrasco, Pedro 1964b Tres libros de tributos del Museo Nacional de Mexico y su importancia par a los estudios demograficos. XXXV Congreso International de Americanistas, Mexico 1962, Actas y Memorias 3:373–378.Google Scholar
Carrasco, Pedro 1976a Estratificacion social indigena en Morelos durante el siglo XVI. In Estratificacion social en la Mesoamerica prehispdnica, edited by Pedro Carrasco, P. and Broda, Johanna, pp. 102–117. Secretaria de Education Publica, Instituto Nacional de Antropoiogiae Historia, Mexico.Google Scholar
Carrasco, Pedro 1976b The Joint Family in Ancient Mexico: The Case of Molotla. In Essays on Mexican Kinship, edited by Nutini, Hugo G., Pedro Carrasco, P., and Taggart, James H., pp. 45–64. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Cortes, Hernan 1962 Five Letters of Cortes to the Emperor. Norton and Company, New York.Google Scholar
Diaz del Castillo, Bernal 1956 The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico 1517-1521. Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, New York.Google Scholar
Diehl, Richard A., and Berlo, Janet Catherine 1989 Mesoamerica After the Decline of Teotihuacan A.D. 700-900. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Evans, Susan T. 1985 The Cerro Gordo Site: A Rural Settlement of the Aztec Period in the Basin of Mexico. Journal of Field Archaeology 12:1–18.Google Scholar
Gorenstein, Shirley 1973 Tepexi El Vie jo: A Post Classic Fortified Site in the Mixteca-Puebla Region of Mexico. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society Vol. 63, Pt. 1. Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Grove, David C. 1968 The Morelos Preclassic and the Highland Olmec Problem. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Hassig, Ross 1988 Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political Control. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Hicks, Frederic 1982 Tetzcoco in the Early 16th Century: The State, the City, and the Calpolli. American Ethnologist 9:230–249.Google Scholar
Hirth, Kenneth G. 1974 Precolumbian Population Development Along the Rio Amat-zinac: The Formative Through Classic Periods in Eastern Morelos, Mexico. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.Google Scholar
Hirth, Kenneth G. 1982 Transportation Architecture at Xochicalco, Morelos, Mexico. Current Anthropology 23:322–324.Google Scholar
Hirth, Kenneth G. 1984 Xochicalco: Urban Growth and State Formation in Central Mexico. Science 225:579–586.Google Scholar
Hirth, Kenneth G. 1989 Militarism and Social Organization at Xochicalco, Morelos. In Mesoamerica After the Decline of Teotihuacan A.D. 700-900, edited by Diehl, Richard A. and Berlo, Janet Catherine, pp. 69–81. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Hirth, Kenneth G. 1991 Roads, Thoroughfares and Avenues of Power at Xochicalco, Mexico. In Ancient Road Networks and Settlement Hierarchies in the New World, edited by Trombold, Charles D., pp. 211–221. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Hirth, Kenneth G. 1995 Ancient Urbanism at Xochicalco. Manuscript on file, Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Hirth, Kenneth G., and Guillen, Ann Cyphers 1988 Tiempoy asentamiento en Xochicalco. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico.Google Scholar
Hodge, Mary G. 1984 Aztec City-States. Memoirs No. 18. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Litvak King, Jaime 1970a Xochicalco en la caida del clasico, una hipotesis. Anales de Antropologia 7:131–144.Google Scholar
Litvak King, Jaime 1970b El valle de Xochicalco: Formacion y andlisis de un modelo estadistico para la arqueologia regional. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Facultad de Filosofia y Letras, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico.Google Scholar
Litvak King, Jaime 1971 Investigaciones en el valle de Xochicalco: 1569-1870. Anales de Antropologia 8:102–124.Google Scholar
Litvak King, Jaime 1972 Las relaciones externas de Xochicalco: Una evaluation de su posible significado. Anales de Antropologia 9:53–76.Google Scholar
Litvak King, Jaime 1973 Los patrones de cambio de estadio en el valle de Xochicalco. Anales de Antropologia 10:93–110.Google Scholar
Martinez, Hildeberto 1984 Tepeaca en el sigh XVI. Ediciones de la Casa Chata No. 21. Mexico. Millon, ReneGoogle Scholar
Martinez, Hildeberto 1973 Urbanization at Teotihuacan, Mexico. The Teotihuacan Map, Volume 1, Part 1. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Martinez, Hildeberto 1981 Teotihuacan: City, State, and Civilization. In Archaeology, edited by Sabloff, Jeremy A., pp. 198–243. Supplement to the Handbook of Middle American Indians, vol. 1. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Muller, Florencia 1949 Historia antigua del valle de Morelos. Acta Anthropologica, Mexico.Google Scholar
Noguera, Eduardo 1945 Exploraciones en Xochicalco. Cuadernos Americanos 4:119–157.Google Scholar
Noguera, Eduardo 1946 Cultura de Xochicalco. In Mexico prehispdnico, antologia de estasemana, This Week, 1935-1946, edited by Vivo, J., pp. 185–193. Editorial Emma Hurtado, Mexico.Google Scholar
Noguera, Eduardo 1947 Ceramica de Xochicalco. Mexico Antiguo 6:273–300.Google Scholar
Parsons, Jeffrey R., Brumfiel, Elizabeth, Parsons, Mary H., and Wilson, David J. 1982 Prehispanic Settlement Patterns in the Southern Valley of Mexico: The Chalco-Xochimilco Region. Memoirs No. 14. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, David, and MacDougall, Thomas 1974 Guiengola: A Fortified Site in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Publications in Anthropology No. 10. Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.Google Scholar
Pifia Chan, Roman 1975 Teotenango: El antiguo lugar de la muralla. 2 vols. Direction de Turismo, Estado de Mexico, Mexico.Google Scholar
Pollard, Helen P. 1993 Tariacuari's Legacy: The Prehispanic Tarascan State. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman. Saenz, CesarGoogle Scholar
Pollard, Helen P. 1961 Tres estelas en Xochicalco. Revista Mexicana de Estudios Antropoiogicos 17:39–65.Google Scholar
Pollard, Helen P. 1962 Xochicalco, temporada 1960. Coleccion Informes No. 11. Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, Mexico.Google Scholar
Pollard, Helen P. 1963 Exploraciones en la Piramide de las Serpientes Emplumadas, Xochicalco, Morelos. Revista Mexicana de Estudios Antropoiogicos 19:7–25.Google Scholar
Pollard, Helen P. 1964a Ultimos descubrimientos en Xochicalco. Coleccion Informes No. 12. Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, Mexico. 1964b Las estelas de Xochicalco. In Actasy memorias del XXXV Congreso International de Americanistas celebrado en la Ciudad de Mexico en 1962 2:69–86. Mexico.Google Scholar
Pollard, Helen P. 1967 Nuevas exploraciones y hallazgos en Xochicalco. Coleccion Informes No. 13. Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, Mexico.Google Scholar
Sanders, William T. 1965 The Cultural Ecology of the Teotihuacan Valley. Pennsylvania State University, University Park.Google Scholar
Sanders, William T., Parsons, Jeffrey R., and Santley, Robert S. 1979 The Basin of Mexico: Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Sanders, William T., and Price, Barbara J. 1968 Mesoamerica: The Evolution of a Civilization. Random House, New York.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael E. 1993 Excavations and Architecture. Archaeological Research at Aztec Period Rural Sites in Moreios, Mexico, vol. 1. Memoirs in Latin American Archaeology No. 4. Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Togno, Juan B. 1903 Xochicalco, 1892. In Coleccion de documentos para la historia mexicana, vol. 6, edited by Penafiel, Antonio, pp. 1–29. Secretaria de Education Piiblica, Mexico.Google Scholar