900-year-old architectural remains found in Atlixco, Puebla

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In the Plazuela de la Danza a lime floor, a step, a plate and the remains of a possible altar were found.

Workers from Atlixco, Puebla , discovered an approximately 900-year-old lime floor, which measures about 10 meters long by 2 meters wide, during the remodeling of the Plazuela de la Danza.

At the site, it was also possible to observe a step, as well as vestiges of a possible altar with stone walls, whose temporality would coincide with the arrival of Toltec-Chichimec and Teochichimec migrants to the region.

The Plazuela de la Danza is used every year, on the last Sunday in September, by indigenous communities of Puebla, to carry out the “ Great Atlixco festival ” or Huei Atlixcayotl in which the day of San Miguel Arcángel is celebrated and the season is appreciated. from harvest.


Photo: Courtesy INAH

Although this year, the celebration was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic , the state government was carrying out remodeling work in the Plazuela, accompanied by archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History ( INAH ).

INAH specialists pointed out that the most notorious element so far located is the lime floor that preserves a step, and that both elements could be from 900 or 700 years ago, that is, from the Early or Middle Postclassic period.

Miguel Medina, researcher at the INAH’s Archaeological Salvage Directorate (DSA), explained that the floor was found to the east of the square during the foundation for the new amphitheater box, and that it is very deteriorated because it was damaged when the Plazuela de la Danza was built, in the 1960s, although it retains a portion that measures more than 10 meters long by two meters wide in its exposed area.


Photo: Courtesy INAH

The researchers were able to estimate the dating of the floor with the help of a semi-complete tripod plate, probably intentionally broken.

The plate measures 25 centimeters in diameter and is decorated in black tones on an orange base. Its phytomorphic motifs and wavy lines associated with water coincide with the Chichimeca ceramic tradition, previously reported in the Atlixco archaeological site, located to the west of the San Miguel hill.

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“This floor could have extended for almost the two thousand square meters that the Plazuela de la Danza has today,” Medina said.


Photo: Courtesy INAH

Currently specialists are exploring another element that corresponds to the remnants of a stone wall found below the current scene of the dances, which could belong to an oval structure with a diameter greater than 10 meters; these vestiges could indicate the existence of an altar or temple.

The INAH reported that they are still in an early stage to decide whether the architectural elements discovered in the Plazuela de la Danza can remain visible or should be covered.

The archaeologists indicated that a request had already been submitted to the INAH Puebla Center and the INAH Archeology Council, by the municipal presidency of Atlixco, to create an archaeological window in the new box, which allows appreciating the pre-Hispanic origins of this ceremonial site. 

Source: El Universal

Puebla Post