On the limits of the Nonoalco-Tlatelolco urban complex, in the Cuauhtémoc mayor’s office of Mexico City, a research team from the Archaeological Salvage Directorate of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) discovered, between March and June of this year, vestiges of what is considered a Teotihuacan village.
It should be noted that this settlement had already been reported in 1960 by the archaeologist Francisco González Rul, who exposed in the work Ceramics in Tlatelolcopublished in 1988, that a tlatel could exist there, that is, a town on a natural islet in the territory that today is occupied by several streets within the Nonoalco-Tlatelolco Unit.
A Teotihuacan village in Tlatelolco
According to archaeologists Juan Carlos Campos Varela and Mara Abigail Becerra Amezcua, who led the investigation, it was finally possible to demonstrate the existence of a Teotihuacan village in the Tlatelolco area.
In fact, six cultural stages of occupation were identified: two pre-Hispanic (Teotihuacan and Mexica) and four historical (one from the 18th century, another from the 19th century and two from the 20th).
In addition, the settlement could be recognized by various construction elements such as channels, floors, tamping, stone alignments, post holes, an artesian well (well that communicates with a water aquifer) and well-made relevelling.
Just as important was the discovery of large concentrations of ceramics that allowed to locate the village chronologically between the years 450-650 of our era, corresponding to the Classic period of Teotihuacán, in its Late Xolalpan-Metepec phases.
Finally, three human burials were founda young man and two adults, accompanied by various containers to contain Teotihuacan-type food.
More information about our ancestors
Thanks to the evidence collected by the researchers, it was possible to deduce that the economic activity of the human settlement was not only self-subsistence and gathering, but also included lake exploitation, hunting and the artisanal production of specialized ceramics, because fragments of modeled figurines were found; green stone and shell objects; funerary offerings and several spearheads made with obsidian and flint.
Similarly, archaeologists also consider that although it was a rural village, it must have had commercial links with important Teotihuacan centers, such as those located in Azcapotzalco and Tenayuca.
Finally, the subsequent Mexica occupation, between the years 1338 and 1620, was identified by the archaeological record of two channels, which it is believed, seem to have delimited chinampería spaces or were built to gain land from Lake Texcoco, located to the southeast of the property, towards what we know today as La Lagunilla. It is striking that these channels were filled with different types of rocks with the deliberate intention of being closed.