The 18 kilometre cross country drive from Tlaxcala has been uneventful. Leaving the colonial architecture behind you, you have headed away from ‘The Place of Tortillas’ and towards what was once a ceremonial epicentre for the region. Two major sites sit next to each other, one older than the other, both under the shadow of the massive volcanic force of Popocatépetl. This area was once a major settlement for the mysterious Olmeca-Xicalanca people, but it lost its significance and by 1000 AD, it became abandoned. Intrigued by the enigmatic sites, you have journeyed out to see for yourself the impressive sites of Cacaxtla and Xochitécatl. Heading to the latter of the two, you park your car near the top of an extinct volcano and continue on foot to the summit. Walking through a recently planted woodland, you burst out into the open and survey the ancient ceremonial centre of Xochitécatl, Lineage of Flowers.
Unlike its neighbour Cacaxtla, Xochitécatl seems to have been a purely ceremonial site. Founded in around 800 BC, during the Middle Preclassic Period, the site was added to over the years, before being abandoned in 150 AD following the second to last eruption of Popocatépetl. It was then reused, albeit in a limited fashion, by the inhabitants of Cacaxtla from about 600 AD until around 850 AD, when Popocatépetl erupted again. The main buildings of the site are all from the earlier period when Xochitécatl was the ceremonial centre of a powerful chiefdom. The initial phase of building was in 800BC, with another phase from 550 to 400BC supplementing the existing structures. During the height of its power, 350BC to 150AD more modifications and expansions were made to the main structures. Little is known of the original builders of the site and not much more is known of the Olmeca-Xicalanca people. Although these later inhabitants probably came from the Mayan regions, as evidenced in their artwork, they also show influences of Mixteca, Zapoteca, and Teotihuacan cultures.
The first building you encounter is the Building of the Spiral, located to the west of the secondary courtyard of the site. Dating from around 700 BC, the building is unusual in design and the oldest of the complex. The Edificio de la Espiral is a circular pyramid. It has a helical walkway that travels clockwise up the structure. There was no staircase originally, so it would have been climbed by tracing the spiral all the way around the thirteen tiers. In modern times, a stairway has been added, and using this, you make your way up to the summit. The ‘pyramid’ is totally filled with volcanic ash and has no structures within it and it corresponds to the natural contours of the landscape. Arriving at the top, you find a mature tree and a white wooden cross adorning the structure. A stone cross was placed on the pyramid in 1632, but this has now been moved and replaced with a wooden one. The building was originally used for stellar observations and was dedicated to Ehēcatl, the wind god. Ehēcatl is an aspect of the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl. The worship of Quetzalcoatl can only be documented as far back as 400 BC, but perhaps, he was venerated in earlier times. The fact that the structure is round is an indicator of Ehēcatl worship, as later temples to the deity are also circular, perhaps to allow the wind to pass around or simply to emulate the shape of a tornado.
From the top of the Spiral Building, you survey the rest of Xochitécatl. It is made up of two plazas, the second of which is home to the Building of the Spiral, designated Building E3. The main plaza has three structures on it; the Pyramid of the Flowers (E1), the Building of the Serpent (E2) and the Base of the Volcanoes (E4). A number of burials have been found at Xochitécatl, two of which were located under your feet at the Building of the Spiral. During the second phase of use at the site, it seems that the Pyramid of the Flowers and the Base of Volcanoes were of most significance. From your perspective, you can see how the site, built on an extinct volcano itself, was created to be part of a sacred landscape. It is surrounded by three other volcanoes; Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl behind you to the west and La Malinche, or Matlacueye, to the east. Dra. Mari Carmen Serra Puche, the lead archaeologist on the site has observed that in addition to the positioning of the site in relation to the volcanic landscape, that there is also a sidereal space and that the position of the stars played a role as well. The positioning of the buildings on the actual complex itself reflect the relationship between humans and volcanoes in a divine cosmological representation. The Pyramid of the Flowers, that lies before you now perfectly lines up with the extinct La Malinche volcano from the centre of the plaza.
Coming down from your viewpoint, you leave the Building of the Spiral and pass through the site. Entering into the central plaza, you come to the Base of the Volcanoes. The Basamento de los Volcanes, is sometimes translated as the Platform of the Volcanoes and is a low wide structure that was originally constructed during the Middle Preclassic Period and built out of tepetate, a brittle volcanic rock. It was significantly altered during the Late Classic Period, sometime between 650 and 850 AD. It differs from the other structures at the site, as it was heavily renovated. The late remodelling gave it a distinctive talud-tablero (slope and panel) façade made of another volcanic stone, the red-coloured tezontle. The structure was then coated in stucco, as was the top of the Pyramid of Flowers. The building is somewhat understated compared to the taller ones around it, but it had a ritual importance as it occupies the centre of the main plaza. Looking at the building, you try to evaluate it. Two hundred female figurines were discovered in the structure during the 1960s. Dr. Bodo Spranz, the lead archaeologist, identified one, an image of a flayed woman, as being the goddess Tlazolteotl, a Huastec earth goddess. Spranz tried to tie in many of the finds to the goddesses in the Aztec Codex Borgia, including Xōchiquetzal, the maiden goddess and Chicomecōātl, the young corn goddess. More recent work on the site has cast doubt over his initial conclusions and the evidence seems to point in another direction. Your mind searches for answers to the enigma of the statues as you make your way to the next building.
To your right, on the southern side of the plaza, is the larger Building of the Serpent. As you move towards it, you take note of its projected ramp and begin to make your way up it. Build in around 700 BC, the Edificio de la Serpiente was altered several times, but disused during the second phase of occupation at Xochitécatl. The structure is rectangular and initially had only one staircase on the northern face. An eastern platform was added to the building and another staircase replaced the old one. The ramp was part of the final phase of construction. Climbing the ancient structure, you ascend its four tiers and arrive at the top. A large monolithic basin greets you atop the building. A stele, heavily mutilated, was discovered in this basin. The stele has a carving of a snake on it, thereby lending the building its name. Two male figurines were found close to where you are now standing, along with fragments of obsidian from tool working, bones and antlers. All of these dated from the Late Preclassic Phase during the site’s original occupation. Looking at the ritual stone vat, you can imagine a water cult of fertility, linked to the female La Malinche volcano.
There has been no single god associated with the site, but the second phase of occupation has a definite link to the divine feminine. While the building under your feet shows no sign of having been used during the second period of Xochitécatl’s utilization, others have yielded huge numbers of female images from the Classic Period. These figures include goddesses, enthroned women and women in various phases of their life-cycle. The majority of these finds come from the Pyramid of the Flowers, but many also came from the Base of the Volcanoes. The Discovery of objects associated with women’s roles, such as spindle whorls, and the burials of young women and children at the site, indicate that women had a special importance at Xochitécatl. As you pick your way down from the Building of the Serpent, you find yourself back in the central plaza, facing the dominant Pyramid of the Flowers. This building is in perfect alignment with La Malinche in the east. The volcano’s Nahuatl name is Matlacueye (She with the Blue Skirt) and it clearly held significant power over the worshippers at Xochitécatl. The volcano’s legacy continues to this day and the annual patron saint festival at the nearby village of San Miguel el Milagro on the 29th of September, corresponds to the sun rising directly out of the mouth of the extinct volcano as seen from the top of the pyramid on the 28th. As the sun rises it also lights up Popocatépetl in the west, linking the male and female volcanoes. This also correlates to the Late Postclassic Tepeilhuitl (Feast of the Mountains) which fell on 30 September. During the rituals, women, representing the mountains, were sacrificed.
You walk up the first set of stairs and begin to walk across the wide platform that the Pyramid of the Flowers rests on. As you approach the Pirámide de las Flores, you note two large monolithic stone basins at the foot of the staircase. Basin 1, the smaller of the two, is above ground level, whereas the larger basin 2 is buried to its rim. They clearly have some connection with the staircase and four sculptures were found inside basin 1. A toad, a person in the mouth of a reptile and two distorted human faces were discovered. These four items were put in the basin at a later date as the staircase and basins are much older. Dra. Serra Puche suggests that the basins could have been related to a fertility cult, as they contained water and faced La Malinche.
You tentatively walk around the rim of the larger basin and begin your ascent of the staircase. The Pyramid of the Flowers has been added to throughout the site’s history, but was initially constructed in the Middle Preclassic Period. It is a large structure and as you climb it, your legs reiterate that it is the fourth largest pyramid in Mesoamerica at thirty metres high with nine tiers. The pyramid was the focus of the site and more than thirty burials have been found here along with offerings and stone sculptures. Of the burials, nearly all are females and infants. Some of the children had green stone beads placed in their mouths for some ritual purpose. Signs of ritual sacrifice show up on some of the children’s remains also. The building was remodelled in the Early Classic Period and the staircase was made of dressed stone and stucco. As you climb these stairs, you see a few odd stones that are not as thick as some of the others. These are metates (saddle querns), used for grinding corn and other foodstuffs. They stand out as they are made of the harder basalt rather than the soft tepetate. You can find this stone utensil in Mexico to this day and they are commonly used for making mole. Looking at the familiar stones, you see how the recycled stone makes an excellent stair material. Dra. Serra Puche suggests that in the context of Xochitécatl, they have a symbolic meaning related to women’s work and the cult of the feminine that may have been based here.
The stairway and top of the pyramid has also yielded more than 2000 clay figurines and some stone sculptures. Some of this hoard is associated with the burials, but all are offerings. The figurines are almost exclusively female and were placed directly into the filling of the pyramid. The figures fall into eight distinct groups: supplicating women, richly adorned women, pregnant women, women with children, infants in cradles, enthroned women, old women and articulated figures. Once again Dra. Serra Puche has her own compelling theory. As the offerings depict the complete life cycle of women, she believes that these are all real women; that these represent actual people. Of the stone statues uncovered, the only male figure shows a man holding his penis, a symbol of fertility. Another figure, one of Cihuacóatl (Snake Woman), has had much made of it. Cihuacóatl is a fertility and mother goddess associated with midwives. Although the goddess is known as an Aztec deity, she has a much older history and can be traced back to the semi-mythical Toltec people of Tollan and Culhuacan. This grey stone statue is typical and shows her with a fleshless human head and a rattlesnake body. When it was found, locals said it was the goddess Xochitl, and told the folk story of Queen Xochitl, a beautiful woman who, like a siren, lured men across a river before transforming into a snake and eating them.
Wary of this story, you skip a little faster up the steps to the pinnacle of the pyramid. A stone gateway stands at the top of the stairs and, passing it, you positon yourself where the temple once was. Here, at the crown of the edifice, you look over the whole site. Burials were found where you now stand and you can feel their significance at this zenith of the site. Behind you is La Malinche and ahead you see the water basins. The clay figures of the female life-cycle, the basins and the positioning of the site all make sense from up here. The Earth Mother represented by the volcano was empowered by the activities at Xochitécatl and she in turn held power over the reproduction cycle of human life.
From your vantage point, you take in the volcanic landscape and the site itself, which mirrors its environment. The sheer scale of building works and the length of time it was active evidence Xochitécatl’s importance. As you make your way back down the man-made mountain, you feel a connection to the site, the people, the land and the great sleeping Earth Mother with her blue skirt.
