El Sabinito is a

Pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...

ruin associated with the

Huastec civilization The Huastec civilization (sometimes spelled Huaxtec or Wastek) was a pre-Columbian civilization of Mesoamerica, occupying a territory on the Gulf coast of Mexico that included the northern portion of Veracruz state, and neighbouring regions of th ...

. Located in the Mexican state of

Tamaulipas Tamaulipas (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tamaulipas), is a state in the northeast region of Mexico; one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal Entiti ...

, El Sabinito is approximately 25 kilometers southwest and 96 kilometers east of the modern-day cities

Soto la Marina Soto la Marina is a town in Soto la Marina Municipality located in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. It was directly hit by Hurricane Alex in 2010. It is located on the banks of the Soto la Marina river, just up river from the small ocean port of ...

and

Ciudad Victoria Ciudad Victoria () is the seat of the Municipality of Victoria, and the capital of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. It is located in the northeast of Mexico at the foot of the Sierra Madre Oriental. It borders the municipality of Güémez to ...

. Alongside the Balcon de Montezuma, El Sabinito marks the northernmost boundary of Mesoamerican civilization.

History and description

El Sabinito was discovered in 1987 by Aureliano Medina in a region of Tamaulipas characterized by its virgin, tropical jungles and suffocating humidity. Today, this region lies within the municipality of

and north of the

Sierra de Tamaulipas The Sierra de Tamaulipas is an isolated, semi-tropical mountain range in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. Its highest point is . There are no cities or towns in the Sierra and the small population is largely agricultural. The higher elevations o ...

. Compared to other Huastec ruins in Tamaulipas, such as the Balcon de Montezuma and the Pyramid of Tammapul, El Sabinito was the most urbanized and culturally significant. The Huastecs of Tamaulipas originally belonged to the

Mayan culture The Maya civilization () of the Mesoamerican people is known by its ancient temples and glyphs. Its Maya script is the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas. It is also noted for its art, archit ...

but migrated northward to the present-day state around 1300 BCE. Upon their arrival, the immigrant Huastecs made a concerted effort to preserve their Mayan identity. They resisted assimilation for approximately one thousand years until finally integrating aspects of their nomadic neighbors' cultures in 300 CE. While archaeological remains indicate that human activity around the

Soto la Marina River The Soto La Marina River or Soto la Marina is a river of northeastern Mexico. Geography The headwaters of the Soto La Marina are in the Sierra Madre Oriental in pine-oak forests at an elevation of about 3,000 m (9,800 ft) in the munici ...

sprung up as early as 10,000 BCE, the Huastecs' construction and occupation of El Sabinito only began in 200 CE. El Sabinito showed signs of decline around 1000 CE, and all signs of life disappeared in 1300 CE, suggesting that the site was abandoned. The reason for this abandonment remains to be discovered. El Sabinito was a town of more than 600 foundations. Based on the discovery of 600 residential structures out of those foundations, Mexican archaeologists approximate that El Sabinito had a population of over 2,500 inhabitants at its peak. Due to its placement atop the tallest of a group of irregular hills and the presence of formidable terraces and embankments, El Sabinito may have functioned as a strategic point of observation which could monitor the movement of enemy nomadic tribes. As such, the makeup of El Sabinito suggests that it may have served as a military and political stronghold as well as a cultural and residential hub.

Architecture

All of the buildings within El Sabinito are very well preserved. As mentioned above, excavations of the site performed by INAH resulted in the finding of more than 600 foundations built on terraces, corridors, and plazas arranged symmetrically in a manner that demonstrates fairly advanced knowledge of architecture. The site can be divided into two sectors based on its two principal plazas.

Plaza 1

The first plaza is marked by its northmost location and the sizable edifices which flank it, which are the largest within El Sabinito. Outstanding among these constructions is the circular, eight-meter-high pyramid, with slabs of limestone jutting out of its sides like the arms of a windmill. This particularly conical style of pyramid has been associated with the worship of

Ehecatl Ehecatl ( nci-IPA, Ehēcatl, eʔˈeːkatɬ, ) is a pre-Columbian deity associated with the wind, who features in Aztec mythology and the mythologies of other cultures from the central Mexico region of Mesoamerica. He is most usually interpreted as ...

, the Huastec god of wind which was later appropriated by the

Aztecs The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those g ...

. Opposite to this pyramid is a ceremonial altar measuring 2 meters by 6 meters with an aberrantly uneven shape. El_Sabinito

Plaza 2

Two large circular twin buildings that start from the hillside stand out, linked together by a wall with a staircase to reach a ceremonial plaza, which is also accessed by means of terraces staggered by other buildings that surround it.

References

{{reflist Mesoamerican sites Huastec sites Tamaulipas Archaeological sites in Tamaulipas Archaeological sites in Mexico

History and description

Architecture

Plaza 1

Plaza 2

See also

References