Mixcoac from Nahuatl means "viper in the cloud" is an archaeological zone belonging to the Mexica (Aztec) culture. It was on the shores of

Lake Texcoco Lake Texcoco ( es, Lago de Texcoco) was a natural lake within the "Anahuac" or Valley of Mexico. Lake Texcoco is best known as where the Aztecs built the city of Tenochtitlan, which was located on an island within the lake. After the Spanish con ...

and in its final stage was under the rule of

Tenochtitlan , ; es, Tenochtitlan also known as Mexico-Tenochtitlan, ; es, México-Tenochtitlan was a large Mexican in what is now the historic center of Mexico City. The exact date of the founding of the city is unclear. The date 13 March 1325 was ...

. With the arrival of the

Spanish conquistadors Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, ...

, the settlement was practically destroyed to its foundations, which are the only thing that survives of the architecture of the place and can be appreciated today in what is today the

San Pedro de los Pinos San Pedro de los Pinos is a neighborhood located in center-west of Mexico City. Before being urbanized during the first half of the 20th century, the colonia was part of a vast farming area belonging to several ranches and haciendas. Location ...

neighborhood, on the corner of San Antonio avenue and Periférico, in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

. The name Mixcoac, ''viper of the cloud'', could be understood as a representation of the celestial

serpent Serpent or The Serpent may refer to: * Snake, a carnivorous reptile of the suborder Serpentes Mythology and religion * Sea serpent, a monstrous ocean creature * Serpent (symbolism), the snake in religious rites and mythological contexts * Serp ...

Milky Way The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. ...

. The occupation of this archaeological area is estimated to have occurred from 900 BC to 1521 AD.

History

The site was occupied and built by the Mexicas shortly before 1521. This is demonstrated by the aesthetics and style of pottery and the architecture of the buildings. The temple of Mixcoatl is a pyramid-shaped building to which another building was added, built with floors and cement walls and tepetate. The spaces between the two buildings, as was common at the time and following the example of

Tenayuca Tenayuca ( nah, Tenanyohcān ) is a pre-Columbian Mesoamerican archaeological site in the Valley of Mexico. In the Postclassic period of Mesoamerican chronology, Tenayuca was a settlement on the former shoreline of the western arm of Lake Texcoc ...

, were filled with stones, mud and remains of the first building. On the site the foundations of a second building that had 15 rooms on top survive, most of them with floors. Several walls were also located on the south side. A number of adobe rooms were found in the northeast. The site of Mixcoac, belonged to the

altepetl The (, plural ''altepeme'' or ''altepemeh'') was the local, ethnically-based political entity, usually translated into English as "city-state," of pre-Columbian Nahuatl-speaking societiesSmith 1997 p. 37 in the Americas. The ''altepetl'' was ...

of Coyohuacan when the lake area was the territory of the

Tepanec The Tepanecs or Tepaneca are a Mesoamerican people who arrived in the Valley of Mexico in the late 12th or early 13th centuries.The dates vary by source, including 1152 CE in Anales de Tlatelolco, 1210 from Chimalpahin, and 1226 from Ixtlilxochi ...

s of

Azcapotzalco Azcapotzalco ( nci, Āzcapōtzalco , , from '' āzcapōtzalli'' “anthill” + '' -co'' “place”; literally, “In the place of the anthills”) is a borough (''demarcación territorial'') in Mexico City. Azcapotzalco is in the northwestern p ...

, long before the arrival of the Mexicas to the Cemanahuac. Mixcoac had a privileged location, as it was located near the great lake, as well as the rivers and streams that descended from the mountainous area located to the west (the current neighborhood of Santa Fe). Numerous agricultural towns were built around it. It is thought that the place was frequented by musicians and dancers from the

Valley of Mexico The Valley of Mexico ( es, Valle de México) is a highlands plateau in central Mexico roughly coterminous with present-day Mexico City and the eastern half of the State of Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the Valley of Mexico w ...

and that a very popular party was held between receiving the views of the inhabitants of

, Tlatelolco and other nearby towns. As part of these festivities, hunting excursions were carried out from this site to the surroundings of the mount of Zacatepec, before the beginning of the hunt the participants had to go through the adoration of Mixcoatl. The samples of ceramics from the area are stylistically related to the other sites of contemporary culture of Mesoamerica as Zacatenco, El Arbolillo and

Ticomán Ticomán is an archaeological site located in the Gustavo A. Madero municipality in Mexico City. It corresponds to an ancient town of the Pre-Classical Mesoamerican period, whose inhabitants could have been Otomis. It was a contemporary populat ...

. There are also magnificent examples of vases and boxes with clear

Teotihuacan Teotihuacan (Spanish: ''Teotihuacán'') (; ) is an ancient Mesoamerican city located in a sub-valley of the Valley of Mexico, which is located in the State of Mexico, northeast of modern-day Mexico City. Teotihuacan is known today as t ...

influence. The site was not open to the public, however, in August 2019, the INAH reported that the area can already be visited, access is free.

References

Luis Alberto López Wario, Arqueología de la ciudad de México vol. XI, número 60, pp. 68-76
{{coord, 19.3863, -99.1899, type:landmark_region:MX, display=title Archaeological sites in Mexico City Aztec sites Mesoamerican sites Former populated places in Mexico 9th-century establishments in North America Indigenous peoples in Mexico City

History

See also

References