Tlatilco was a large pre-Columbian village in 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 wa ...

situated near the modern-day town of the same name in the

Mexican Federal District Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley of M ...

. It was one of the first chiefdom centers to arise in the Valley, flourishing on the western shore 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 ...

during the Middle Pre-Classic period, between the years of 1200

BCE Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the o ...

and 200 BCE. It gives its name to the " Tlatilco culture", which also included the town of Tlapacoya, on the eastern shore of

Lake Chalco Lake Chalco was an endorheic lake formerly located in the Valley of Mexico, and was important for Mesoamerican cultural development in central Mexico. The lake was named after the ancient city of Chalco on its former eastern shore. Geography L ...

. Tlatilco is noted in particular for its high quality pottery pieces, many featuring Olmec iconography, and its figurines, including Olmec-style baby-face figurines. Much else, however, seems to be in a native ceramic tradition. These Olmec-style artifacts have led to speculation concerning the nature of Olmec influence on other Mesoamerican cultures. The Tlatilco site was used in modern times as a source of clay for brick-making. By the 1930s, many of the ancient artifacts thereby uncovered made their way into the hands of collectors, including Miguel Covarrubias, artist and ethnographer. Covarrubias led the first controlled excavation in 1942. By 1949, over 200 burials were identified at Tlatilco, leading to its categorisation as a necropolis. Two major archaeological excavations followed, with over 500 burials eventually identified, many with intact grave offerings. The last field season also undertook a systematic survey of non-burial structures, leading to the realization that these hundreds of burials were apparently located under ancient houses—although no traces of them remain - as well as among the various trash pits, and that Tlatilco was not a necropolis, but rather a major chiefdom center. Many burials, primarily of high status individuals, show evidence of dental mutilation and

artificial cranial deformation Artificial cranial deformation or modification, head flattening, or head binding is a form of body alteration in which the skull of a human being is deformed intentionally. It is done by distorting the normal growth of a child's skull by applying ...

, most probably through the use of

cradleboard Cradleboards (, se, gietkka, sms, ǩiõtkâm, smn, kietkâm, sje, gietkam) are traditional protective baby-carriers used by many indigenous cultures in North America and throughout northern Scandinavia amongst the Sámi. There are a variety ...

s. The Tlatilcans' agriculture was focused on maize, but also included beans,

amaranth ''Amaranthus'' is a cosmopolitan genus of annual or short-lived perennial plants collectively known as amaranths. Some amaranth species are cultivated as leaf vegetables, pseudocereals, and ornamental plants. Catkin-like cymes of densely pack ...

, and squash, and chili peppers. These plants were supplemented with various fowl, including migratory birds, wild rabbits and other smaller mammals, and deer and antelope. Tlatilco reached its heyday during the period from 1000 to 700

, during the Olmec horizon. The following Zacatenco phase (700-400 BCE) saw a cessation of the use of Olmec iconography and forms.

Tlatilco figurines

Many Tlatilco figurines show deformities or other anomalies, including a "duality" mask and severa
two-headed female figures
This has led some researchers to wonder whether Tlatilco was perhaps a cluster site for conjoined twins.Bendersky, aa well as Kennedy. The name "Tlatilco" comes from the

Nahuatl language Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...

, in which it means "place of mounds".

Notes

References

*Adams, Richard E W (1991) ''Prehistoric Mesoamerica'', University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma. *Bendersky, Gordon (2000); "Tlatilco, Diprosopus, and Emergence of Medical Illustrations" in ''Perspectives in Biology & Medicine''; Summer 2000, v43 #4, p477. *Blanton, Richard E.; Kowalewski, Stephen A.; Feinman, Gary M.;Finsten, Laura M. (1993) ''Ancient Mesoamerica: A Comparison of Change in Three Regions'', Cambridge University Press, . *Diehl, Richard A. (2004) ''The Olmecs: America's First Civilization'', Thames & Hudson, London. *Kennedy, G. E. (2001
"The 3,000-year history of conjoined twins", ''Western Journal of Medicine'', September 2001, 175(3): 176-177.
* (1996) "The Basin of Mexico: a Multimillennial Development Toward Cultural Complexity", in ''Olmec Art of Ancient Mexico'', eds. E. P. Benson and B. de la Fuente, Washington D.C., , pp. 83–93.

External links

*
Information about Tlatilco
{{Authority control Mesoamerican sites Tlatilco culture Valley of Mexico Populated places established in the 2nd millennium BC 2nd-millennium BC establishments