Mexico Before the Spanish: Cuicuilco, Volcanoes and the Fragility of Life in Mesoamerica

Non-Mexicans often assume that the Aztecs or Mexicas of Tenochtitlan were a long-standing civilization in the Valley of Mexico. However, they were, in fact, late arrivals, entering the Valley in 1225 CE. Other Nahua speaking "Aztecs" had arrived a century or two before them. The Mexicas were hunter-gatherers, chichimechas, i.e. barbarians in the eyes of the the argrarian, urbanized peoples of the Valley. They did not begin to build their own city, on a group of islands in Lake Texcoco, until 1325. They did not come to dominate the Valley, and Central Mexico until they defeated rival city Azcapotzalco in 1428, barely one hundred years before the Spanish arrived.

In fact, the first monumental civic-ceremonial center in the Valley was Cuicuilco. Cuicuilco was first settled about 1200 BCE. By 800 BCE it was a thriving civic-ceremonial center. Sometime around 150-200 CE Cuicuilco was utterly destroyed by ash and lava flow from Xitle, a small cone volcano nearby. But we´re getting ahead of ourselves.

Volcanic Axis Runs through Mexico City's 'South Side'

Living in Michoacán, we had become acquainted with the Volcanic Axis running East-West across Mexico. So many volcanic craters are visible that 'flying' over Michoacán via GoogleEarth, Reed exclaimed, "is like viewing a moonscape."

Volcanic Axis (red) cinches Mexico's midsection;
four black triangles represent the largest volcanoes: (West to East)
Colima (active);
Popocatéptl (active), linked by a mountain ridge to Iztaccíhuatl (dormant);
La Malinche (dormant 3,100 years); and
Pico de Orizaba (active, indigenous name is Citlaltépetl), 
 Reaching 18,406ft.,
it is the tallest mountain in Mexico and third tallest mountain in 
North America.

Lake Texcoco:
Red lines indicate Volcanic Axis;
Cuicuilco is on West Side (left, triangle just below top red line);
Cerro Xitle (Extinct Volcano) is Southwest of Cuicuilco;
North of Cuilco is site of Tenochtitlan, (today's Mexico City Historic Center).

"If you would understand a man, walk a mile in his sandals..."

I've taken liberties with this traditional saying, because it is a useful reminder as I try to understand the circumstances of Mexico's earliest peoples—specifically, how they coped with natural forces that periodically threatened to destroy them. (See our: Geography: Ground of Mexico's History and Culture. Here our focus is on volcanic activity.

Mexico's volcanoes are of two types:

• Large, violently erupting volcanoes characterized by long periods of repose between eruptions (Popocatépetl); and
• Smaller volcanoes that tend to form and erupt where there has been no previous volcanic activity; once eruption occurs, the activity shifts to a new locality where an eruption occurs at a later time (Paricutin, Michoacán, the most recent, which erupted between 1943 and 1952 ... and Xitle).

Xitle, in fact, formed on the flank of Ajusco, a larger volcano in the same area. When Xitle erupted, lava flows poured into the Basin of Mexico, covering the area of what is now known as the Pedregal de San Ángel, upon which has been built the campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico [UNAM].

Cuicuilco's First Settlers

Cuicuilco provides a rare snapshot of life in these early periods. The first peoples to settle Cuicuilco about 1200 BCE were small family groups making the transition from hunter-foragers to village-based farmers. Their agriculture was based on cultivation of maís (corn).

During this period, the central and southern regions of the Basin of Mexico (modern-day Mexico City) enjoyed greater rainfall, which fostered settlement of tribal farming villages. The well-watered valley floors were green with maís, and irrigation techniques enhanced crop yields. People continued to hunt and trap and collect important (often medicinal) plants. The landscape was clearly divided between cultivated land and the wilderness—forested mountainsides that served as watersheds for the valley, dotted with natural springs, the source of small rivers that supplied the lakes.

In the eyes of these early settlers, their farming villages and milpas (farm plots in Nahuatl) represented the point of connection between heaven and earth—a fruitful union of water, earth and mountains. The earth was viewed as the milpa of the gods. Outside the milpa, chaos reigned. In this worldview, prosperity sprang from proper regulation of the agricultural (solar) year, and from effective mediation with controlling natural forces, which were viewed as spiritual in nature.

At Cuicuilco, Cerro Xitle (Xitle Hill) would have been an active presence, spewing smokey plumes as Popocatéptl does today, providing a daily reminder of the people's vulnerability before la naturaleza (natural forces). The natural follow-up question is: How might these early settlers have sought to 'mediate' let alone 'regulate' these natural forces?

Cuicuilco: Monumental Civic-Ceremonial Center

Perhaps the best answer to that question is found in the words of renowned art historian George Kubler (1984):

"[The people engaged in] collective endeavors to guarantee the continuity of the creation of the universe against catastrophic dissolution in an unstable world." (Emphasis added)

In this context, Cuicuilco presents a good example of how Mesoamerica culture attempted to control the vital forces of the natural world by replicating them in ritual practices. The deity most associated with Cuicuilco was Huehuetéotl (Old Old God of Fire).

Huehuetéotl (Old Old God of Fire)
He is depicted as an old man with wrinkled face (symbol of wisdom), 
On his hat—a brazier for burning coals or incense—is carved the fire symbol.
National Museum of Antropology

Also evident at Cuicuilco is evidence of a cult to the fertility of the earth is found in the numerous clay sculptures of fecund women (Cuicuilco Museum) uncovered in private homes. This cult demonstrates the community’s recognition of their dependency on natural forces to assure ample harvests.

The elaborate peinado (hairstyle) of this female figure
—dubbed 'Pretty Woman'—
is undoubtedly an early symbol of fertility.

Generally understood to be a god of the family hearth rather than a focus of civic ritual practice, Huehuetéotl nonetheless appears on a 13 ft. (4 m.) stele (stone-carved column) outside Cuicuilco's "pyramid". The "pyramid" is actually a truncated, stepped cone with ramps on its East and West sides.

Cuicuilco's "pyramid"
Its summit was crowned by an altar
where the smoke of burning incense and sacrifices rose to the heavens.

The pyramid was constructed in several stages, beginning in 800-600 BCE and hence contemporaneous with one of Popocatépetl's violent eruptions. By 100 BCE, Cuicuilco's population was about 20,000—large enough to support the pyramid construction that continued across generations until about 200 BCE.

Retaining walls of pyramid at Cuicuilco

Both the hearth god and the monumental conical pyramid are earthly replications of Xitle, the conical smoking mountain whose presence posed a constant threat to Cuicuilco's inhabitants.

Cuicuilco Museum offers this explanation of how a tribal farming village underwent the transition to become a monumental, regional civic-ceremonial center (our translation):

"A more elaborate religious cult gradually developed at Cuicuilco where an incipient elite performed not only religious rites, but political and administrative functions as well. Over time, this elite solidified its control over the entire population and, by so doing, initiated a process that ultimately defined a theocratic government."

It is not known exactly when Xitle erupted, but it likely occurred sometime between 200 BCE and 200 CE.

It is known that Popcatépetl's eruptions from 250 BCE to 50 CE severely disrupted southern Basin communities. It is also known that Xitle first spewed ash falls, followed shortly thereafter by lava flows. By the time Xitle erupted, with spectacular and frightening displays of fire and smoke, its effects would have caused Cuicuilcans and others to flee for their lives.

Archeological evidence indicates that when the Cuicuilcanos fled the ash falls and lava flows, some sought refuge across the lake at the village or city of Huizachtécatl, now Culhuacán, at the base of Cerro de La Estrella (Hill of the Star), on the peninsula of Iztapalapa. Others fled to Teotihuacán, which was, by that time, the dominant power in central Mexico.

Cuicuilco was buried by Xitle's eruptions: lava flows reached a depth of about 10 m. (33 ft.) and extended over about 80 sq. km. (32 sq. miles). The archaeological context was sealed so thoroughly that excavation at the site has proceeded with jackhammers—not ideal for preserving detail!

Aftermath of Volcanic Eruptions

It is difficult to overstate the psychological impact on early peoples of natural phenomena associated with Mexico's volcanic eruptions. But given the people’s proximity to these natural events, it is equally difficult to dismiss the idea that volcanic activity had a profound impact on how Mexico's early peoples came to view their world. Perhaps the most vivid example is found in the Aztec Creation Myth of the Five Suns.

In a nutshell:

It took the gods five trys at creating the heavens and the earth, known as the Five Suns. The Third Sun (World, or Era) was destroyed by the 'Rain of Fire', likely a volcanic eruption. The Fourth Sun was, in turn, destroyed by water (drought and flood). Then the gods sought to recreated the earth for the fifth time, but there was no light, no sun. Meeting in darkness around a great fire, two gods threw themselves into the pyre. The first became the Sun, the second the Moon.  Thus was the creation of the Fifth Sun, the era of the Aztecs.

In a profound expression of the duality that marks Mesoamerican thought, it is fire in the form of the sun that gives life to the earth through maíz, and it is fire in its various forms, including volcanic activity, that just as easily takes life.

Originally published in Jenny'a Journal of Mexican Culture.

Cuicuilco
lies near the middle of the northern boundary of Delegación Tlalpan,
the most southern borough of Mexico City.
The site is just south of the Periferico (Ring Higway) and east of Ave. Insurgentes.
Delegación Coyoacán is to its north;
Delegación Xochimilco lies to the east.