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<< Text Pages >> El Teul Archaeological Zone - Ancient Village or Settlement in Mexico in Zacatecas

Submitted by bat400 on Friday, 03 December 2010  Page Views: 9741

Multi-periodSite Name: El Teul Archaeological Zone
Country: Mexico
NOTE: This site is 63.129 km away from the location you searched for.

Region: Zacatecas Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Aguascalientes  Nearest Village: Teul de González Ortega
Latitude: 21.450000N  Longitude: 103.467W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
3
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Ancient Settlement in Zacatecas.
Occupied by Caxcan culture for less than 2 centuries (1350/1400-1531 AD), the settlement on the Cerro de Teul was their most important ceremonial center.

However the occupation of the hill top by some culture has been nearly continuous from 200BC to the Spanish Conquest.

Note: Sculpture of Decapitated MesoAmerican Ball Player found at Site Being Readied for Public Opening. See comment.
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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 92.2km SSW 205° Los Guachimontones* Ancient Temple
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"El Teul Archaeological Zone" | Login/Create an Account | 4 News and Comments
  
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Re: Prehispanic Decapitated Ballgame Player Sculpture Discovered by Archaeologists by Anonymous on Thursday, 28 February 2019
This is very good information and i am glad to have come across this website. it would be great to show examples of ceramics, jewlery and paintings found in the El Teul site. I am a Caxcan descendent myself and would like to see more about the Painted ceramics, flutes and jewlery.
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More on ballgame player found at ceremonial centre of the Caxcan people by davidmorgan on Tuesday, 05 July 2011
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A second ballgame player similar to one discovered in 2010 was found in Cerro del Teul, Zacatecas, north-central Mexico. Researchers from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH Mexico) discovered the ballgame player, which, unlike the one found previously at the site in late 2010, has a head.

Historical evidence points to the possibility that only one of the pair was intended to have a head and could evoke a passage of Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the Maya people, related to divine twins.

The stone sculpture – dated between 900 and 1100 CE – represents the body of a ballgame player (1.75m high x 56cm diameter) and is almost complete. It was located in the south-western corner of the ballgame court under a collapsed wall.

Cerro del Teul has a long period of uninterrupted occupation – from 200 BC to 1531 and is believed to be the ceremonial centre of the Caxcan people.

Archaeologist Luis Martinez Mendez, in charge of excavations at the Cerro del Teul Ballcourt explained that so far the sculptures are unique in Mesoamerica. Previoulsy, only at Maya archaeological sites such as Tonina in Chiapas has this type of sculpture ever been found. However, the Maya finds represent captives and not actual players such as in Zacatecas.
Myth and symbolism

The widely known myth in Mesoamerica through the Popol Vuh Maya book states that the Lords of Xibalba required the presence of divine twins Hunahpu and Ixbalanque. Through an underground path, the brothers had to go through several tests and at the House of the Bat, Hunahpu was beheaded.

Ixbalanque, through bravery and skill brought his brother back to life, deceiving the Lords of Xibalba at the ballgame court.

Both figures show their right arm over their chests and the left over the abdomen. Shoulders are enhanced, probably representing the players’ attire of protective shoulder pads, yokes at the hips and long skirts.
19th century map

A map created by geodesic engineer Carl de Berghes called the Oriental Conjunct of Cerro del Teul and drawn up in the 19th century notes several Prehispanic structures, among them the ballgame court, with sculptures at the four corners. However, only a fragment of a shoulder has ever been found at the northern sector.

Archaeological research must wait until restorers from INAH National Coordination of Cultural Heritage Conservation lift and consolidate the sculpture because of its fragile condition.

Martinez remarked that the ballgame court first operated between 600 and 900 CE. A second stage developed between 900 and 1100 AD, when a different type of stone architectural style was used.

Source: http://www.pasthorizons.com/index.php/archives/07/2011/ballgame-player-found-at-ceremonial-centre-of-the-caxcan-people

Submitted by coldrum.
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Archaeologists Use Total Station to Conduct 3D Scan of Prehispanic Shaft Tomb by davidmorgan on Wednesday, 12 January 2011
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Archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) conducted for the first time the three-dimensional registration of a shaft tomb, underground spaces used during Prehispanic time as funerary chambers in the western region of Mexico.

Shaft tombs are integrated by a vertical shaft of variable depth and one or more funerary chambers. Specialists managed to conduct 3 dimensional imaging of one of these great spaces at the Cerro del Teul Archaeological Site, in Zacatecas, by using Total Station, an electro-optical device.

Archaeologist Enrique Perez Cortes detailed that the scanned space is the shaft tomb Number 5 at the Prehispanic site, built between the 2nd century BC and 400 AD, it consists of an underground chamber with the shape of a dome and ellipsoidal plan that measures nearly 3 meters long, 2.5 wide and 1.5 high.

“Total Station technology allows describing and outlines with detail the features of a terrain. By using this device we managed to register the shaft tomb, so we can study more deeply the funerary space”.

Archaeologist Laura Solar, in charge of El Teul Archaeological Project with Peter Jimenez Betts, mentioned that this is the first occasion when a shaft tomb at a Mexican archaeological site is registered with Total Station, considering these tombs are also found in South America.

“Southern Zacatecas is the northernmost region of the shaft tomb tradition, typical from Western Mexico, and the case of Cerro del Teul is the earliest evidence of the sedentary occupation of this hill, dating from the 2nd to the 5th centuries of the Common Era.

“It is interesting how shaft tombs in the region are found in the high area of the hill, since they were generally distributed in slopes and valleys, associated to water currents or downpours, where some early villages settled. This reveals the relevance of Cerro del Teul as a ceremonial center, even before our era”, commented the INAH researcher Solar.

The meticulous registration of the tomb was performed using coordinates obtained with a processor and a laser-surveying instrument connected to a computer. The shaft tomb is represented on the screen as reticules with their exact volume measurement.

“By using Total Station we are able to generate a meticulous data base of some Prehispanic sites, before and after archaeological intervention, which later helps to conduct analyses of the architectural layout of the buildings, and even of some specific pieces found”, declared Perez Cortes.

At the archaeological site located in the Zacatecan municipality of Teul de Gonzalez Ortega, 6 shaft tombs have been located, which are integrated by a circular shaft or well with diameters that measure from 80 to 100 centimeters and approximate depth of 150 centimeters, an access and a funerary chamber of an approximate size of 300 by 250 centimeters.

In mid 19th century the geodesic engineer Carl de Berghes created a precise map of Cerro del Teul, where he located 3 shaft tombs or “particular chambers”, as he called them.

Recently, the team of the archaeological project has achieved to recover archaeological material when cleaning up 3 of them.

“Sediment was extracted and using the sieve we recovered beads made out of marine shell and stone; remains of dart-throwers (atlatl), pigments, broken vessels, 2 small zoomorphic wind instruments and other objects that were part of necklaces.

“Our intention is to recover the most information possible of the tombs looted in prior centuries, to know the specific kind of the regional funerary deposits and determine which logistic problems we can expect to face when we find one intact. We know these are groups of tombs, they are never isolated”, manifested Laura Solar.

Elements recovered in tombs confirm there was an extensive commercial network in this region of western Mexico one or 2 centuries

Read the rest of this post...
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Prehispanic Decapitated Ballgame Player Sculpture Discovered by Archaeologists by bat400 on Friday, 03 December 2010
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A Prehispanic sculpture that represents a beheaded ballgame player was discovered by archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) at El Teul Archaeological Zone, in Zacatecas, one of the few Mesoamerican sites continuously occupied for 18 centuries.

The life-size finding took place during research work conducted for the opening to public visit of the ceremonial site in 2012. The quarry dates from 900-1100 of the Common Era and evidence determines that the sculpture was created beheaded, maybe to serve as a pedestal for the heads of sacrificed players of the ritual ballgame.

The cylindrical sculpture with a 52 centimeter diameter is 1.97 meters high and weighs nearly a ton, and was located in the southeast area of the Ballgame court. Fragments of a similar sculpture were found in the northern extreme, so it is possible to find a pair of similar sculptures in the western side, still unexplored.

The discovery adds up to the great diversity of material found: shell and greenstone beads found in shaft tombs, ear ornaments with Teotihuacan motives, codex-style polychrome ceramics, as well as copper rattles and rings manufactured in one of the few Prehispanic foundries discovered.

According to archaeologist Peter Jimenez Betts, co director of the Cerro del Teul Archaeological Project, this richness in objects is the result from a continued occupation that the hill presented for at least 1,800 years. In contrast, great cities like Teotihuacan and Monte Alban were inhabited for 8 and 12 centuries, in that order.

In this sense, Cerro del Teul, symbol of the Zacatecas town Teul de Gonzalez Ortega, is one of the few sites in America with uninterrupted occupation from 200 BC to 1531 AD.

Peter Jimenez and archaeologist Laura Solar, co director of the project, share the opinion of El Teul being the most important ceremonial center of Caxcan people, one of the bravest groups that fought Spanish Conquerors several times. The Caxcan occupied Cerro del Teul for less than 2 centuries (1350/1400-1531 AD). Destruction of the temple in this particular stage happened when Caxcan decided to keep using it as a ceremonial center. Tlaxcaltecas, allied with Spaniards, were in charge of burning the site to ashes, leaving scarce vestiges of the last settlement period.

“We have evidence of the 16th century Caxcan occupation, as well as of the earlier shaft tomb tradition, 2 or 3 centuries before Christ. In addition, we have found in most recent excavations vestiges of intermediate periods, which points out this was one of the few sites in the Americas with constant occupation for over 18 centuries”, declared archaeologist Jimenez.

Relevance of Cerro del Teul for archaeology, continued the Zacatecas INAH Center specialist, is that “studying it will help us answer basic questions regarding the Mesoamerican standard of living, the one that would arrive to La Quemada and Alta Vista. Answers about this gradual colonization are here”.


This register helps understanding the chronology of the place; excavation work has been systematic, currently concentrating on spaces at Conjunto Oriente (Eastern Conjunct) as: Ballgame court, Dos Monticulos (Two Monticules) Square, and Patio Hundido (Sunken Yard), distributed in the middle part of the hill.


By means of the joint effort of the federal and Zacatecas state governments, Cerro del Teul Archaeological Zone will be open to the public in 2012, to contribute to the knowledge of Prehispanic culture in Zacatecas and the integration of tourism routes.



For more, including a photograph, see http://www.artdaily.org.
Article submitted by coldrum.
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