Xaltocan (Shawl-Toh-KAHN or Hal-Toh-KAHN) was an early to Middle Postclassic city-state in the northern basin of Mexico, built on a man-made island surrounded by the shallow, brackish and now-defunct Lake Xaltocan. The site includes an area of 68 hectares, with separate mounds representing domestic structures of up to 5 meters (16 feet) tall. Xaltocan was occupied between ca AD 900-1500, and it is of primary importance because of its existence as an independent polity, which later became part of the Aztec Empire.
The original settlement of the area began in the 10th century AD, and within the first years of its settlement Xaltocan was allied with the communities in the southern basin of Mexico, perhaps Cholula, and against the waning power of Tula. By the 12th century, Xaltocan controlled most of the northern basin, with over 5,000 local inhabitants.
During the 14th century, Xaltocan fought a devastating way with Cuauhtitlan, a Tepanecan kingdom, who conquered Xaltocan in 1395. The town was abandoned for at least thirty years, but by 1425, the town had been reoccupied by people with trade connections to Tenochtitlan. When the Aztecs established a provisional governor at Xaltocan about 1430, the town formally became part of the Aztec empire.
Chronology of Xaltocan
- Phase 1, AD 900-1000, initial settlement
- Phase 2, AD 1100-1300, development as an independent political center
- Phase 3, AD 1300-1400, maximum size and independent political power
- Phase 4, AD 1430-1521, incorporation into Aztec empire
- AD 1521, Spanish conquest
Living in Xaltocan
In the earliest phases of occupation, the farmers at Xaltocan laid out their agricultural fields along the lake margins and into the alluvial plain and nearby foothills. As an independent entity, Xaltocan operated a large integrated agricultural system, consisting of elevated fields and canals, called chinampas. In Phase 2 and 3, the chinampa system included an area of some 1,000 hectares, and was flooded with brackish water by way of a four kilometer (2.5 mile) long canal leading from a spring.
Crops grown in the chinampas include considerable quantities of maize, which was probably part of the Mesoamerican trade network throughout Phases 2 and 3. A recent study (Morehart and Eisenberg 2010) provided evidence that a wide variety of maize was available in the village during Phases 1 and 4, while in Phases 2 and 3, diversity decreased sharply. Morehart and Eisenberg interpret this as an indication that local production of maize was at its height when Xaltocan ruled its own destiny, and decreased sharply after the Aztecs took power. Under the Aztec regime, the bulk of surplus agriculture was likely used for creating tribute to give to the empire, with an emphasis on the production of cotton cloth, and maize traded into the town.
Recent Research at XaltocanInvestigations of decorations on pottery and other objects found within the site of Xaltocan (Brumfiel 2011) suggest that by Phase 4, the common people of Xaltocan who made and used the objects were fully involved in abstract and large-scale cosmological concepts, as expressed through representations of the Mesoamerican calendrical system and other ideas usually perceived as solely within the provenance of elites. This is an unusual occurrence, or so it seems: in most complex societies, religion is kept in the hands of religious specialists such as priests and shamans who are paid by elites or rulers.
Portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF), a form of trace element analysis, was recently used to determine the original sources of obsidian at Xaltocan during different phases (Millhauser et al. 2011). Like maize, described above, Xaltocan depended on local production of obsidian artifacts through much of its history until the Aztec empire. Obsidian at Xaltocan comes in a wide variety of colors: green, black, gray and red, from seven separate sources. The main sources during the rise of the independent polity were from north and west of the Valley of Mexico; when the Atzecs took over, the main sources were from the southern basin, where the base of operations for the Aztecs was situated.
Archaeology at Xaltocan
Research at Xaltocan began in 1987, under the direction of Elizabeth Brumfield and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, including systematic surface collections, excavation, and ethnohistoric research of the available records.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to Aztec Empire, and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Brumfiel EM. 2011. Technologies of time: calendrics and commoners in Postclassic Mexico. Ancient Mesoamerica 22(01):53-70.
Millhauser JK, Rodríguez-Alegría E, and Glascock MD. 2011. Testing the accuracy of portable X-ray fluorescence to study Aztec and Colonial obsidian supply at Xaltocan, Mexico. Journal of Archaeological Science 38(11):3141-3152.
Morehart CT, and Eisenberg DTA. 2010. Prosperity, power, and change: Modeling maize at Postclassic Xaltocan, Mexico. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 29(1):94-112.
Nichols DL, Brumfiel EM, Neff H, Hodge M, Charlton TH, and Glascock MD. 2002. Neutrons, Markets, Cities, and Empires: A 1000-Year Perspective on Ceramic Production and Distribution in the Postclassic Basin of Mexico. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 21(1):25-82.
