Dr. Bob Visits Cuicuilco, Mexico City

Transcript:

[00:00:01.14] – Dr Bob

Hello, it's Dr. Bob. We are here at Cuicuilco, just outside downtown Mexico City, about 15 miles or so. This is an important site for a number of reasons. First, it's probably the oldest community in the Mexico Valley. It predates all the other civilizations such as Tiotihuacan and others. It was built probably about 800 BC. There may have been people populating this area as early as 1000 BC due to the really beneficial environmental characteristics it had. It was right on Lake Texcoco. So you had plenty of fish and you had plenty of water for growing crops. So it made for a very, very desirable location for establishing a new civilization, a new community. It's hard to know the language of the people here, but it probably was Nahuatl, like most of the other areas, but we aren't really certain. It is also interesting because this being a circular pyramid, there aren't the other in the Mexico Valley, and in fact, the closest seem to be in the area of Guadalajara. It's hard to know how influenced the two were, but this is four levels. Each level, they would start by compacting Earth and rocks. Then when they would get to the outside perimeter, they would use the basalt, the volcanic material, with cement, and then they would set to reinforce the exterior.

[00:01:40.03] - Dr Bob

Then they would go to the next level. This is a four-tiered pyramid. At the top, there were two temples, so reminiscent of some of the other temples we visited, but not necessarily a common characteristic. Additionally, at specific times of year, they would raise a pole perhaps as much as 100 feet. And the voladores, the men that would jump down and fly around, they would perform that ceremony here. Now we mostly see it for entertainment, but here at this temple, it was done as a part of their religious practice. And so that would be a primary feature of this temple at specific times. It's aligned to the equinox. So there seems to be some celestial connection here, as we often see, just as the Bible tells us, remember the signs and the seasons and the days and the years. That's a very common theme here in Mexico and in Mesoamerica. This temple was unique, as I say, because of the round nature of it. But it was also a really large, perhaps as much as 100 acres for this complex. Much of this area is now covered in the buildings that we see behind us. It is nearby the Olympic Stadium from the 1968 Olympics hosted here in Mexico.

[00:03:02.14] - Speaker 1

And initially, the only portion of it that was exposed was the top tier. That's because even though the temple was built in 800 BC, probably around 100 BC, there was the initial eruption of the volcano nearby, which threatened it and really seems to have dampened the civilization here, but not destroyed it. It It wasn't until between 200 and 300 AD, probably about 245, seems to be the best estimate, AD, that the volcano then erupted and the volcanic material actually completely inundated this community. Now, there had been a rivalry between the people of Cuicuilco and the people at Tiotihuacan, which came on slightly later, but it had begun to be a real force. And so when this happened and civilization was completely inundated with volcanic material, many of the people then went to Tiotihuacan. So, we see the end of the rivalry, of course. But this remains a really important archeological site here in Mexico, and in particular in the area of Mexico City. It's right in what amount to a downtown park, but it's one of the most significant sites, both because of its antiquity and the unique nature of this circular pyramid.

[00:04:33.27] - Dr Bob

And so we need to research more the connections between here and Guadalajara and circular pyramids that we see even in the United States and areas like Georgia, where we see these circular, they call them mound pyramids, but very, very reminiscent with the tiered levels and the religious practice that was here. So definitely at least a cultural connection, if not much more. So again, this Bob. I'm here in Cuicuilco, near downtown Mexico City, enjoying this amazing site with a circular pyramid here in central Mexico.