- Teuchitlan was Once the Center of a Vast Empire - John Pint
Well over two thousand years ago, a unique civilization arose in western Mexico. It created a metropolis of 25,000 people and its economy was built on mining, working and trading in obsidian, one of the most precious substances in early Mesoamerica.
It developed an ingenious irrigation system capable of feeding its entire population and used geometric formulas to design the only circular monumental architecture on earth.
These people controlled northern and western Mexico for 2000 years. They were neither Aztecs nor Toltecs nor Mayas. In fact, to this day no one knows who they were.
Obsidian Blades and Mysterious Mounds
In 1970, an American archeologist and a Mexican historian were relaxing at a hot spring located in the state of Jalisco, some 50 kilometers due west of Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-largest city. Celia Weigand found several black objects in the hot pool and showed them to her husband Phil. They were razor-sharp prismatic obsidian blades.
Local people told them that similar items could be found lying on the ground in the hills just above the spa.
The couple investigated and soon found several huge, man-made mounds. “I stood on the largest pyramid,” says Phil Weigand, “and thought, ‘This is unexpected.’”
It was unexpected because in those days, all archeological textbooks flatly stated that in western Mexico there had never been a highly organized society nor any sort of monumental construction such as pyramids.
Circles within Circles
In reality, the structures found by the Weigands turned out to be much more than pyramids. They were complexes of concentric circles with high, round-based mounds in the center. These were ringed by wide, circular walkways around which were situated evenly-spaced platforms for administrative buildings.
Realizing they had come upon vestiges of a large and unique civilization, the Weigands have dedicated the last 38 years to unraveling the mystery and restoring the pyramids.
The town nearest the ruins is called Teuchitlan, which in the Nahuatl language means the Place of the First God and, in fact, archeological digs unearthed evidence that these pyramids—which the local people call Guachimontones—were dedicated to the worship of Ehecatl, the Bird Man, also known as the god of the Night Wind.
Among the most dramatic finds were 25 clay models, each around 2000 years old, depicting how the pyramids were used by the ancient citizens of Teuchitlan. Unlike hard-to-interpret codices, these are simple clay figures showing ordinary people making music, playing with their dogs or chatting with their neighbors.
The Flying Bird Men
Set in the top of each mound was a tall, sturdy pole from which it is thought that Voladores (fliers), dressed in feathers and tied to ropes wound around the pole, launched themselves into the air, gracefully terminating their flights on the circular runway around the mound.
Afterwards, a crowd of revelers would join hands in a great circle around the pyramid, doing a dance called the cadena. The clay models also show crowds of people enjoying a ball game played on a court 110 meters long.
Prehispanic Football
In its day, Teuchitlan’s ball court was the longest in Mesoamerica. Ball games lasted from sunrise to sunset and players could only hit the ball with their hips. According to Phil Weigand, “the skeletons of all the males we unearthed here had broken hip bones.”
Today, visitors from all over the world come to admire the curious circular pyramids of Teuchitlan while a team of archeologists continues to make new discoveries about the extraordinary people who built them, a people whose name is still unknown.
Sources: Interviews with Archeologist Phil Weigand; "Antropología en Jalisco" by Phil C. Weigand
