The Remains of a Long-Lost Ancient Temple in Mexico Have Finally Been Rediscovered
Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of an ancient temple, or teocalli, in the Mexican city of Atlixco that, until now, has existed only in legends for hundreds of years. Local Atlixquenses have long-believed that the temple once stood on San Miguel Hill, a volcanic summit where a Catholic chapel dedicated to the archangel San Miguel still exists today.
It was only while reinforcing structures of the chapel back in July and August that a team discovered artifacts from the temple, believed to be over 1,000 years old.
Researchers Miguel Medina Jaen and Carlos Cedillo Ortega with Mexico's government bureau, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), along with archaeologist Elvia Cristina Sánchez de la Barquera initially discovered pre-Columbian artifacts, such as clay vessels, stone tools, and decorative ornaments, under the chapel. However, after further excavating they found stone walls and floors from the ancient teocalli that had been buried just a few feet below the chapel.
El @INAHmx confirma la existencia de un templo prehispánico en la cima del cerro San Miguel, en Atlixco, #Puebla
🔸 Especialistas hallaron vestigios de muros y pisos correspondientes, al menos, a dos etapas constructivas de un teocalli.
🔗 https://t.co/f2QR8RLxs7 pic.twitter.com/gFe5G3i8Us— Secretaría de Cultura (@cultura_mx) October 3, 2023
The findings have allowed "archaeologists to affirm that a teocalli did exist on the summit of the hill, San Miguel, and that it had at least two construction stages," according to an INAH statement, via Vice.
The researchers believe that the the temple was built and rebuilt over the course of the Late Preclassic to Early Postclassic Mesoamerican period from about 100 BCE to 1000 CE, when the region was inhabited by the Mesoamerican Nahua culture that thrived for centuries. Though, it's presently unclear which Mesoamerican deities were honored at the teocalli.
The current theory is that deities such as Quetzalcóatl, the creator and civilizer of humanity; Tláloc, giver of rain; or Macuilxóchitl, a patron of play, dance, and festivities may have been worshipped by ancient people at the temple.
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"Other segments of the teocalli and greater clues to clarify its titular deity may still lie under the viceregal chapel of San Miguel Arcángel," the researchers concluded in the statement. "Even with this aura of mystery, the archaeological confirmation of that ancient popular belief of more than 400 years will help strengthen the identity of the Atlixquenses."
The discovery of the temple came on the heels of INAH researchers discovering the existence of a Mayan city deep in the jungle of the Balamkú ecological reserve in the Yucatán Peninsula earlier in the summer, some 650 miles away.
