Archaeology Magazine - July/August 1998 - 39

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Amaranth
deitieswithhumanfaces,madefor
doughmodelsof mountain
theAztecfeastofTepeilhuitl,
aredepictedinthe CodexMatritense.
sonified the maguey plant, and a man who portrayed a serpent. These can be interpreted as symbols of fertility and
plenty, and suggest that the entire festival was performed to
celebrate the "mountains of sustenance" from which all
good things flowed. The second mountain feast, Atemoztli
("Waters Descend"), was dedicated to the water deities,
and above all to the rain god Tlaloc. Miniature mountains,
including an image of Popocatépetl, were again modeled
from amaranth dough. Also depicted were the gods who
controlled the natural forces associated with mountains fire, water, and wind.
Volcanic eruptions figure importantly in the ancient creation myths of central Mexico. The most significant of
these is the 1558 account of the suns in the Codex
Chimalpopoca which relates the story of the five mythical
epochs of creation and destruction. The first creation, or
sun, was destroyed by water and its people transformed
into fish; the second sun was inhabited by giants who were
eaten by jaguars when the heavens collapsed; the third sun,
ruled over by the rain god, was destroyed by a rain of fire.
The authors description includes an unmistakable reference to a volcanic eruption that must have been witnessed
at some time in antiquity:

catépetl during an eruptive stage: smoke and fire emerge
from the top and sides of the mountain. The flames that
spew forth from the crater take the form of a stylized butterfly - a symbol for both fire and the souls of dead warriors- that provides a metaphor illustrating the conceptual
relationship between volcanic eruptions and violent death
in Prehispanic Mexico.
Since 1993 we have directed salvage excavations on
lower flanks, discovering evidence of two
Popocatépes
of the most devastating eruptions experienced by the
ancient people of the central highlands. We also found
evidence of the inhabitants' attempts to propitiate the volcano in ways not unlike those recorded by the Spaniards
more than 1,500 years later. This fertile region, known as
Tetimpa, was first settled by farmers about 700 b.c. Their
wattle-and-daub houses, built on low stone platforms
placed around a central patio, were separated from each
other by the agricultural fields. This area appears to have
been at least partially abandoned around 100 b.c., perhaps due to increasing volcanic activity. Houses were left
to decay, and volcanic soil built up over the fields and collapsed walls and roofs.
A few generations later, the area was resettled, possibly
by descendants of the original inhabitants, since the new
houses were built directly over the remains of the old platforms and floors that sealed the graves of their ancestors.
At the center of each patio, families built small shrines to
the gods of the volcano. No two are the same, a fact that
perhaps reflects the variability and individual creativity of a
Patricia
Plunket
andGabriela
Uruñuela
Courtesy

The third Sun was established.
4-Rain was its sign; it was called the Sun of Rain.
In this sun it occurred that it rained fire
and the people were consumed byfire. . . .
It rained stones.
They now say that this was when the stones we now seefell
and the lava rock boiled up.
And also, it was when the great rocksformed into masses,
and became red.
Volcanic activity was also recorded in the painted books
of the Precolumbian period. The Codex Vindobonensis,
dating in part before 1350, presents a snowcapped PopoJuly/August

1 998

TheAztecraingodTlalocandhisconsort,Chalchiutlicue,
are depictedina
summitinthe CodexBorbonicus.
templeona mountain
39

Archaeology Magazine - July/August 1998

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - July/August 1998