Pressing further into the middle of nowhere, we went looking for some of the northernmost ruins of ancient Mesoamerica. This took a lot longer than we thought driving on a windy, heavily potholed rural highway. Eventually, we came to the town for which the ruins are named, Chalchihuites (Chall-chee-weet-ayes). A plaque in the town square says that the settlement was founded by conquistadors and their Tlaxcalan allies in the 16th century. (I'm guessing the Tlaxcalans got naming rights on this one).
The town Chalchihuites had the laid back atmosphere we had hoped to find in Sombrerete. It was actually a very friendly and relaxing place to eat gorditas and stroll around, but at this point most of the day was already behind us and so we couldn't spend long.
So finally we made it to the ruins. They're not as visually striking as the famous sites, as this was the outer edge of civilization. They are mysterious and interesting in their own right, though. The city is thought to have been a satellite of Teotihuacan, the dominant power of the time. All ancient Mesoamericans were sky-mad, and the location of the Chalchihuites ruins is all about the positions of the sun. First, it is located along the tropic of cancer. Second, from this exact spot, on both solstices and equinoxes, the sun rises directly out of a sharp mountain peak in the distance. There are a number of walls constructed at strange angles (not photographed) to create shadows along exact angles upon these days.
I like imagining the high priests of the sun cult at the top of their pyramid in central Mexico consulting arcane codexes to determine the precise location of this new colony at the very edge of the known world. Today, not too many political decisions are based on solar astronomy, but in ancient Mesoamerica it was no joke. Those privy to the carefully guarded secret of writing recorded cycles of natural phenomena over centuries, and their claim to connection with divinity was based on their ability to predict rainfall, eclipses, when to plant, and when to harvest. Their understanding of natural events had far more basis in fact than the ideas of some of our current religious leaders.
The settlement would also have been a frontier outpost, perhaps to check the barbarous nomadic chichimecas and to exchange goods such as obsidian and exotic bird feathers from the south with turquoise from the north.
A kindly old caretaker showed us around the ruins. He wore a cowboy hat and spoke in a sad, soft voice reminiscent of Juan Rulfo. He probably didn't have much formal education, but he was very knowledgeable about the site and took obvious pride in his work.
The first photo shows a group of columns, which I think the caretaker said also had some kind of calendar function. I'm not certain though, as I didn't always understand him 100%. In the next photo, showing the ruined walls of a small room, there is a stone square set on the floor. This was an oven for burning human hearts (!) On the right is a line of seat-shaped blocks, which are a representation of Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent god. The third photo shows the pointed peak in the distance, from which the sun still rises on solstices and equinoxes.
My husbands family lived withing walking distance. His brother in law was the caretaker, and he was there for decades. He loved his job and was very knowledgeable. My husband was allowed as a young boy to help during an archaeological dig. I remember him pointing out the cyclinders were a calendar and there was also a place where sacrifices were given to their gods.
ReplyDelete