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Concept
Cuicuilco
Summary
Cuicuilco is an important archaeological site located on the southern shore of Lake Texcoco in the southeastern Valley of Mexico, in what is today the borough of Tlalpan in Mexico City. Some historians believe this settlement goes back to 1400 BC. Other historians believe the pyramid could be the oldest building in the Americas circa 6,500 BC.
Cuicuilco flourished during the Mesoamerican Middle and Late Formative (c. 700 BCE – 150 CE) periods.
Today, it is a significant archaeological site that was occupied during the Early Formative until its destruction in the Late Formative. Based on its date of occupation, Cuicuilco may be the oldest city in the Valley of Mexico and was roughly contemporary with, and possibly interacting with, the Olmec of the Gulf Coast of lowland Veracruz and Tabasco (also known as the Olmec heartland).
Based on known facts, it was the first important civic-religious center of the Mexican Highlands, its population probably including all the social strata and cultural traits that would characterize the altépetl (city-state) of classical Mesoamerica.
Cuicuilco also represents one of the early sites in Meso America to show state formation. There is evidence of a four tier settlement hierarchy as well as having made investments in architectural projects. It became a rival of the Teotihucan which was also located in the Valley of Mexico (about 60km to the northeast). Their interactions were mostly hostile and was personified by both cities taking defensive positions against each other throughout the Valley of Mexico.
It was destroyed and abandoned following the eruption of the volcano Xitle, causing migrations and changes to the population and culminating in the consolidation of Teotihuacan as the ruler of the Central Highlands during the Early Classic period.
At the site are eight of the many housing and religious buildings that once existed and the remains of a hydraulic system that supplied water to the city.
Official source
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