Cantona (archaeological site)
Cantona sat astride an old trading route between the Gulf Coast and the Central Highlands and was a prominent, if isolated, Mesoamerican city between 600 and 1000 CE.
The site comprises a road network with over 500 cobblestone causeways, more than 3,000 individual patios, residences, 24 ball courts and an elaborate acropolis with multiple ceremonial buildings and temples.
[5] Its inhabitants were mainly agricultural farmers and traders, particularly for obsidian, obtained from Oyameles-Zaragoza mountains surrounding the city.
[6] Eduardo Noguera, in 1958, after a tentative study of ceramics and constructive systems, noted that Cantona occupies only half the size of what was previously calculated by Paul Gendrop and locates it, chronologically in the preclassical horizon (200 to 100 BC), coinciding with data available then.
[6] In 1980 archaeologist Diana Lopez de Molina, based on aerial photographs, made a sketch of the settlement and dug some stratigraphic wells that allowed her to propose a tentative timeline to the occupation of the area.
The Acropolis (area where the main structures are located, believed to be the shelter of political, economic and religious powers), is a good example of the settlement.
There are two large prehispanic roads; these avenues are framed by high and thick volcanic stone walls, (some of them more than a kilometer long) that together with the streets and roads allowed access to the patios and ceremonial areas, constituting an important access control to the city and internal urban areas; this great fortress also had a moat that protected the city on its limits with the Valley, from possible invasions from this sector.
[6] In the highest areas are located ceremonial nature structures as ballgame courts (over 24) 12 of them have a special distribution which has been termed Cantona type, because it has integrated architectural complexes in which generally are a pyramid, one or two plazas, an altar, and several peripheral structures; there is uneven symmetry on its walls, there are discrepancies in orientation or measures.
Recent studies indicate that Cantona was besieged by foreign groups, which together with strong climate change, ended up affecting the city, leading to its abandonment.
Cantona began declining as of 950 and 1000 and by 1100 was completely abandoned, without any current definition as to the reason why settlers migrated, although it was a prosperous and superbly constructed site.
Between 900 and 750 A.C., two villas occupied the center and southern portion of the area where the city would later develop, and one or two villages existed to the North or Northeast.
Cantona began exploiting and trading in obsidian obtained from the nearby Zaragoza-Oyameles Mountains of northeastern Puebla.
The Zaragoza-Oyameles obsidian source would ultimately turn Cantona into one of the largest and most prosperous cities in prehispanic Mesoamerica.
In the late pre-Cantona period, between 750 - 600 A.C., the city began to develop joined housing, some streets in its interior, as well as paths to connect with other settlements.
Fueled by mining local obsidian, Cantona entered a phase of rapid urban development with the city reaching a size of approximately 822 acres.
The city began developing defensive systems and more complex internal traffic circulation, and raised platforms constructed of pieces of volcanic rock supporting thatched houses.
While religious rituals did not disappear, the city ceased producing ceramic effigies of gods and stone sculpture.
[7] The discrepancy about the origins of this place starts with the name, because while officially known as Cantona, for San Pedro Tepeyahualco native inhabitants the real name is Caltona.
