Teopantecuanitlan

Teopantecuanitlan is an archaeological site in the Mexican state of Guerrero that represents an unexpectedly early development of complex society for the region.

The site dates to the Early to Middle Formative Periods, with the archaeological evidence indicating that some kind of connection existed between Teopantecuanitlan and the Olmec heartland of the Gulf Coast.

Teopantecuanitlan was a center for a region that included Oxtotitlán, Juxtlahuaca, Xochipala, Zumpango del Río, and Chilpancingo.

[2] The site's settlement largely consisted of residential compounds characterized by four structures arranged around a shared courtyard or plaza.

Imported shell and obsidian artifacts, as well as Olmec-influenced ceramic wares, have been found in association with and inside the residential groups.

These artifacts provide material evidence that the Teopantecuanitlan community was a part of an interregional trade network that linked the Gulf Coast with the highlands of Central Mexico.

[5] In addition to the residential areas, Teopantecuanitlan is notable for its monumental architecture, art, and agricultural terraces, in particular one of the first civil-ceremonial structures in all of Mesoamerica, El Recinto ("the enclosure"), also known as the Sunken Patio, constructed during Phase II (between 1000 and 800 BCE).

The Sunken Patio is so-named because it is 2 meters (7 ft) below the natural ground level, built on a base of yellow clay, dressed with travertine blocks.

In fact, it is these 3- to 5-ton monuments that are referred to in archaeologist Guadalupe Martinez Donjuán's name for the site, Teopantecuanitlan, Nahuatl for "place of the temple of the jaguar".

[6] According to Martinez Donjuán, these sculptures are situated so as to mark the equinoxes or solstices, and they "symbolized the opposing forces that ruled the world".

[12] Noted archaeologist Michael D. Coe has said that this "position is contradicted by the environmental constraints" imposed by the semi-arid Guerrero highlands.