Ocotelolco (sometimes spelled Ocotelulco), in pre-Columbian

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

, was one of the four independent

altepetl The (, plural ''altepeme'' or ''altepemeh'') was the local, ethnically-based political entity, usually translated into English as "city-state," of pre-Columbian Nahuatl-speaking societiesSmith 1997 p. 37 in the Americas. The ''altepetl'' was ...

(polities) that constituted the confederation of

Tlaxcallan Tlaxcala ( 'place of maize tortillas') was a pre-Columbian city and state in central Mexico. During the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, Tlaxcala allied with the Spanish Empire against the Aztecs, supplying a large contingent for and someti ...

. The site is in the present day state of

Tlaxcala Tlaxcala (; , ; from nah, Tlaxcallān ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tlaxcala ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tlaxcala), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 60 municipaliti ...

in central

History

Ocotelolco was the second of the four altepetl to be founded. At the time of the

Spanish conquest of Mexico The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, also known as the Conquest of Mexico or the Spanish-Aztec War (1519–21), was one of the primary events in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. There are multiple 16th-century narratives of the eve ...

it was, along with

Tizatlan Tizatlan, in pre-Columbian Mexico, was one of the four independent altepemeh (polities, sing. altepetl) that constituted the confederation of Tlaxcallan. Today Tizatlan is a part of the modern city of Tlaxcala, and the Pre-Columbian city is vis ...

, the most powerful of the four allied communities. Where Ocotelolco held the economical power, having the main market in the region, Tizatlan had the military power and commanded the Tlaxcallan armies. When the Spanish arrived in Mexico Ocotelolco was ruled by

Maxixcatzin MaxixcatlThe Nahuatl name is often used in the honorific form as Maxixcatzin. was the tlatoani (ruler) of the Nahua altepetl (city-state) of Ocotelolco at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. Ocotelolco was one of the four towns ...

. Through a series of political events Ocotelolco finally achieved dominance over Tizatlan at the end of the conquest.

Excavations

Excavations at the site in 1990-1991 carried out by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología (INAH) exposed a room with a painted altar and bench (47 cm high extending 8 meters along the room's north wall). The painted frieze closely resembles the Codex Borgia in style. The bench features a series of alternating skulls, human hearts, hands, and shields while eight anthropomorphic serpents descend on three sides of the altar, surrounding a central image of a deity (identified as Tezcatlipoca) surrounded by a frame of flint knives, similar in its composition to the image on plate 32 of the Codex Borgia.Elizabeth Boone. 2007.''Cycles of Time and Meaning in the Mexican Books of Fate.'' Austin: University of Texas Press. 222, fig. 132.

References

*Hassig, Ross (2001
"Xicotencatl: rethinking an indigenous Mexican hero"
Estudios de Cultura Nahuatl, UNAM (Estudios de Cultura Nahuatl). *Muñoz Camargo, Diego (1892 (1585)

published and annotated by Alfredo Chavero, Mexico. *Fargher, Lane F. (2007
In the Shadow of Popocatepetl: Archaeological Survey and Mapping at Tlaxcala, México.
FAMSI.

References

Altepetl Archaeological sites in Tlaxcala Mesoamerican sites {{mesoamerica-stub