he Aztec god of the waters, ubiquitous deity of the Mexican pantheon, like the gods of Greece, had his home on a mountain top. To this day it bears his own name: Tlaloc.

Mount Tlaloc rises 13,434 feet [4,125 meters] above sea level, 47 miles east of Mexico City. It spreads over the eastern part of the political subdivision known as the State of Mexico in the Municipality of Chicoloapan, District of Texcoco, near the borders of the states of Puebla and Tlaxcala. A group of half-ruined buildings crowns the peak. It is probably the highest archaeological site in the Mexican Republic.

On modern Mexican maps the mountain may be located under the name Monte Tlaloc or Cerro Tlaloc. However, in the earlier Indian and Spanish chronicles of the Colonial period it is generally referred to as the Poyauhtecatl. Occasionally it is called the Sierra of Tetzcoco. Often it is simply referred to as Tlalocan (Place of Tlaloc). One sixteenth century writer refers to it as the Monte de Tlaloc. The inhabitants of the nearby town of Río Frío, Mexico, call it El Cerro Clalo and the ruins at its summit are sometimes called Las Calles.

Location of Monte Tlaloc.

In the Aztec religion it was believed that the god Tlaloc lived upon, or within, this mountain where great stores of clouds, mist, rain and snow were kept.

On examining the earliest Colonial sources, the present writers discovered lengthy descriptions of this deity and of the ritual connected with his cult, but found a surprising lack of interest on the part of the Indian and Spanish chroniclers in regard to the origin of the half ruined shrine at the peak of the mountain. Only one writer, don Juan Bautista Pomar (author of the Relación de Tetzcoco for the great census of Philip II in 1582), makes references to the builders of the site. He states flatly that the idol of the God of Waters found at the summit is the oldest stone idol in New Spain and that it is suspected that the Toltec people were the sculptors of this mounument. Pomar adds that the Culhuas (i.e. the Aztecs) found the idol on the top of the mountain when they first arrived in the Valley and that they came to adore it as the God of the Waters. The image was fashioned from a light, white stone, like pumice, though somewhat harder and heavier. It was carved in the shape of a human body and sat upon a sqare slab of rock, facing east. On its head stood a vase of stone filled with ulli.¹ Maize, beans,and chile were occasionally deposited in this container.²

The above-mentioned Relación de Tetzcoco is the only historical account which connects Mount Tlaloc with the Toltecs. Other Colonial sources describe the great shrine of Tlaloc as a temple much venerated and visited in later times, but they fail to mention the period of its construction and the attendant culture.

After this single reference to the Toltec civilizations, a wealth of material is available regarding the mountain of Tlaloc in later times, particularly during the period of the Chichimec invasions (ca. 1100 - 1300 A.D.).

Torquemada writes of the great chieftain of the barbarians, Xolotl, and his hordes of Chichimec nomads who during the thirteenth century visited the zone of Poyauhtla (the western slope of Tlaloc) and hunted there.³

Ixtlilxochitl adds that Xolotl himself climbed to the very summit of Mount Tlaloc and surveyed the valleys of Mexico and Puebla from this site.⁴

Muñoz Camargo, the historian of Tlaxcala, also describes the ascent of a Chichimec group who, led by certain Tezcocan guides, climbed to the top of Tlaloc, to the "highest peak of the high mounains and mountain ranges, Tlalocan, lofty and shady... whose beauty cannot be expressed in words."⁵

The anonymous author of the Anales de Cuauhtitlán tells of an incident in the life of Nezahualcoyotl (1402 - 1472), poet-king of Tezcoco. It is said that, as a child, while playing a game he fell into the waters and almost drowned, but los diablos, the pagan gods dived in, picked him out and carried him to the top of Tlaloc. Here they made him do penance, rubbed him with "divine water" and promised him success in his future enterprises.⁶

All of the preceding authors speak of the area as if it had been uninhabited. None of them mentions the mountain temple or the indigenous group responsible for its construction.

It is in the Colonial descriptions of the period immediately preceding the Spanish Conquest -- in fact, the very period of Moctezuma II (1502-1520) -- that we read of the great shrine and the complicated ritual that was performed in connection with the idol of the God of the Waters. Most of this information is to be found in the work of the Dominican Fray Diego Durán, a writer during the second half of the sixteenth century, whose informants were eye witnesses of the ceremonies which took place before the Spanish Conquest.

Durán states that on the peak of Tlaloc, in pre-Christian times, there existed a great courtyard, surrounded by a neatly plastered wall about seven feet high, the whole being visible for many leagues around. On one side of the courtyard stood a medium size building, having a wooden roof crowned with an ornate railing. Inside of the room, on a small platform, sat the idol Tlaloc. Around him stood many smaller images, representing the various hills which surround the mountain.

The yearly feast in honor of this god was celebrated on April 29 (in the Aztec month of Huey Tozoztli), when the cornfields were beginning to sprout. It was attended by a great number of priests, rulers and lords from both the Valley of Mexico and that of Puebla, for whom provisional shelters of branches and straw were built on the slopes below the courtyard.

At dawn on the day of the feast, according to Durán, the priests and nobles emerged from their shelters and prepared the victim of the day's sacrifice -- a six or seven-year old child. The child was carefully concealed in an enclosed litter in order to keep him from prying eyes.

At the sound of the shell horns and flutes, the procession, with the litter in its midst, began its ascent to the peak where the sacred shrine stood. On reaching the courtyard, the priests entered the room and slew the child to the din of the musical instruments -- an unseen and unheard victim. His blood was then collected in a bowl and his body tossed into a deep hole in the nearby rocks.

Once the death of the child was announced, Moctezuma II, accompanied by his court, entered the shrine and proceeded to crown the image with a headdress of fine feathers. He then adorned the image with a costly featherwork mantle, an elaborate loincloth, and numerous jewels of gold and precious stones. Nezahualpilli of Tetzcoco and the rulers of Tlacopan (Tacuba) and Xochimilco followed Moctezuma, also leaving precious gifts.

The four rulers then brought in the food offerings: a variety of stews of turkey and wild game, baskets of tortillas and other breads, and gourds of foaming chocolate. Often the plates were so numerous that many had to be placed outside the shrine.

The priests then reentered the room and sprinkled the idol, offerings, food and flour with the victim's blood.

The ceremonies concluded, the multitude immediately left the temple and descended to their respective shelters where food had been prepared for them -- there existed a strong taboo against eating in the proximity of the sacred shrine. Having eaten, they hurriedly descended to the Valley of Mexico where another great ceremony took place on that same day in honor of the Goddess of the Waters, Chalchiuhtlique.

As there existed constant fear that enemies from Tlaxcala or Huexotzinco would strip the idol, a company of one hundred soldiers remained on the mountain peak to guard the offerings until the food had rotted away. Once the edible offerings had perished, the durable objects -- pottery and jewels -- were buried nearby and the sacred room was sealed until the following year.⁷

Pomar states that Nezahualpilli (who ruled Tetzcoco from 1472 to 1516) ordered that another image of Tlaloc be carved of darker and heavier stone to substitute for the older one. The new image was placed in the mountain temple, but it was almost immediately destroyed by lightening. The people considered that the destruction had been a sign of the divine will, then returned the old idol to its original place. It had three nails (sic) stuck into it.⁸

The idol seems to have remained there for a number of years after the Spanish Conquest. It was not until after the year 1530 that an expedition of Spaniards, under the orders of Bishop Zumárraga, visited the temple and shattered the image. The written sources give no information as to whether the Indians continued to adore the Rain God in his mountain sanctuary during Colonial times.

According to the late Robert H. Barlow, the natives of the Tetzcoco region still remember comparatively recent times in which babies were sacrificed to Tlaloc on the peak of the mountain. Old men tell of the inhabitants of the villages who carried unbaptized children to the top of Tlaloc and sacrificed them to insure good crops. The informants stressed the fact that children who had already been baptized were not accptable as vicims.⁹

We were also told by Sra. Sara Díaz de Sotres, a native of Purificación (near Tezcoco) that her mother had often told her that the last child-sacrifice on Tlaloc had taken place eight years before Sra. Sotres' birth, that is to say, in 1887. The mother remembered the whispering in the Village, the secret preparations and the departure of the group which conducted the unbaptized infant to the mountain heights. We were unable, though, to obtain any other details in regard to this prehispanic survival.¹⁰

At Coatlinchán, México, the authors heard reports of a curious site caled Teolinca, "the place of the moving stone." According to the natives of Coatlinchán, there exists, high up near the summit, a large stone (about the size of an automobile) set upon two smaller stones. Simply by pushing the monolith with one hand, it is rocked back and forth. They add that many jugetes of clay are to be found around the monument. Although many villagers had heard reports of the stones, we were able to encounter only one old man who had actually seen them in his youth, although many woodcutters of the village visit this site frequently.

Sahagún, in his description of the flight of Quetzalcoatl and of certain Toltec groups, speaks of a monument very similar to the Teolinca of Coatlinchán. The Franciscan chronicler describes various monuments left by Quezalcoatl around the Sierra Nevada (Iztaccihuatl), Popocatepetl, and Poyauhtecatl (Tlaloc):

And elsewhere he set up a huge rock. It is said that one might move it with his little finger; easily it swayed; from side to side it would teeter. And it is said that when many men pushed , then it would not move, even though many would try hard. (If) they sought to move it, they could not budge it.¹¹

It is quite probable that Sahagún's "moving stone" is no other than that described by the woodcutters of Coatlinchán. The writers were unable to visit this site; it is pointed out as a site which future investigators may find to be connected wit the ruins of Mount Tlaloc. Sahagún's reference to the Toltec migration through this area does not make the idea improbable.

Desirous of making a preliminary examination of the site and curious to see what remained of the ancient temple, the authors climbed to the top of the mountain from Río Frío and remaind there for two days. Also in the party were Oriol Pi-Sunyer of the Escuela Nacional de Antropología and John Hobgood of Mexico City College. Another exploration was undertaken between 27 and 31 December, 1953. We are indebted to Robin Mills and Morgan Smith of Florida State University for their wholehearted cooperation on this second expedition.

Ceremonial Enclosure.

As one climbs toward the peak of Mount Tlaloc, breathing becomes more difficult and the height is emphasized when the timber line is passed and replaced by outcroppings of light-colored lava interspersed with clumps of high grass. Then the very peak of the mountain comes into view and upon it can be seen Tlaloc´s house, made of the same light-colored lava -- a superb example of orgainic architecture. To describe it, Frank Lloyd Wright's words must be borowed: "... of  the hill, belonging to it, so hill and house could live together each the happier for the other."

One enters the complex as ceremonial processions once did: from the west by means of a long wall-lined passageway. Here the rocks which originally made up the upper parts of the wall have fallen, covering the lower parts. In several places, however, the lower part of the wall is visible and here construction methods may be noted. The stones forming these walls, as well as those of the rest of the complex, are only roughly hewn. Care was taken, though, to face the walls with flat-surfaced stones. The source of the stone is a nearby quarry east of the ruins.

On entering the passageway formed by the walls described above, one walks over rock outcroppings which form four natural terraces. All that is visible here are the two walls on either side, the rising incline in front and the sky above. A feeling of suspese must have been experienced by all who walked the passage for the first time, not knowing what awaited them at its end. We at least felt that way.

Aerial Photograph of Ceremonial Enclosure and Passageway.

Just before arriving at the end of the passageway we encountered a circular arrangement of stones which almost blocked the way, as it left only a narrow space open on each side.

Essentially the temple consisted of a double-walled enclosure containing the foundations of several structures. In some cases the stones are so tumbled that only the vaugest idea of the original ground plan can be determined. In three of the corners are concentrated large masses of fallen stones. These seem to indicate, by the depression in the center of each, that they formed the walls of corner structures.

Interior corner of Enclosure.

Among these foundations is a rectangular pit which has been cut out of the living rock and which measures one meter by two meters and thirty centimeters. Its actual depth could not be determined, as it has been partially filled with stones. One of the blocks at its mouth appears to have been used to cover part of the opening. As to the purpose of this pit, we can only guess. Water supply would have been a prolem, especially in the dry season. It was this fact that prevented us from making camp at this site. The closest stream was two hours away, though dry stream beds were seen closer by. Thus the cut could have been a means of supplying the temple with water. There is also the possibility that this was the chasm into which the bodies of the victims were thrown.

On the diagram is marked the locaion of part of a fractured Tlaloc idol. It bears no resemblance to the ancient image of Tlaloc described in the chronicles nor to the idol set up by Nezahualpilli. Stylistically it seems to be Aztec.

Upper part of Tlaloc Head.

One of the most common misfortunes that befall the archaeologist working in the area of the Mexican plateau is to find that the materials originally employed in building the structure he is excavaing have been reused in erecting more modern buildings nearby. Because of its isolated position, the site of Mount Tlaloc has not suffered such a fate. Indeed it is difficult to imagine that a single stone has been carried away during the last four hundred years. This thought, together with the absence of thick vegetation and of silt, compensated us for the lack of oxygen and the bitter cold on the mountain top. The scarcity of destructive growth was accounted for by the fact that the ruins are located above the timber line; the lack of silt is due to the location of the site at the highest peak of the mountain. However, it is obvious that the exposure of the buildings did not contribute to their preservation. The sixteenth century sources describe the structures on Mount Tlaloc as being covered with stucco but we found no traces of it. It could be that the sources were mistaken and that none was originally used. It is also possible that the constant washing by the rain and constant exposure to the wind have denuded the rocks of the coating of stucco that once covered them. This would account for the condition of the walls which have tumbled down, not to one side as if they had been pushed, but to both sides as if the binding material that once held them together had crumbled. Nor were signs of a stucco floor noted when a pit was made within the enclosure.

This pit was excavated for the purpose of collecting a ceramic sampling. It was dug a meter square and arbitrarily divided into levels of three inches each. Sherds wee found to a depth of fifteeen inches. No indication of interruption in occupation was noted in the form of a sterile layer sandwiched between those containing ceramic fragments. The sterile soil below the fifteen inch mark was black and contained small lumps of yellow clay. A few inches beneath the last sherds we encountered the lava rock of which Tlaloc is composed.

Before attempting to estimate the length of occupation of the complex by the process of this accumulation, the ceremonial nature of the site must be kept in mind. A few sherds could account for many years of service, since, according to the sources, the sanctuary was never inhabited, but only visited occasionally for ritual purposes.

In general, the sherds were badly weathered. Judging from their shapes, many were from incense burners. Signs of Archaic or Teotihuacán types were completely absent. The most significant feature of the sherds collected is the large proportion of black-on-red forms. Noguera found such sherds "very abundant" in the interior of the pyramid at Tenayuca, a structure attributed to the Chichimec invaders.¹² This type is not a good indicator of chronology, however, since it probably begins with the Toltecs and extends over a long period.

Tlaloc effigy handle and neck of Toltec vessel.

Fragments of pottey belonging to the Tula-Mazapan complex were also noted. Among them were parts of a dish with the characteristic parallel undulating red lines on a yellowish base. Part of a Tlaloc effigy vessel was also uncoveed. It is similar, even in the detail of the twisted handle, to one found by Acosta at Tula.

Sherds of the Aztec complex were also noted, but they lacked the characteristic thin-line decorations, possibly as a result of weathering.

Two Toltec "Gingerbread" figurines and Mazapan head.

Aztec sherds were found in the lowest stratification and Mazapan sherds were found even in the superficial one. This confused picture, which prevented us from drawing concrete conclusions, is due, we believe, to the scarcity of soil which, when deposited over the years, forms a natural packing between the sherds and thus prevents them from being mixed with those of later inhabitants. The fact that the whole mass of sherds is so superficial and was not immediately covered with soil when it was laid down would have made for such mixing during the occupation of the site.

Two "gingerbread" figures were uncovered as well as two animal heads and a Mazapan figurine head. Prof. Pedro Armillas was vey helpful in the analysis of this material.

In addition to the ceramics, a number of minute bits of turquoise cut in quadrilaterals were discovered. It is probable that they once formed part of a mosaic.

From he archaeological and historical evidence we assume that the Mount Tlaloc site was constructed no earlier than Toltec times and was used continuously as a ceremonial center until the Spanish Conquest or later.

FOOTNOTES

1 Ulli conventionly translates as rubber; however, the sap from the deciduous trees on the mountains between the valleys of Mexico and Puebla is also known as Ulli. It is likely that the usage meant by Pomar referred to the sap of these trees.

2 Juan Bautista Pomar, "Relaciónes de Tezcoco" en Nueva colección de documentos para la historia de México(México: Chávez Hayhoe, n.d.), pp. 14-16.

3 Juan de Torquemada, Los veinte i un libros rituales y Monarchía Indiana (México: Chávez Hayhoe, 1943) p. 258.

4 Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxóchitl, Obras históricas (México: Secretaría de Fomento, 1892), p. 85.

5 Diego Muñoz Camargo, Historia de Tlaxcala (México: Ateneo Nacional de Ciencias y Artes, 1948, p. 49.

6 "Anales de Cuauhtitlán," Códice Chimalpopoca (México: Universidad Nacional Autónima, 1945), p.40.

7 Diego Durán, Historia de las Indias de Nueva España e Islas de Tierra Firme. Vol. II. (México: José F. Ramírez, 1867-1880), pp. 135-146.

8 Pomar, op. cit., pp. 15-16.

9 Robert H. Barlow, personal communication, Mexico City, 1949.

10 Sara Díaz de Sotres, personal communication, Mexico City, 1954.

11 Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex, translated by Dibble and Anderson. Vol. II (Santa Fe: School of American Research, 1952), 35.

12 Eduardo Nougera, La cerámica de Tenayuca y las excavaciones estratigráficas (México: Talleres Gráficos del Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Historia y Etnografía, 1935) p. 150.

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