Surrounded by tall buildings and a modern urbanization on Paseo de la Reformaexperts from National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) found the remains of a pre-Hispanic house which dates from historical period Late Postclassic (1200-1519 AD) They were found by experts from the National Institute of Anthropology and History.
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The house belongs to a community located on an islet at the foot of Cerro de Chapultepec, an ancient Indian town of San Miguel, which was part of the pre-Hispanic settlement, “ancestor of the indigenous partiality that subsisted in the viceroyalty,” a statement details.
In the text, the archaeologist María de Lourdes López Camacho reports that the ruins of the house inhabited during the 15th century They constitute the first recognized material evidence of the village that took advantage of one of the few non-flood areas of Lake Mexico.
According to the notes, the discovery of the house was made at the Ministry of Health, during the project work since the end of 2023. The INAH Archaeological Salvage Directorate maintains a presence on the premises of the building, located on Lieja Street, where he has carried out systematic excavations.
Coordinated by María de Lourdes López Camacho the archaeologists; Mara Becerra Amezcua, Eleonora Rivera Carretero and Ximena Castro Rivera, discovered almost two meters deep a prehispanic burial corresponding to an adult individual.
“Upon detecting an alignment of stones, they carried out an extensive excavation with which they determined, corresponds to a domestic unit from which the access, a hallway and three rooms have been delimited, the length of which ranges from 1.8 to 2.5 meters,” the statement reports.
According to their studies, the walls of the rooms have a maximum height of 1.3 meters and show two construction moments: in the first, rough stones were used, and in the second, faceted stones to gain height.
López Camacho, director of the archaeological project “Bosque, Cerro y Castillo de Chapultepec”, highlights that in the front part of the house, they found remains of two wooden piles that were used to moor canoes, “indications that this home was located “on the side of a canal, a hypothesis that is reaffirmed by the presence of bentonite in a lake sediment.”
The researcher has previously published studies that reveal that the current Chapultepec Avenue was a canal through which trajineras circulated in pre-Hispanic times, which must have had an artificial structure to allow communication during periods of drought.
“Due to the types of ceramic sherds found in the place, with orange slips and fine lines in their decoration or completely monochrome, this settlement had its peak in the Late Postclassicduring Mexica rule, although it is not ruled out that its foundation dates from the Tepanec lordship of the region,” the INAH statement adds.
The archaeological salvage on this property has had other points of interest, such as Building D, where when excavating the area for the elevator shaft a wall and a semi-complete pot of pre-Hispanic temporality were found.
Vestiges of a forgotten town
As part of her investigations, the archaeologist María de Lourdes López Camacho has searched rescue the memory of a forgotten town which is often confused with the homonymous San Miguel Chapultepec colony founded during the Porfiriato. These studies have allowed him to locate the ancient Indian town that, in the second Mexican empire, saw part of its lands occupied for the layout of the Paseo de la Emperatriz.
The construction of the offices of the Ministry of Health, the construction of the Interior Circuit, the Chapultepec station and its whereabouts, as part of the first Metro line in the 60s, “would end up burying the memory of the Indian town of San Miguel Chapultepec. Until today remains of a pre-Hispanic housethey give you back your Historical importance”, concludes the researcher.