Cantona

The ancient city was created by the Olmec or Chichimec culture, but the only reliable conclusion made so far is that there is still much to be explored, since only 1% of the total area of ​​this archaeological zone has been explored.

The other 99 percent of the site is still under grass, trees, soil, and rocks.

Cantona is derived from the Nahuatl word Caltonal which means “House of the Sun”.

The controversy about the origin of this place begins with the name, because officially it is known as Cantona, but to the native people of San Pedro Tepeyahualco, its real name is Caltona.

The history of Cantona is divided into several distinct phases of development spanning about 2,000 years, from about 1000 BCE until the city was finally abandoned around 1050 CE.

Pre-Cantona (1000/900 BCE – 600 BCE)

The first settlers began to populate this area, which would later form a huge city. The first settlers came from the Poblano-Tlaxcalteca Valley and the Tehuacan Valley, and later from the Gulf of Mexico and the east. At that time, Cantona consisted of a few scattered settlements without fortifications or a definite plan.

Between 900 and 750 CE, two settlements occupied the central and southern areas of what would later become Cantona, while one or two smaller villages were located to the north or northeast.

Little is known about the architecture of this phase, although the city had not yet developed the complex fortifications, walls, or streets that would characterize later stages of development.

Cantona began to exploit and trade obsidian quarried in the nearby Zaragoza-Oyameles Mountains in northeastern Puebla. Obsidian was a valuable resource used for weapons, tools, and artifacts for ritual sacrifices.

The Zaragoza-Oyameles obsidian source eventually transformed Cantona into one of the largest and most prosperous cities in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica.

In the late pre-Cantonese period, between 750 and 600 CE, the city began to develop integrated housing, some streets within, and routes to connect with other settlements.

Cantona I (600 BCE – 50 CE)

Fueled by local obsidian mining, Cantona entered a phase of rapid urban development, and the city reached a size of approximately 822 acres. The city began to develop defensive systems and more complex internal transportation circulation, as well as constructing platforms of volcanic rock to support thatched houses.

Silos were built to store grain, these silos were strategically located to ensure control by the urban elite. In addition to family workshops, areas were designated for specialized, state-controlled workshops.

Ceremonial centers began to develop as rectangular plazas topped with pyramids.

By the end of this phase, the city had built sixteen ball courts, six of which were combined with ceremonial plazas, altars, and pyramids. This phase also shows evidence of large-scale commercial trade with southern and southeastern Mexico.

Cantona II (50 CE – 600 CE)

This period saw a surge in building activity associated with increased social complexity.

This is considered the first major cultural peak in Cantona’s history. Cantona now covered 2,718 acres and by 150 – 200 CE contained twenty ball courts, half of which were combined with ceremonial centers.

By 400 CE, the city’s population was 64,000.

Cantona III (600 CE – 900/950 CE)

This was a period of significant changes in government leadership, as the priestly class was supplanted by military rule. Although religious rituals did not disappear, the city stopped producing ceramic images of the gods and stone sculptures.

Cantona IV (900/950 AD – 1000/1050 AD)

This last period is primarily characterized by the rapid decline of the city’s population. Cantona’s population dropped to no more than 3,000 – 5,000 people before it disappeared completely.

Henri de Saussure claimed to have discovered Cantona in 1855 after a lengthy and prolonged search.

Nicolás León, based on a Saussure publication, visited the zone in the early 1900s and explored the site, he left a full and comprehensive description of structures and surface objects at that time.

In 1938, Paul Gendrop mentions that Cantona occupies an area of almost 20 km long by 12 km wide. As far as the site’s architectonic elements distribution, he noted that it is formed by numerous rectangular rooms 20 to 30 meters long by 12 to 20 meters wide, delimited by thick stone walls, fairly straight and well preserved.

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 BCE), coinciding with data available then.

In 1980 archaeologist Diana Lopez de Molina, based on aerial photographs, sketched the settlement and dug some stratigraphic wells that allowed her to propose a tentative timeline for the occupation of the area.

Previous studies allow the assumption that this prehispanic city was occupied from the late preclassical horizon (200 BC) to the early classic (0 to 200 AD), which makes it one of the oldest cities in the country.

Cantona would be chronologically situated between 600 and 1000 CE. Its splendor coincides with the fall of the main cities of the classical horizon and with the arrival of warrior people who soon seized and dominated the region.

The site covers about 12-14 sq km for study purposes was divided into three large units, and the southern part, which is the best preserved; is the Acropolis (area where the main structures are located, believed to be the shelter of political, economic and religious powers), representing therefore a good example of the settlement.

The site is made up of many patios of approximately 50 x 40 meters, or even larger; in some of them obsidian and stone workshops (stone tools) were found, hence a clear division and specialization of its inhabitants’ work is deduced.

According to García Cook, rural people settled in low lands, leaving people with social rank in the intermediate areas and, finally, at the top were temples, ball games, and the houses of chiefs and leaders.

Evidence indicates that the patios were residential places for Cantona family groups; such is the amount, that in sector V, 620 patios were detected and 997 mounds, including housing units, altars, and pyramids.

Its architecture is absent of stucco as a decoration element, although the mud was possibly used to join volcanic rock in addition to the technique of placing stone on stone, as was done to shape walls, alleys, platforms, and other archaeological structures.

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.

In the highest areas are located ceremonial nature structures such as ballgame courts (over 24) 12 of them have a special distribution which has been termed Cantona type, because it has integrated architectural complexes 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.

The construction system and size included in its three units, has been considered the most urbanized city known so far in the central Mexican Plateau. Its size is surprising, its roads and stone walls, its patios and ballgame courts, but more surprising of all is to learn that, all visited in the site (3 km), and the structures available comprise only 10% of the total of this prehispanic city.

It is assumed that water in this area was scarce, but did not limit the construction of towering pyramids, housing spaces, and narrow streets to maintain order in the different social standards that existed at that time, only two people could walk on the streets at the time because of narrow streets, in addition to street side walls for better control.

The Earth Fertility Plaza is one of the most popular visits, because of the phallic sculptures, the two votive axes, and all other material found, and is considered one of the most important findings.

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.