Huamango is an early Postclassical (Toltec period) archaeological site located about 4 kilometers northwest of the modern city of Acambay in the State of Mexico. The archaeological area is on the San Miguel plateau, in the vicinity of the Peña Picuda hill, at an approximate altitude of 2,850 meters above sea level. It is rich in legends, stories and ancestral traditions.
The site has vestiges of a city inhabited by the Otomi culture, which dominated the Acambay Valley, strategically located by the apparent defensive needs in the dispute over control of territory and trade routes.
Huamango was most likely a major political capital in the area immediately north of the Toluca Valley during Early Postclassical times, perhaps subsidiary in some way to the Toltec polity centered at Tula to the northeast.
The site is maintained by the Instituto Mexiquense de Cultura, a branch of the State of Mexico. It is easy to reach by car, about an hour's drive north of Toluca, and a few km north-west of Acambay.
Prehistory In prehistoric State of Mexico, the Tepexpan man is an important finding for Mexican and foreign anthropologists; it is an important key to understand what the Valley of Mexico area was like 5,000 years ago. It also helped to establish the occupation chronology of the region. Some scholars attribute an age of 11 thousand years, others 8 thousand, and some have suggested 5 thousand years old. This individual, originally identified as a male, recent research confirm a female identity, although this is still subject of discussion.
Sacrum bone found in Tequixquiac is considered a work of prehistoric art. The town was inhabited in 35,000 BCE by people who had crossed the Bering Strait from Asia. These people were nomadic, hunting large animals such as mammoths and gathering fruits, as evidenced by archaeological evidence found at the site. One of the most salient discoveries of primitive art in America was found in here, called the Tequixquiac Bone, which had no known purpose, but reflected the ideological sense of the artist who carved the piece of bone from a camelid around 22,000 years BCE. The first native settlers of Tequixquiac were the Aztecs and Otomi, who decided to settle there permanently for the abundance of rivers and springs. They were engaged mainly in agriculture and the breeding of domestic animals.
The earliest evidence of human habitation in current territory of the state is a quartz scraper and obsidian blade found in the Tlapacoya area, which was an island in the former Lake Chalco. They are dated to the Pleistocene era which dates human habitation back to 20,000 years. These first peoples were hunter-gatherers. Stone age implements have been found all over the territory from mammoth bones, to stone tools to human remains. Most have been found in the areas of Los Reyes Acozac, Tizayuca, Tepexpan, San Francisco Mazapa, El Risco and Tequixquiac. Between 20,000 and 5,000 B.C.E., the people here eventually went from hunting and gathering to sedimentary villages with farming and domesticated animals. The main crop was corn, and stone tools for the grinding of this grain become common. Later crops include beans, chili peppers and squash grown near established villages. Evidence of ceramics appears around 2,500 B.C.E. with the earliest artifacts of these appearing in Tlapacoya, Atoto, Malinalco, Acatzingo and Tlatilco.
History Toward the fifth millennium BCE, Oto-Manguean languages speaking peoples formed a large unit. Language diversification and geographical expansion, which has been proposed as their "Urheimat",Urheimat is a German compound of Ur- "primitive, original" and Heimat "home, homeland"; , is a linguistic term denoting the original homeland of the speakers of a proto-language. that is, the Tehuacán valley (current state of Puebla)Campbell, 1997. should have occurred after the domestication of the Mesoamerican agricultural trinity, composed by corn, beans and chile pepper. This is based on the large amount of cognates in the repertoire of words alluding to agriculture in the Oto-manguean languages. After the development of an incipient agriculture, the proto-manguean language gave rise to two distinct languages that constitute the current eastern and western groups of the Oto-manguean family background. Continuing with the linguistic evidence, it seems likely that Pames - members of the western branch - reached the Basin of Mexico around of the fourth millennium of the Christian era and that, in what some authors argue, have not migrated northward but south.Wright Carr, 1996.
The earliest major civilization of the state is Teotihuacan, with the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon being built between 100 B.C.E and 100 C.E. Between 800 and 900 C.E., the Matlatzincas established their dominion with Teotenango as capital. This city is walled with plazas, terraces, temples, altars, living quarters and a Mesoamerican ball game court. In the 15th century, the Aztecs conquered the Toluca and Chalco valleys to the west and east of the Valley of Mexico respectively. Part of the Toluca Valley was held by the Purépecha as well. Other dominions during the pre-Hispanic period include that of the Chichimecas in Tenayuca and of the Acolhuas in Huexotla, Texcotzingo and Los Melones. Other important groups were the Mazahuas in the Atlacomulco area. Their center was at , next to Jocotitlán mountain. The Otomis were centered in Jilotepec.
Historiographical texts on Mesoamerican prehispanic peoples have paid little attention to the Otomí history. Many centuries ago, in the territory occupied the Otomi flourished large cities like Cuicuilco, Teotihuacán and Tula. Even in the Aztec Triple Alliance which dominated the Aztec Empire, Tlacopan inherited the Azcapotzalco domains with a majority of Otomi people. However, the Otomi culture is hardly ever mentioned as protagonists of Mesoamerican prehispanic history, perhaps because the ethnic complexity of the Mexico plateau at that time does not permit distinguishing the contributions of the Otomi ancient from those produced by their neighbors.Wright Carr, 2005: 28. Only until recent years there seems to develop an interest on the role they played by the Otomi in the development of the Mexican plateau cultures, from the Mesoamerican preclassical period thru 1521 CE.
Huamango flourished and had its apogee between 900 and 1300 CE. Based on research investigations, it is established that the site occupants formed a hegemonic religious group. It has not yet been established the Huamango constructors cultural affiliation, although ethnic-historical sources information allow the assumption that these are groups of Otomi origins, ancestors of the current Otomi living in the place.
Etymology Huamango, means "place where Wood is carved" in the Nahuatl language.
This ancient settlement stands majestically in a geological formation known as the San Miguel Huamango Camaye Plateau, formed by AndesiteAndesite is an extrusive igneous, volcanic rock, of intermediate composition, with aphanitic to porphyritic texture. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between basalt and dacite. The mineral assemblage is typically dominated by plagioclase plus pyroxene and/or hornblende. Magnetite, zircon, apatite, ilmenite, biotite, and garnet are common accessory minerals.Blatt, Harvey and Robert J. Tracy, 1996, Petrology, Freeman, . Alkali feldspar may be present in minor amounts. The quartz-feldspar abundances in andesite and other volcanic rocks are illustrated in QAPF diagrams. Relative alkali and silica contents are illustrated in TAS diagrams. extrusive igneous rocks.
About the name Acambay, it is based on ancient documents that mention that this region was called, in Otomi language, Cambay o Cabaye, which may be translated as "God’s Rock" (okha= "God", mbaye= "Rock").
A different theory claims the name is from the Purépecha language, from the word Akamba that means maguey or agave and the "rhi" desinence that means; Akambari or "Place of Magueyes".
Investigations Huamango was discovered by architect Edgar Serrano Pérez.
The site was excavated by and William Folan in the 1970s. It consists of a small ceremonial zone with some temples, located on a ridge overlooking the Valle de los Espejos. Although the dating of Huamango is not as certain as one would like, various lines of evidence point to an Early Postclassic (Toltec period) date for the site (A.D. 900 - 1100).
Archaeological investigations have placed various different hierarchy prehispanic settlements, among these Huamango was chosen because it represents the best example of the Otomi culture monumental architecture, in the region.
Following Piña Chan research, tentatively, two occupation periods have been established: one from 900 to 1100 CE, with similarities to the archaeological area of Tula (incense smokers, braziers and ceramic pots, as burial offerings); and another around 1200-1300 CE, which presents evidence that correlates with sites such as Teotenango and Calixtlahuaca.
Burials excavated at the site yielded ceramic offering vessels in a distinctive polychrome style. The lack of Coyotlatelco ceramics is a good sign that the site does not date to the epiclassical period (700-900 CE), and the presence of some types similar to Tollan-phase Tula supports the early postclassical dating.
Otomi Culture
The Otomi people (in Spanish spelling Otomí ) is a native ethnic group inhabiting the central altiplano of Mexico. The two most populous groups are the Highland or Sierra Otomí living in the mountains of La Huasteca and the Mezquital Otomí, living in the Mezquital Valley in the eastern part of the state of Hidalgo, and in the state of Querétaro. Sierra Otomí usually self identify as Ñuhu or Ñuhmu depending on the dialect they speak, whereas Mezquital Otomi self identify as Hñähñu (pronounced ).See Wright Carr (2005). Smaller Otomi populations exist in the states of Puebla, Mexico, Tlaxcala, Michoacán and Guanajuato.Lastra (2006) The Otomi language belonging to the Oto-Pamean branch of the Oto-Manguean language family is spoken in many different varieties some of which are not mutually intelligible.
One of the early complex cultures of Mesoamerica, the Otomi were likely the original inhabitants of the central Mexican highlands before the arrival of Nahuatl speakers around ca. 1000 AD, but were gradually replaced and marginalized by Nahua peoples. In the colonial period Otomi speakers helped the Spanish conquistadors as mercenaries and allies, which allowed them to extend into territories that had previously been inhabited by semi-nomadic Chichimecs, for example Querétaro and Guanajuato.
Hence the names used by the otomíes to refer to themselves are numerous: ñätho (Toluca Valley), hñähñu (Mezquital Valley), ñäñho (Santiago de Mezquititlán, south of Querétaro) and ñ'yühü (Northern Puebla Sierra), Pahuatlán) are some of the names used by the Otomi to call themselves in their own languages, although it is common when talking in Spanish they use the Nahuatl ethnonym "Otomi".Lately some speakers of Mezquital Valley have begun to consider the word "Otomi" as derogatory. This does not occur in other variants and therefore it is used. It is also a term used widespread in the spanish speaking world in all areas. In this regard, echoing David C. Wright (2005: 19) words: "while the word 'Otomi' has been used in texts that belittle these ancient inhabitants of central Mexico, it is considered convenient to use the same word in the works in an attempt to regain their history; instead of discarding it, I propose it should be vindicated".
Otomí Demonym origin