Mexico’s archaeology institute identifies possible solar observatory

Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) has announced the identification of a 2,500-year-old solar observatory at Teteles de Ávila Castillo, in Puebla’s Sierra Norte. The Art Newspaper described the discovery on October 26. The structure’s layout supports a possible astronomical interpretation, but an independent archaeologist disputes whether that makes it an observatory.

Teteles was discovered in 1939, and the current research project began in 2015. The site contains 16 pre-Hispanic pyramidal structures from several phases of occupation.

Analysis

What supports the solar interpretation?

Project director Alberto Diez Barroso Repizo says the structure resembles Maya E-Group complexes: groups of buildings associated with observations of the Sun. He points to examples at Uaxactún and says the Teteles structure’s alignments could relate to the Mesoamerican agricultural calendar.

Diez describes it as the first of its kind identified in northern Puebla, while acknowledging that the Olmec complex at La Venta may be older. That is a claim about northern Puebla, not the earliest such structure across Mesoamerica.

Ivan Šprajc, an archaeologist who studies astronomy in ancient cultures and was not involved in the project, cautions against the observatory label. Astronomical alignments appeared in many kinds of Mesoamerican buildings whose primary uses were ceremonial or residential. An alignment alone therefore does not establish a building’s main purpose.

Šprajc also says earlier studies documented similar, older complexes along the southern Gulf and Pacific coasts, some dating to before 1000 BC. Solar alignments linked to the ceremonial agricultural cycle were common, although the calendar year’s starting point changed over time.

Diez says offerings suggest wider connections

Other finds include ceramic offerings, infant remains inside a ceramic vessel and numerous objects made from obsidian, a volcanic glass. Diez says green obsidian beads in offerings containing infant remains suggest connections with Teotihuacan, which controlled the Hidalgo quarry where the material originated.

Diez says the variety of obsidian objects could indicate that Teteles’s inhabitants made and sold utensils. The settlement lay on an active trade route that enabled cultural exchange.

Plans for public access

Private ownership limits excavation at Teteles. The nine-hectare site suffered looting and damage during decades in private hands. Its owner donated 3.5 hectares to INAH in 2007, but the remaining land is still privately owned.

Diez says plans are underway to open the site and a museum to the public. An opening date has not been set.