Ritual space revealed on Guerrero’s small coast

Archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) have located and recorded for the first time the Piedra Letra ceremonial center in Guerrero, used for more than 800 years during the pre-Hispanic era. Four structures and at least 11 petroglyphs were found, alluding to spirals and circular beads used to keep time, as well as drops, a model of a ball game, a figure with a circular breastplate, a feathered headdress, and a representation of a jaguar.

In this regard, archaeologist Cuauhtémoc Reyes Álvarez explained to Excélsior that the site—which may have supported the worship of water and the sun—is located between the communities of Huehuetonoc and Guadalupe Mano de León, on the Costa Chica of Guerrero, and is believed to be a key site for deciphering the origins of the Amuzga nation.

To reach the site, you have to walk two and a half hours to the top of a hill where the site is located. Along the way, you can see some archaeological materials, mainly some small structures, which tell us that we are standing in an archaeological space. What’s interesting is that the petroglyphs contain very diverse designs,” he explains.

One element that can be noticed in Piedra Letra is the representation of a jaguar, explains Reyes Álvarez. “The first thing you come across is a very short stone depicting a jaguar in profile, an animal relevant for its representation itself, as it is the largest feline in the Americas and contains profound symbolic implications.

As well as for its cult and its presence, which lives on in Guerrero through dances and rituals, and is associated with the worship of water, fertility, telluric powers, and the underworld.” “So, from here we can see the importance of the site,” he warns.

Another petroglyph, he adds, is one that features a ball court, which is associated with a spiral, and is therefore associated with places where water is handled, such as fountains or water outlets.

Furthermore, this one is associated with the ball court, which has interesting symbolic implications, as it is not at ground level, but rather sunken, given that the ball court takes us to the underworld and is related to the movement of the stars.”

TEOTIHUACAN DECLINE

According to the initial investigations carried out last August, Reyes Álvarez comments, “we observed that most of the petroglyphs correspond to the Epiclassic period, that is, from 650 to 900 AD, a very important period in Mesoamerica, when Teotihuacan’s decline occurred.

Let’s remember that Teotihuacan was the great city that dominated much of Mesoamerica, including Guerrero, and for various reasons, it fell. Therefore, those people who were subject to Teotihuacan power no longer had to pay tribute or do all the work they had to do to help Teotihuacan maintain the great city,” he explains.

Freed from this burden of tribute, that pre-Hispanic people and others took advantage of its resources and flourished for the next 200 years, until their decline reached around 1500 AD.

Another notable petroglyph is a face with sunbursts, known as element six, which resembles a sun and, given its characteristics, must have been created during the Late Postclassic period, indicating that the site was occupied for a fairly long period, approximately from 650 to 1500 AD.

The archaeologist also suggests that the abandonment of this ritual space was likely due to the arrival of the Spanish, “since, through adopted instruments, such as religion, they forced the natives to stop worshipping their gods and adopt the Catholic Christian religion, although we still have no evidence of this.”

Finally, he points out that the site could cover more than two hectares, although the area of ​​petroglyphs is concentrated within a radius of almost 15 meters, so a second, more time-consuming and detailed tour of the surrounding area is still pending.

And he assures that the ceremonial center is in a good state of preservation, perhaps due to its inaccessibility, so in the future the INAH could consider installing signage and information about the site’s importance so that the space can be visited, since at the moment it is only visited by the region’s inhabitants.

Source: excelsior