Intriguing El Tajin – Pre-Hispanic Ceremonial Site Dedicated To Totonac Rain God

A. Sutherland - AncientPages.com - After Teotihuacan Empire eventually went into decline around 600- 700 CE, the Pre-Hispanic City of El Tajin (“place of the invisible beings or spirits”) became the most important center in northeast Mesoamerica. A long time ago, it was dedicated to the Totonac rain god, a deity who was very similar to Tlaloc, the old god of the Aztecs associated with rain.

El Tajín, a Totonac ruin in the municipality of Papantla, Veracruz, Mexico. IMage credit: Jacob Rus (2004) - CC BY-SA 2.0

Located in the state of Veracruz, among jungle-covered hills in a region occupied by the Totonac Indians, the city flourished from the early 9th to the early 13th century.

El Tajín is considered one of the best-preserved ancient sites in southern Mexico.

The name of this ancient city is very interesting. To the locals, the site was known as El Tajín, which was said to mean “of thunder or lightning bolt”. People believed that twelve old thunderstorm deities, known as Tajín, still dwell in the ruins. However, several indigenous maps dated to the Spanish conquest, suggest that the city might have been called ‘Mictlan’ (‘place of the dead’).

On the other hand, according to surviving Aztec records found in the Codex Mendoza, the Totonac people claimed that El Tajín also means - “place of the invisible beings or spirits”.

Sculptures in one of the ball courts at El Tajín. Image credit: Simon Burchell - CC BY-SA 3.0

El Tajín had only one period of occupation, lasting from 800 to 1200 AD and was inhabited by about 15,000 - 20,000 people. After 1200 AD, it was abandoned and partly destroyed, when the region came under the rule of the powerful Aztec empire. The structures of El Tajin constitute proof of the advanced engineering skills of Mesoamerican builders.

Several buildings of the city reveal the astronomical and symbolic significance; they are also richly ornamented with paintings, low reliefs, cornices, and niches decorated with the spiral motif.

The reliefs and paintings discovered at the site shed light on the daily life of these ancient people and their rituals as well.

Among the most impressive structures, there is the Pyramid of the Niches, named for the approximately 365 recesses on its four sides and recorded in 1785. The pyramid has the name 'El Tajin' (exactly the same as the city), which means place of “of thunder or lightning bolt” but it even refers to the god of rain.

It is one of the columns of the Tajín in Veracruz. Image credit: Ivanpares - CC BY-SA 3.0

Among the most impressive structures, there is the Pyramid of the Niches, named for the approximately 365 recesses on its four sides and recorded in 1785The architecture includes the use of decorative niches and cement in forms unknown in the rest of Mesoamerica.

It took time before the first research works began in El Tajin in 1935. Mexican archaeologist Augustin Garcia Vega was the first to discover that the large city’s Pyramid of the Niches was definitely not the only structure, but there were several other large buildings scattered across the area, such as the palaces of Tajín Chico and the city's twenty ball courts, of which the Arroyo Group (the North and South Ball courts) are the best known.

On their vertical playing surfaces of the ball courts, there are carved reliefs, providing researchers with valuable knowledge about the religious connotations of the sacred game widely practiced by the ancient Maya.

El Tajin Archaeological Site - Veracruz - Mexico. Image credit: Adam Jones - CC BY-SA 2.0

A further exceptional element is the building in the form of a Xicalcoliuhqui motif that appears on temples and other buildings also in archaeological places around Mexico, but it definitely is unique in Mesoamerica.

The Tajín Chico complex - constructed on an artificial mound 7 m high - is a large acropolis with many palaces and other civil structures but only a few temples. It once belonged to the center of El Tajin city. Especially interesting is Building A, which is the most richly decorated of all structures in El Tajin.

El Tajin Archaeological Site - Veracruz - Mexico. Image credit: Adam Jones - CC BY-SA 2.0

However, the Tajín Chico complex has not been fully excavated, but so far, one of the buildings in the area is particularly interesting, and it is Building A, which represents smaller ball courts at each of its four corners, and has a Mayan style arch at the southern access.

It is also the most richly decorated building in El Tajín, with vertical bands of relief and beautiful friezes. In Tajín, the plazas are rectangular while in Tajín Chico they are mostly trapezoidal.

El Tajín flourished until the early years of the 13th century.  Then it was destroyed by fire, probably started by an invading force believed to be the Chichimecs (the Nahua peoples of Mexico often referred to as nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples who lived in the present-day Bajio region of Mexico.

El Tajín was left to the jungle, covered with vegetation for more than 500 years, until the 19th century, when archaeological excavations revealed the lost history of El Tajin and showed that a village existed here at the time the Spanish arrived, and the area has always been considered sacred to the Totonacs.

Written by – A. Sutherland  - AncientPages.com Senior Staff Writer

Updated on Nov 3, 2024

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