February18_2010

Botanical Glossary - Home - References Cited

Suchilquitongo is situated in District of Etla, Oaxaca, Mexico, its geographical coordinates are 17° 15' 0" North, 96° 53' 0" West and is part of a village to the east - its original name (with diacritics) is Santiago Suchilquitongo. Suchilquirongo is a pre-Columbian archaeological site in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca where the valleys of northern Etla, eastern Tlacolula, and southern Zimatlán/Ocotlán (or Valle Grande) branches meet.

Photos - Texture of the partially restored pyramid: Rock and mortar making a restoration that will endure many more years. Views of the same pyramid from different angles. I'm told that the eastern side of this pyramid was once part of a ball court (frame right) you can easily see how this looked before the restoration started. Sometimes I wonder how accurate the restoration actually is and how much is done out of artistic fabrication of the restorers.

On this site, there was a discovery of a tomb - a recent study analyzes the imagery and writing carved on a “genealogical register” found in an elaborate tomb recently discovered at the northern end of the Valley of Etla in Oaxaca. Known as Tomb 5, the elaborate mausoleum contains architecture, sculpture, and murals pertaining to Period IIIb in the Valley of Oaxaca sequence. The carved stone inserted into the tomb at a later date, during Period IV, clearly establishes lines of descent from a venerated ancestor. The carving depicts a dead lord and provides information including the year and day of his death, which are given in 52-year and 260-day cycles, as well as information about his immediate descendants, including a young son and a mature daughter. Associated texts tell not only the calendar names of these family members but also, in the case of the son and daughter, their family-lineage name and their birth-order names. The writing also gives the birth and death dates of the lord's offspring; information that indirectly reveals their ages at the time of their father's death. Image and text complement each other by giving distinct information about the family lineage of a venerated ancestor.

Photos - Frames left and center: The mound with a Period IIIb tomb installed. The steps in center frame are inside the entrance, leading to the tomb's interior which is sealed with a wood and steel frame to keep out tourists.

Frame right: Another pyramid mound looking down to the south from the peak of the pyramid shown in the top row photos. As you can see, if you didn't know it was an archeological site, it would be difficult for the untrained eye to figure out.

Photos - From pyramid peaks looking south to the Etla Valley toward Oaxaca City (frames left and right). The dirt road is the entrance path to the site from the dirt covered parking lot. It isn't exactly a tourist site yet, and you'd better bring water and a lunch because there are no facilities here at all. If any accident occurs, you are a few miles from the main village of Santiago Suchilquitongo. Large trees of Prickly Pear beside the trail (center frame) I had to learn the hard way when I first arrived in Mexico. I was walking along a trail in El Rio Valley when I lost my balance and reached out for something to help me catch balance. I wound up with a couple of deeply seated cactus thorns that took a week or so to heal.

Rule of thumb: never reach out to grab onto something before looking where you are putting your hand.

Click here for more photos of Suchilquitongo for this day.