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Teopantecuanitlán
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By 1983, most of the pieces of the Mesoamerican calendrical puzzle had
come together in such a coherent manner that I was encouraged to summarize
my research in an article titled "The Origins of Civilization in
Meso-America: A Geographic Perspective". (See the complete bibliography
in my book.) In the same year, a Mexican archaeologist, Dra. Guadalupe
Martínez Donjuán, began excavating a site in a remote area of western
Mexico which in subsequent years was to send a ripple of unease throughout
the anthropological community as more and more surprising information came
to light. (The site is situated in the Valley of the Balsas river, seen in
the background of the above photograph.)

First, we learned that the site -- named "Teopantecuanitlán" by Dra.
Martínez, or "the place of the temple of the jaguar-god" -- was "Olmec" in
origin, a special surprise inasmuch as no known "Olmec" site had been
found in that region before; geographically, it certainly did not fit the
"established pattern" of "Olmec" settlement, most of which was
concentrated in the vast alluvial lowlands bordering the Gulf of Mexico.
As radio-carbon dates for the site became available, we also learned that
its nucleus was fully as old as La Venta, one of the principal "Olmec"
ceremonial centers on the Gulf coastal plain, in that it had been
constructed about 1000 B.C.

Naturally, whenever such a discovery is made, all previous research has to
be reevaluated in light of the new data which is being uncovered. So, my
first reaction to Martínez' discovery was to ask, "What does this do to
my calendrical diffusion hypothesis?" Certainly, in view of the site's
"off-side" geographic location and its early date of origin, it could
conceivably throw a major "monkey wrench" into my arguments. (Indeed, just
such a scenario took place with respect to the numeral glyphs used by the
early Mesoamericans; researchers who had just published a "definitive"
work on the origins of writing in Mesoamerica, ascribing them to the
Zapotecs of Monte Albán about 600 B.C., now found that dots and bars were
in use among the "Olmecs" of Teopantecuanitlán at least four centuries
earlier!)

For a time, it was difficult to get precise information on just where the
site was located, so I could not evaluate it in terms of a possible
solsticial orientation. As more accurate data came to hand, I ventured
to start examining detailed maps of the region surrounding the site with
an eye toward such a possibility. Then, when I discovered in 1996 that
there seemed to be a strong likelihood that the site was indeed
solsticially oriented, I knew that I would be obliged to visit it in
person to confirm or deny my hunch.

However, an attempt to reach the site in early January, 1997 was stymied
by an "impossible" road and I had to content myself with studying more
about the place in a newly published volume (Los olmecas en Mesoamérica)
available only in Mexico. There I found a site-plan of Teopantecuanitlán
which proved almost exciting as visiting the ceremonial center itself:
Dra. Martínez' carefully executed map revealed that the entire site was
oriented to the setting sun on August 13th! -- proof positive that the
sacred almanac had not only diffused from Izapa, the only place where such
a date has true astronomical significance, but also that the sacred
calendar was already in use in the remote interior of western Mexico as
early as the first millenium B.C.-- a fact which further strengthened the
support for my computer study which placed its origin in the mid-14th
century B.C.! Thus, on the very eve of my book's publication, a couple of
the most supportive clues that I could have ever hoped for, unexpectedly
fell into place.

In February, 1998 I was privileged to visit Teopantecuanitlán in the
company of Dra. Martínez and make my own observations at the site.
Although a GPS (Global Positioning System) measurement of its latitude and
longitude, namely 17º 54' 06.7" N. and 99º 06' 38.6" W., confirmed the
site's alignment to Teotepec (the highest mountain in the Sierra Madre del
Sur) at the winter solstice sunset, a hill immediately back of the
ceremonial center precludes the observation of this phenomenon from the
site itself. Likewise, a ridge lying to the west of the ceremonial center
cuts off any view of the distant horizon, making the direct observation of
the setting sun on August 13 also impossible, so unless some sort of
'relay station' existed on the adjacent hilltop, neither of these key
dates could have been calibrated by naked eye astronomy from
Teopantecuanitlán. Yet, unless one is willing to write off the site's
solsticial orientation as a pure 'coincidence' --especially in view of
the fact that this has been shown to have been a prime concern for Olmec
planners -- then it seems quite likely that such a 'relay station' still
remains to be found.

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