San Miguel Ixtapan (archaeological site)
| Otomi Culture – Archaeological Site | ||
| Name: | San Miguel Ixtapan Archaeological Site | |
| Type | Mesoamerican archaeology | |
| Location | San Miguel Ixtapan, Tejupilco (municipality), State of Mexico Mexico
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| Region | Mesoamerica | |
| Coordinates | 18°48′27″N 100°09′19″W / 18.80750°N 100.15528°WCoordinates: 18°48′27″N 100°09′19″W / 18.80750°N 100.15528°W | |
| Culture | Otomí – Toltec – Aztec | |
| Language | Otomí – Nahuatl | |
| Chronology | 500 to 1500 CE | |
| Period | Mesoamerican Classical, Postclassical | |
| Apogee | 750 to 900 CE | |
| INAH Web Page | San Miguel Ixtapan Archaeological Site (Spanish) | |
San Miguel Ixtapan is an archaeological site located in the municipality of Tejupilco (Nahuatl "Texopilco" or "Texopilli"), in the State of Mexico.
Tejupilco is about 100 kilometers west from the city of Toluca, Mexico State, on federal highway 134. The site is some 15 kilometers south of the municipal head, on state highway 8 that leads to Amatepec.
This site is one of the few explored in the southwest region of the State of Mexico, that has provided some archaeological information on an area that virtually was not explored.
Its apogee was in the aftermath of the Teotihuacan decline. Located in an area which probably served as a liaison between the Central Highlands and regions of Michoacán and Guerrero, San Miguel Ixtapan had its greatest growth between 750 and 900 CE. Then the site reaches a substantial expansion and built most of the structures of the ceremonial area now visible, they represent only a portion of what was the site in its splendor. San Miguel Ixtapan was located in a privileged place with deposits of basalt prisms used for construction, fertile land and one of the larger flow springs in the State.
The earliest evidence of human habitation in the state is a quartz scraper and obsidian blade found in the Tlapacoya area, which was an island in the former Lake Chalco. They are dated to the era which dates human habitation back to 20,000 years. These first peoples were hunter-gatherers. Stone Age implements have been found all over the territory from mammoth bones, to stone tools to human remains. Most have been found in the areas of Los Reyes Acozac, Tizayuca, Tepexpan, San Francisco Mazapa, El Risco and Tequixquiac. Between 20,000 and 5000 BCE, the people here eventually went from hunting and gathering to sedimentary villages with farming and domesticated animals. The main crop was corn, and stone tools for the grinding of this grain become common. Later crops include beans, chili peppers and squash grown near established villages. Evidence of ceramics appears around 2500 BCE with the earliest artifacts of these appearing in Tlapacoya, Atoto, Malinalco, Acatzingo and Tlatilco.
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