Sacred Landscapes in the Postclassic Huasteca: Huastec Settlement Patterns and Sculptural Style by Kim N. Richter, PhD, Getty Research Institute and Gerardo Gutierrez, PhD, University of Colorado, Boulder
The sacred mountain called Postectitla and archaeological site near Chicontepec, Veracruz, Huasteca.
The Huasteca region, located along the northeastern Gulf coast of Mexico, was a strategic area for oceanic and riverine commerce in Pre-Hispanic times, making it a place of interchange and connection. However, far less is known about the Huasteca’s archaeological past than about other regions in Mesoamerica. Archaeology is underfunded in the region, though salvage projects are prominent in coastal regions where the development of extensive port systems and the oil industry endanger ancient sites.
The aim of the Huasteca Mapping Project aims to intervene in this precarious context of Huastec cultural heritage through advances in methods of documentation. The team employs an integrative and interdisciplinary approach to achieve a broader understanding of ancient Huastec landscapes, settlement patterns, and artistic traditions. Through remote surveys, material analysis of artworks, and ethnographic and ethnohistoric analysis they reconstruct some archaeological context where context has long been lost. In this presentation, Drs. Richter and Gutierrez present two case studies. The first focuses on an analysis of Huastec settlements along the Panuco river combined with non-invasive petrographic analysis of the Vecht sculpture collection, which was collected along the river in the 1830s and then came to the British Museum in 1842. The second case centers on Postectli (“broken mountain” in Nahuatl), one of the most important pilgrimage sites today, where Nahuas celebrate the agricultural ceremony called chicomexochitl to petition for rain. Our recent archaeological survey documents a pre-Hispanic site just below Postectli’s rocky cliff indicating the antiquity of this sacred site.
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