- - EXCAVATIONSOF AZTECURBAN HOUSES AT YAUTEPEC, MEXICO Michael E. Smith, CynthiaHeath-Smith, and Lisa Montiel Our recent excavations at the site of Yautepecin the Mexican state of Morelos have uncovered a large set of residential struc- turesfrom an Aztec city. Weexcavated seven houses with associated middens, as well as several middens without architecture. In this paper, we briefly review the excavations, describe each house, and summarizethe nature of construction materials and methods employed. Wecompare the Yautepechouses with other knownAztec houses and make some preliminary inferences on the relationship between house size and wealth at the site. En nuestras excavaciones recientes en el sitio de Yautepecen el estado mexicano de Morelos, encontramosun grupo grande de casas habitacionales en una ciudad azteca. Excavamos siete casas con sus basureros,tanto como otros basurerossin arquitec- tura. En este artfeulo revisamos las excavaciones, decribimos cada casa y discutimos los patrones de materiales y me'todosde construccion. Hacemos comparaciones entre las casas de Yautepecy otras casas aztecas, y presentamosalgunas conclusiones preliminaressobre la relacion entre el tamanode las casas y la riqueza. Most Aztec urban sites today lie buried Yautepec under modern towns, and, of those that still exist as intact archaeological sites, Socialand Economic Context most have been heavily plowed, causing the Yautepecwas thecapital of a powerfulcity-state, and destruction or heavy disturbance of residential its king ruled over severalsubject city-states in the structures(Smith 1996). Intensive surface collec- YautepecRiver Valley of central Morelos (Smith tions can provide important information about 1994). This area,separated from the Valleyof Mex- social and economic patternsat these plowed sites ico to the northby theAjusco Mountains(Figure 1), (e.g., Brumfiel 1996; Charlton et al. 1991), but was conqueredby the Aztec Empire aroundA.D. they lack the contextualand chronologicalcontrol 1440. Yautepecand its subjectstates were included of excavations. Almost all prior knowledge of in theAztectributary province of Huaxtepec(Berdan Aztec houses has been derived from excavations andAnawalt1992:f24v-25r), althoughYautepec was at rural sites such as Cihuatecpanin the Basin of not subject to Huaxtepecin a political sense (see Mexico (Evans 1988) andCapilco and Cuexcomate Berdanet al. 1996 on patternsof territorialorgani- in Morelos (Smith 1992, 1993), although limited zationin theAztec provinces).TheYautepec area, at information about houses can be found in docu- an elevationof 1,200 m, has a semitropicalclimate, mentary sources (e.g., Calnek 1974) and other, with 1,000 mm of rainfallannually. Irrigation agri- smaller-scaleexcavations (see below). In 1993 we culturewas widespreadin Late PostclassicMorelos excavated seven Late Postclassic (Aztec-period) (Maldonado1990), and large portionsof alluvium houses at the urban site of Yautepec, Morelos. along the YautepecRiver were probablyirrigated. These structures,among the first excavatedAztec Intensiveagriculture was necessaryto feed the dense urbanhouses to be described,provide new insights populationsof the Yautepecarea and to supportthe into social andeconomic patterns at a majorprovin- elite class and the city-stateadministration. Smith's cial Aztec city. (1994) demographicreconstruction suggests an over- Michael E. Smith, Cynthia Heath-Smith, and Lisa Montiel * Department of Anthropology, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY 12222. LatinAmerican Antiquity, 10(2), 1999, pp. 133-150 Copyright(C) 1999 by the Society for AmericanArchaeology 133 This content downloaded from 129.252.86.83 on Mon, 10 Mar 2014 16:32:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions . * --. <* . J .. J\; . * .A .ss .... '::#*-:*.-1..... t* '- . .:. .. T .\ 134 LATINAMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 10, No. 2,1999] ¢> ValJey of Maxico Yautepecarea was characterizedby dense popula- tions,intensive agriculture, active trade, and expand- RS a X t' A t Moreios \ \ , * . , ing states,and these processes affected conditions in the city. | Tenochtitlan . * - *, :; N r { : The YautepecPalace vj* | XC___ I * ... Our fieldworkwas precededby excavationsat the AnciontLakeshore . * s _ \ * * * Yautepecroyal palace by Hortensiade VegaNova of isv__#--,/o-, S / '' ) theCentro INAH (kstituto Nacional deAntropologia e Historia)en Morelos.This studyfocused on a large .- . Cuauhnahuac ,* /;7 mound in a residentialdistrict of the moderntown jg Yautepec ptHuaX:tepec /- of Yautepec,just outsidethe downtown area. To date, * * . * 1 / Morelos stafe torder * * .- .;it [ YautepecValley ( about40 percentof the outerperimeter and about 25 . 0 Survey > : > J N percentof the uppersurface of the moundhave been .-- *. _9 r v cleared. The structure is a large, low platform, approximately65 by 95 m in extent and 4 to 6 m . * . * high. The cleared portionsof the top are covered * ;-.- ....v... v * * *. .. *.. t * .-..-, km with rooms and passages that exhibit high-quality construction methods and materials (Figure 2). Figure 1. The location of Yautepec in Aztec central Floorsare made of severallayers of lime plaster,and Mexico. walls arebuilt of stonecovered with lime plasterthat all zonal populationdensity of around140 persons hadbeen paintedwith elaboratepolychrome murals persq krnfor the area of Morelos.Markets were com- (only fragmentsof the muralssurvive). The top of mon in Late PostclassicMorelos7 and sourcesfrom the platformis reachedby a single stairwayon the nearbyTepoztlan note an activetrade involving cot- west side (deVega 1996;deVega andMayer 1991). ton from Yautepec(Smith 1994). k summary7the There are historicalreferences to this structure, Figure 2. Rooms in the Yautepec royal palace, looking north. This content downloaded from 129.252.86.83 on Mon, 10 Mar 2014 16:32:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions REPORTS 135 and interpretationsof its function are based on the othy S. Hareconducted a full-coveragesurvey of the results of the excavations.The structuredoes not entireYautepec Valley, resulting in the discoveryof resembleknown Aztec templesin the proportionsof severalhundred sites. We took severaltypes of sur- the platform,the layout and contents of the rooms face artifactcollections (including"grab-bag" sam- on top, or thenature of refuseand burials found along ples, 2 x 2 m collections, and severalhundred 5 x 5 the outer walls. The large size of the building and m collections), conducted stratigraphictest pits at high qualityof the architecturesupport the hypoth- severalsites, and carriedout an "off-sitesurvey" of esis thatit servedas apalace (Evans 1991 andSmith the valley (Cascio et al. 1995; Hare 1998; Montiel 1992:315-319 discussAztec palaces).The building 1998). dwarfsother known Aztec palacesin size; theYaute- The pec palace is largerthan the combinedareas of the 1993 Excavations five palaces illustrated in Smith and Berdan The 1993 season (Februarythrough August 1993) (1992:Figure1). The excavationof this structurehas was devotedto the excavationof houses and other not been completed,and many of the artifactsand domestic contexts in Yautepec.Archaeologists in featureshave yet to be studied,so a full functional Mesoamericaand elsewhere have found that resi- analysiscannot be conductedat this time. dential excavations provide rich information on ancient social conditions (e.g., Santley and Hirth The Albany Project 1993). Ourprevious excavations of houses andtheir Duringthe first season of the palace excavationsin associatedmiddens at theAztec sites of Cuexcomate 1989,we wereinvited to workinYautepec by deVega and Capilco in westernMorelos allowed for a fine- Nova and otherarchaeologists of the CentroINAH grained reconstructionof changing activities and Morelos.Our plan was to studythe Aztec urbancen- social conditions at these ruralsites (Smith 1992, ter as a whole and to locate and excavateresidential 1993;Smith and Heath-Smith 1994). One goal of the structuresapart from the palace. In additionto the Yautepec project was to generate a comparative benefits of having two projects at the same site, datasetfrom an urban site. We originally had planned Yautepecoffered several advantages.Unlike most to focus a major part of our efforts on the fields centralMexican towns, where the Aztec town cen- immediatelywest of the royalpalace, which are con- ter is buriedunder that of the moderntown, the cen- tained within the INAH Yautepec archaeological ter of colonial andmodern Yautepec lies to the north zone. The 1992 survey showed these fields to have of the centerof the Aztec city, leaving a majorpor- very dense surface artifactconcentrations, and the tion of the archaeologicalsite only partiallydamaged remainsof severalstone structurefoundations were (Smithet al. 1994). In 1989, we notedthe existence visible on the surface.Owing to a sudden,but well- of dense surface artifact deposits from the Aztec planned, invasion of the Yautepec archaeological period in large open fields in front of the palace. zone by squattersin fall 1992, we were unable to These surface artifactssuggested the presence of excavatein this area(Smith 1997). Nevertheless,we buried houses in what was probably the central, obtainedpermission to dig in a numberof open lots "downtown,"area of ancientYautepec. and fields scatteredthroughout the Late Postclassic site. The results The SurveyProjects of these excavationsare summa- rized below. In our first season at Yautepec(summer 1992) we conductedan intensivesurface survey in