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Tzintzuntzan, yacatas

Tzintzuntzan was the ceremonial center of the pre-Columbian Tarascan state capital of the same name. The name comes from the Purépecha word Ts’intsuntsani, which means "place of hummingbirds". After being in Pátzcuaro for the first years of the Purépecha Empire, power was consolidated in Tzintzuntzan in the mid 15th century. The empire continued to grow and hold off attacks by the neighboring Aztec Empire, until the Spanish arrived. Not wanting to suffer the destruction that the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan did, the emperor in this city surrendered to the Spanish. Eventually, much of the site and especially its distinct five rounded pyramids called yácatas were destroyed and the city almost completely abandoned. Due to lack of interest in the old Purépecha dominion, excavation of this site did not begin until the 1930s. Its largest construction are the five yácata pyramids, which line up looking out over Lake Pátzcuaro. The other is the large Grand Platform excavated into the hillside on which the yácatas and other buildings rest.

The Tzintzuntzan archaeological site is situated on a large artificial platform excavated into Yahuarato hill overlooking Lake Pátzcuaro from the northeast shore. The Grand Platform is a large flat surface of 450m by 250m excavated into the side of the hill on which the yácata pyramids and other structures rest. The ceremonial center contains a large plaza and several buildings known to house priests and nobility but the main attraction is the five yácatas or semi-circular pyramids that face out over the lake area. This ceremonial center was called Taríaran or “House of the Wind.” The archaeological site was also a defensive fortification as well as a religious center.

In this ceremonial center, the king, or "cazonci," functioned as the representative of the main god Curicaueri. His principal duties were to conquer in the god’s name and to ensure that the perpetual fires of the main temples were supplied with wood. Here a great number of human sacrifices were made, usually of prisoners of war. These sacrificed prisoners were believed to be messengers to the gods and were venerated as such. When a decision to go to war was made, huge bonfires were lit here, which would then be duplicated by priests at the eight other administrative centers of the empire. All 91 settlements in the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin could see these fires, and would know to prepare for war.

At the front of the platform, facing out towards Lake Pátzcuaro, are five yácata pyramids in a row roughly from north to south. Unlike Aztec or Mayan pyramids, these structures are rounded, not square. The five structures are roughly keyhole shaped, linked together at the back by stepped pyramidal platforms. The core of each of these structures is piled-up rubble which was then faced with stone slabs decorated with spirals, circles and other geometric designs and petroglyphs. These fitted stone slabs are similar to the masonry used by the Incas in South America. Another distinction of this and other Purépecha architecture is that no indication of stucco has ever been found.

On each of the yácatas was a temple made of wood, in which the most important rites of the Purépecha people and government took place, including burials, of which about sixty have been found. The burials that have been excavated contain rich grave goods and are probably of kings and high priests. Three of the yácatas remain unreconstructed.

The yácatas were built over older, more traditional pyramidal structures from the first stage of the site’s occupation. Between Yácatas 3 and 4, openings into the Grand Platform have been dug to reveal some of these structures, which include three sets of stairs and part of a circular wall. Behind the five yácatas is an enormous plaza with some smaller structures. On the platform, only the religious and political elite, their servants and their guards lived. Rituals such as those to the different gods, the sun and moon and events such as the equinoxes took place here.