A story passed down for generations says Amecameca once stood on another site, and was abandoned after an eruption of the Popocatepetl volcano. Residents suspect the ruins, believed to date from A.D. 700 to 1,100 and are on the outskirts of the present-day settlement, could help clarify that matter.
"This represents a possibility for the people to recover that part of Amecameca's history," said activist Rebeca Lopez Reyes, of the local preservationist group Guardians of the Volcanos.
The ruins detected so far in Amecameca are not particularly spectacular. Only about 120 square yards of the estimated 5-acre site have been excavated, revealing stone and clay footings for houses that may have supported upper walls of wood or clay wattle. But the very ordinariness may mean the site is significant.
"What makes this important is that it is a residential area, not a ceremonial or religious site," said Felipe Echenique, a historian who leads the academic workers' union for the National Institute of Anthropology and History, or INAH, which is in charge of reviewing the site.
'Feathered Serpent'
"In Mexico, we really have very little evidence of how the cities really were, or how people lived," said Echenique, who was not involved in the dig but is familiar with preliminary findings.
The housing compounds were apparently built by one of the still-unnamed cultures living in the Valley of Mexico long before the Aztecs appeared in the area in 1325 and founded Tenochtitlan, the precursor to Mexico City.
Lopez Reyes said researchers called in by the INAH to investigate the site of the proposed roadway have found ceramic pots, bones, and a stone serpent's head, suggesting that the god Quetzacoatl, "the Feathered Serpent," may have been worshipped there centuries before the Aztecs paid him homage.
The few excavations of residential areas carried out so far in Mexico have yielded fascinating details.
