Cantona (archaeological site) facts for kids
Cantona (which means "House of the Sun") is an amazing ancient city in Mexico. It's an archaeological site located high up in the mountains, between 2,450 and 2,600 meters above sea level. You can find it in the state of Puebla, near the border with Veracruz.
This ancient city was once a very important place. It was a walled and strong city with many buildings. We don't know who its first people were, but some think they were groups called Olmec-Xicalanca. Cantona was a busy trading hub between the Gulf Coast and the Central Highlands of Mexico. It was a powerful city from about 600 to 1000 CE. After 1050 CE, the city was left empty.
Cantona was at its strongest during a time when big cities like Teotihuacan were losing power. Smaller cities, like Cantona, wanted to control the trade routes. Cantona was one of these strong centers. It controlled valuable resources from the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains.
The ancient city covers about 12 square kilometers. It's divided into three main parts. The largest part is in the south. In Cantona, archaeologists have found 27 ballgame courts. This is more than any other ancient city in Mesoamerica! There are also many small pyramids. A mine for obsidian (a type of volcanic glass) is located nearby. The city also has a high area called the Acropolis. This was where the rulers and priests lived. Important temples were also built there.
Cantona had a huge network of roads, with over 500 cobblestone paths. It also had more than 3,000 individual patios and homes. The city was built with a clear plan. Walkways connected every part of the city. The "First Avenue" is 563 meters long! Cantona existed at the same time as the famous city of Teotihuacan.
The buildings were made from carved stones stacked on top of each other. They didn't use any cement or stucco. At its busiest, about 80,000 people lived in Cantona. Trading was a very important activity. The people were mostly farmers and traders. They traded obsidian from the nearby Oyameles-Zaragoza mountains. They might have also supplied a drink called pulque, made from the maguey plant, to other areas. Cantona was abandoned after invasions in the 11th century.
The many ballgame courts show how powerful Cantona was. These games were very important ceremonies.
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Discovering Cantona's Past
The first person to claim finding Cantona was Henri de Saussure in 1855. Later, Nicolás León visited the site in the early 1900s. He wrote a detailed description of the buildings and objects he saw. The name Cantona comes from the Nahuatl word "Caltonal," meaning "House of the Sun."
In 1938, Paul Gendrop said Cantona covered a huge area, about 20 kilometers long and 12 kilometers wide. He noted the many rectangular rooms with thick stone walls.
Later, in 1958, Eduardo Noguera studied the pottery and building styles. He thought Cantona was smaller than Gendrop believed. He also placed its age much earlier, around 200 to 100 BC.
In 1980, archaeologist Diana Lopez de Molina used aerial photos to map the city. She also dug test pits to understand its timeline. Her studies suggested the city was lived in from about 200 BC to 200 AD. This would make it one of Mexico's oldest cities.
However, more recent research places Cantona's main period between 600 and 1000 AD. This time matches the fall of other big cities. Some even think Cantona played a part in Teotihuacan's decline. It might have blocked trade routes from the coast to the highlands.
Life in the Ancient City
The Cantona site covers about 12 square kilometers. For study, it's split into three big parts. The southern part is the best preserved. The Acropolis is a key area. It has the main buildings and was likely where leaders lived.
The city has many patios, some as large as 50 by 40 meters. In some patios, workshops for obsidian and stone tools were found. This shows that people had special jobs. Experts believe that ordinary people lived in lower areas. People with higher social rank lived in the middle areas. Temples, ball courts, and leaders' homes were at the very top. In one part of the city, 620 patios and 997 mounds were found. These included homes, altars, and pyramids.
Cantona's buildings do not have stucco decorations. Volcanic rock was stacked stone on stone to build walls, alleys, and platforms. There are two large ancient roads. These avenues have tall, thick volcanic stone walls. Some walls are over a kilometer long! These walls, streets, and paths helped control who could enter the city and its different areas. The city was like a big fortress. It even had a moat to protect it from invaders from the valley.
In the highest parts of the city are ceremonial buildings. There are over 24 ballgame courts. Twelve of these have a special design called "Cantona type." These complexes often include a pyramid, one or two plazas, an altar, and other buildings. Recent studies suggest that Cantona faced attacks from outside groups. This, along with big climate changes, might have led to the city being abandoned.
Cantona is considered the most urbanized city known in central Mexico. Its size is amazing, with its roads, stone walls, patios, and ball courts. What's even more surprising is that only about 10% of this huge city has been explored!
It's thought that water was scarce in this area. But this didn't stop them from building tall pyramids and many homes. The streets were narrow, allowing only two people to walk side-by-side. This helped control movement in the city. Cantona started to decline around 950-1000 CE. By 1100 CE, it was completely empty. We don't know exactly why its people left, even though it was a very successful city.
Cantona Through Time
The history of Cantona is divided into several periods. It spans about 2,000 years, from around 1000 BCE until it was abandoned around 1050 CE.
Early Settlements (1000/900 BCE - 600 BCE)
The first people began to settle in this area. Pottery pieces from this time show that early settlers came from different valleys in Mexico. At first, Cantona was just a few small settlements. There were no strong walls or a clear city plan yet. Between 900 and 750 BCE, two villages existed where the city would later grow. Little is known about the buildings from this time.
During this early period, Cantona started to use and trade obsidian. This valuable resource came from the nearby Zaragoza-Oyameles Mountains. Obsidian was used for weapons, tools, and special objects for rituals. This trade made Cantona one of the largest and richest cities in ancient Mesoamerica.
Later in this period (750 - 600 BCE), the city began to grow. Homes were built closer together, and some streets appeared inside the settlement. Paths also connected Cantona to other places.
Growing City (600 BCE - 50 CE)
With the obsidian trade, Cantona grew very fast. The city reached about 822 acres in size. It started building defenses and better ways for people to move around inside. Homes were built on raised platforms made of volcanic rock. Silos were built to store grain, controlled by the city's leaders. Besides family workshops, there were special areas for state-controlled workshops.
Ceremonial centers began to form with rectangular plazas and pyramids. By the end of this period, Cantona had built sixteen ball courts. Six of these were connected to ceremonial plazas, altars, and pyramids. There is also proof of large-scale trade with southern and southeastern Mexico.
Major Peak (50 CE - 600 CE)
This period saw a lot of building activity. The city became more complex. This was the first major cultural peak for Cantona. The city now covered 2,718 acres. By 150-200 CE, it had twenty ball courts, with half of them linked to ceremonial centers. By 400 CE, Cantona had a population of 64,000 people.
Changing Leaders (600 CE - 900/950 CE)
During this time, there was a big change in leadership. Military leaders took over from priests. Religious rituals still happened, but the city stopped making clay figures of gods and stone sculptures.
Final Decline (900/950 CE - 1000/1050 CE)
This last period is marked by a fast drop in the city's population. Cantona's population fell to only three to five thousand people. Then, the city was completely abandoned.
About the Name and Future Discoveries
Many studies have been done on Cantona. Some think the ancient city was built by the Olmec or Chichimec cultures. But the main conclusion is that much more research is needed. Only about 1% of this huge archaeological area has been explored. The other 99% is still hidden under grass, trees, soil, and rocks.
There's even a disagreement about the city's name. While it's officially called Cantona, the local people of San Pedro Tepeyahualco call it Caltona.
See also
In Spanish: Cantona para niños
