Archaeology Magazine - July/August 1984 - 33

Person F, one of the rare whole figurines
found at Chalcatzingo , includes two
variant headdress forms , although the
shape is the same, one plain and one
with incised lines. The one complete figurine shows the lack of care and detail, although the position of the arms
may have some significance.

Monument 1, "El Rey," Chalcatzingo's most famous
carving. This bas-relief depicts a person seated
within a cave, the entrance to the underworld and
a source of both water and supernatural power.
Rain clouds are shown above the cave, and raindrops
are falling down upon it; there are also drops of
rain on the person's clothing. The monument is
located alongside the mountain's main rainwater
runoff channel and is grouped with other reliefs
depicting rain clouds and growing squash plants,
factors which also indicate the personage's relationship with rain and fertility. The presence of a
probable naming motif in the headdress and the
particular form of a ceremonial bar he holds convince
us that he was a revered ancestor rather than
merely a generalized "rain god."
Comparison of other Formative figurines with
Chalcatzingo's portrait figurines thus reveals that
both seem to be concerned with rain, and hence
with fertility. However, the shift from the more
stylized figurines with heavily emphasized hips and
thighs- the abstract female as fertility personifiedto portrayals of rulers who are descendants of
divinized ancestor-mediators indicates a significant
socio-political development at Chalcatzingo. The
elite, who were probably members of a ruling lineage,
began taking over control of agricultural fertility
both in rituals, as demonstrated by the figurines

and monuments dedicated to themselves as well as
to fertility, and in the management of the site's
simple but effective water control system. It is surely
no coincidence that Monument 1 is adjacent to a
man-made channel cut into the rock which lies at the
head of the mountain's natural drainage system
leading down onto the site. Violent rainstorms would
have produced a torrent of water rushing down the
mountain, apparently from "El Rey" itself, which was
channeled into a large artificial ditch at the bottom of the hill to prevent it from flowing onto the residential terraces.
The cult of the ruler most likely played a strong
supporting role in the rising socio-political
complexity of Chalcatzingo during Middle Formative times. As represented in the monumental art,
it demonstrated the ruler's links to the underworld
and ties to a source of supernatural power and
highly valued rain and confirming his right to rule.
Interestingly, Chalcatzingo's development of this
Gulf Coast-influenced cult never significantly
affected highland central Mexican culture. Later political systems there were based on more.abstract
conceptions of rulership, and state cults focused on
patron deities rather than on the personal power
of a divine ruler. Instead, the cult of the ruler received its greatest elaboration over 1,000 years later
far to the south, among the Classic Maya.
1984
July/August

Archaeology Magazine - July/August 1984

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - July/August 1984