Toponymy

Chichimec Culture

Purépecha Culture

Purépecha Language

Purépecha Religion

Tarascan Deities

• CURICAUERI. “The Great Fire”, main deity with a black painted body, although the lower part of the face as well as feet nails and hands were painted yellow; wore a white skin head piece and a heron feather ornament on his back. Accordingly, the Cazonci, priests and chiefs were painted black. Three descriptions of this deity exist in the “Relacion de Michoacan. Depicted as a white eagle with a large wart in the forehead; also a personage covered with charcoal dust (Entiznado)” with white heron plumages on his head and back; and most frequent it is described as “… that stone said to be God Curicaueri.” According to Mythological Stories the God Curicaueri was identified with the sun.

• CUPANTZIERE. The old sun “Cupantziere” plays ball with “Ahchurihirepe” that represents the night. The old sun is defeated, but his son, the young sun “Siratatáperi” arises by the east and rescues his father’s corpse, who resurrects in the form of a deer that goes away to the north. The deer were considered sacred animals associated to the sun in diverse Mesoamerican cultures, as divine food. Among the tarascos its skin was tanned and used to cover the Curicaueri image.

• CUERAUAPERI. “The one that unties in the womb”, associated with birth and considered the mother of all Gods, men, animals and plants. Its main sanctuary was in Tzinapécuaro.

• CURITACAHERI. The great priest and Sun’s Messenger, related with the Sea God who received offerigns from shells.

• URENDEQUAUECARA or HURENDEQUAUECARA. Morning star related to Venus and the eastern region. Related to Pungarancha War God.

• TIRIPEMES or TIRIPEMENCHA. Gods of the “four parts of the world” considered Curicaueri siblings: Tiripeme-xungápeti, “the yellow God” north deity, lord of Pichátaro; Tiripeme-turupten, “the white God” best deity, lord of Iramuco; Tiripeme-caheri, “the black God” south deity, lord of Pareo and; Tiripeme-quarencha, “the red God” east deity, lord of Curínguaro.

• ANGAMU CURACHA. Were the forest gods.

• GOD OF HELL. The Cuingo celebration sacrifices (skin removal) were dedicated to the God of hell.

• XARATANGA. “The one that appear in the top” or “the one that illuminates or shines”, goddess of the moon and maintenance, she made plants germinate and took care of men and animals. As other goddesses associated with the moon in Mesoamerican cultures, one of its characteristics was its relation with love, sex and Octli (pulque).

Chupícuaro culture

The Site

Discovery and investigations

Historical Brief

Objects found

• Clamps. Important by their quantity and beauty, the clamps that were used not only to shave but also as adornment and to define a social hierarchy. These clamps appear on chronicles representations, these clamps are hung on the neck of important personages.

• Wire hoops. Many wire hoops with rectangular and circular section, these were frequently found in primary burials, probably used as earrings.

• Bells of several types and sizes, of false filigree and worked metal sheets.
• A very wide hoop was found with bells of worked metal, surrounded by soldiers, perhaps was used on a command baton.

• Ornaments consisting of an inverted U shaped bar, finished with animal heads, possibly eagles with small bells hanging from their beak. The gold metallurgy samples are made on laminated gold and worked with hammers, possibly part of funerary material.

• Beads, four semi cylindrical pieces, perhaps part of a necklace, the existence of these objects demonstrate the high technological level reached by group (items originating from Chupícuaro and Pátzcuaro), which was only possible in towns whose solid economic base allowed them to have specialized craftsmen working full time.

• Domestic utensils: metates, mortar and “Tejolotes or Temachin” (grinding stone), metal fragments without and without support.

• Tools: ceramic polishers and other of bigger size, possibly for skin tanning.

• Sculpture: The fragment of the face of an old man found is very important, traditionally related to the God of the fire, divinity on which the tarascan religion was based; it is believed that this sculpture is one of the few representations of Curicaueri (Sp.), “the great fire” or “Great burner).

• Ritual: discs made from slate, have been found measuring 16 centimeters diameter average, some with two symmetrical perforations. There is evidence in Huandacareo that these discs were used as clasps in the burials of high social hierarchy individuals.

• Various: 5 centimeters average stone spheres, made in obsidian, as with other pieces, no manufacturing remains or factories have been found, hence it is assumed that the pieces were imported from other places.

• Tools: projectile ends pressure re-touched and with base or extension; prismatic knives, some altered to make projectile ends, pins, cutters and knives, among others.
• Ornaments: extraordinary quality appraised, mainly tubular and spool earflaps, some are so thin that are translucent; also found some beautiful samples of “bezotes” (wore by high chiefs).

• Ritual: green obsidian ornaments as rich offerings for high rank individuals. Such is the case of pieces found within skull in some burials, as if these were placed in the person’s mouth; these pieces are spherical or semi-square and always of green stone. In these same conditions a small rectangular piece was found, with an edge perforation, of a dark green stone and so polished that it seems mirror).

• Small trimmed snail necklaces with perforations.
• Circular Hoops catalogued as bracelets… human soldiers’ figures, naked without gender beings, and with a hieratic position, dancers with a shell incrusted forming an eye.

• Shaft Tomb excavated in tepetate that resembles the El Opeño
  El Opeño
  El Opeño is an archaeological site located in the municipality of Jacona, in the Michoacan state, México. It is home to a prehispanic site, mainly known from the ceramic material found in the funerary complexes of the site, which have been dated to the late preclassical mesoamerican period...
  
  , (Jacona, Michoacán) from the Preclassical period, although the Huandacareo tomb, from the cultural materials found as offering, it must be placed in the period immediately previous to the arrival of the Spaniards; the burial found corresponds to a primary burial of an old person and to a secondary burial of an adult.

• Six tombs were built on a perfectly outlined patio, one of them unfinished; there is another one associated to this group with the same characteristics; the walls are made with stone blocks perfectly cut and jointed with mortar; the floor is compacted earth; the tombs are covered by large stone slabs, some with worked edges. The location dimensions of six of them is very interesting as they were constructed symmetrically; in the central part of the group, the slab forming the roof of tomb number 2 serves as weight to number 4, that is oriented perpendicularly, with a cruciform aspect although in fact they are two rectangles. Each grave contained remains of an adult primary burial accompanied by rich and numerous offerings consisting of pottery, shell objects, bone and stone tools. A three by eighteen ditch was excavated, in which sixty three primary and secondary burials were found with numerous fragments clearly identified as decapitations or mutilations, that is to say, skulls with the atlas and maxillary bone in place or the bones of an arm with hand but without the rest of the body.

Political Organization

Structures

Main Structure

Sunken Patio

Small Temple

Concentric Circular basement

Temple

Other structures

Other sites in Michoacán

Further reading

• Lacanna, Germán La Relación de Michoacán, Historia del pueblo tarasco (April 30, 2008)

External links

• Huandacareo Archaeological Site
• Michoacan Government Official Page
• Historia.
• Michoacán

• Michoacán, The Soul of Mexico
• Municipalities of Michoacán site (Adobe Flash)
• Article about the Tarascan state by Julie Adkins
• Gorenstein, Shirley, 1993 Taríacuri’s Legacy: The Prehispanic Tarascan State, The Civilization of the American Indian series, vol. 209. University of Oklahoma Press
  University of Oklahoma Press
  The University of Oklahoma Press is the publishing arm of the University of Oklahoma. It has been in operation for over seventy-five years, and was the first university press established in the American Southwest. It was founded by William Bennett Bizzell, the fifth president of the University of...
  
  isbn=0-8061-2497-0 26801144, pages xiii–xx