The mystery of El Tajín: what would have caused the collapse of the pre-Hispanic city

The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and the Ministry of Culture revealed that one of the possible causes of the disappearance of the pre-Hispanic city El Tajín could be associated with a solar phenomenon of the Nichos Building, which is located within the current archaeological zone. It is a monument that was erected with the intention of asking the gods “a balance between nature and man in a time of floods and changes in the environment”.

The institution released the hypothesis in a statement issued on April 7, 2022, which also specifies that around the 10th century (year 900) “a climate change known as the medieval warm period” arrived at the site, which caused havoc not only in the Mesoamerican area, but also in a part of Europe continental and other remote locations.

One of the consequences of this event was the increase in “temperature, which caused floods that even led to the abandonment of large population centers. This is the case of the sacred city that is now known as the Archaeological Zone of El Tajín, in Papantla, Veracruz.”

This conclusion was reached thanks to the work carried out by specialists in the area that is considered a World Heritage Site. The research consisted of combining “ancient climate information, archaeological data collected in situ and the results of more than 11 years of studies done with LIDAR”, a technology tool for the detection and measurement of objects using laser points.

On the other hand, the archaeologist Patricia Castillo Peña, researcher at the INAH Veracruz Center and academic director of the Archaeological Zone, states that “how a city so important in the rituality and life of its time was prevented from functioning and directed its inhabitants to renounce requests to its gods, who were they did from two fundamental buildings: the South Ball Game and the Niches Building.”

In addition, he added that both constructions are not only the “most monumental in the entire nuclear area of El Tajín, but they are also the latest, built between 800 and 1100 AD.” This means, according to the specialist, that if one takes into account that they were means of contact with “the divine, with the sun, water and wind, they must have been erected in search of the balance of a natural environment that was disrupted”.

The researcher also highlighted that the Nichos Building was developed with the intention of appreciating the solar phenomena that occur during the quarter of the year, “events that can sometimes coincide, for example, with the equinoxes and solstices, and during which there is a gradual illumination of the building. pre-hispanic”.

It was also revealed that the precision is such that “this effect lasts for seven minutes, during which the rising sun, associated with the deity Quetzalcoatl, illuminates each of the seven bodies of the Building of Niches from top to bottom, until it touches the earth and makes contact with men”.

Thanks to the work done through LIDAR, it was possible to locate the “original accesses to the El Tajín nuclear area, one of which was on the west facade of the Nichos Building”. On the other hand, the statement details that experts have been able to theorize that “during the quarter of the year, approximately 300 people, 150 in the east square and 150 in the west, surrounded the monument hoping to witness the gradual illumination from its front, or the coronation effect that occurs behind, when the sun pretends to settle on the top of the basement”.

It is added that the Pelota Sur game also became an important event, since apart from the “competition game”, in pre-Hispanic times there was a ritual ball game, in which the participants asked for a certain favor, for example, that the floods should stop, and in return they had to offer something sacred to the gods”.

Finally, it is concluded that El Tajín is an archaeological site of great importance in which “only a tiny part of its 1,221 hectares has been explored, so there is still the possibility of finding new structures that tell us about the close relationship that the ancient city had with the human, the natural and the divine”.

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