page_title: Cantona (archaeological site)
section_title: The site
hierarchical_section_title: Cantona (archaeological site) / The site
caption_attribution_description: Español: Zona arqueológica de Cantona, Puebla, MéxicoEnglish: Archaeological area of Cantona, Puebla, Mexico
context_page_description: Cantona is a Mesoamerican archaeological site in Mexico. It is located between 2,450 and 2,600 meters above sea level in the state of Puebla, on the border with the state of Veracruz. The site lies about an hour's drive from the city of Puebla and about an hour and a half from Xalapa, Veracruz. Limited archaeological work has been done at the site. It is estimated that only one to ten per cent of the site can be seen.
  At its peak, Cantona was a walled, fortified city with a high level of urbanization. Its original inhabitants are unknown, but it is speculated that it was founded by Olmec-Xicalanca groups towards the late Classical Period.
  Cantona sat astride an old trading route between the Gulf Coast and the Central Highlands and was a prominent, if isolated, Mesoamerican city between 600 and 1000 CE. It was abandoned after AD 1050.
  Its maximum apogee is placed at the epiclassical Mesoamerica period, that is, the period during which Teotihuacan ceased to be the main power center in the region and small regional states sought to gain control of the various trade routes. Cantona was one of these regional centers, and controlled Sierra Madre Oriental resources.
context_section_description: The site covers about 12 square kilometers. For study purposes it was divided into three large units. The southern part is the best preserved part. The Acropolis (area where the main structures are located, believed to be the shelter of political, economic and religious powers), is a good example of the settlement.
  The site is made up by many patios of approximately 50 x 40 meters, or even larger; in some of them obsidian and stone workshops (stone tools) were found, hence a clear division and specialization of its inhabitants work is deduced. According to García Cook, rural people settled in low lands, leaving people with social rank the intermediate areas and, finally, at the top were temples, ball games, and the houses of chiefs and leaders. Evidence indicate that the patios were residential places for Cantona family groups; such is the amount, that in sector V, 620 patios were detected and 997 mounds, including housing units, altars and pyramids.
  Its architecture is absent of stucco as decoration element, although mud was possibly used to join volcanic rock in addition to the technique of placing stone on stone, as was done to shape walls, alleys, platforms and other archaeological structures. There are two large prehispanic roads; these avenues are framed by high and thick volcanic stone walls, (some of them more than a kilometer long) that together with the streets and roads allowed access to the patios and ceremonial areas, constituting an important access control to the city and internal urban areas; this great fortress also had a moat that protected the city on its limits with the Valley, from possible invasions from this sector.
  In the highest areas are located ceremonial nature structures as ballgame courts (over 24) 12 of them have a special distribution which has been termed Cantona type, because it has integrated architectural complexes in which generally are a pyramid, one or two plazas, an altar, and several peripheral structures; there is uneven symmetry on its walls, there are discrepancies in orientation or measures. Recent studies indicate that Cantona was besieged by foreign groups, which together with strong climate change, ended up affecting the city, leading to its abandonment.
  The construction system and size included in its three units, has been considered the most urbanized city known so far in the central Mexican Plateau. Its size is surprising, its roads and stone walls, by its patios and ballgame courts, but more surprising of all is to learn that, all visited in the site (3 km), and the structures available comprise only 10% of the total of this prehispanic city.
  It is assumed that water in this area was scarce, but did not limit construction of towering pyramids, housing spaces and narrow streets to maintain order in the different social standards that existed at that time, only two people can walk on the streets at the time because of narrow streets, in addition to street side walls for better control. The Earth Fertility Plaza is one of the most popular visits, because of phallic sculptures found, the two votive axes and all other material found, and is considered one of the most important findings. Cantona began declining as of 950 and 1000 and by 1100 was completely abandoned, without any current definition as to the reason why settlers migrated, although it was a prosperous and superbly constructed site.
caption: One of the ball courts at the site.
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