page_title: Tzintzuntzan (Mesoamerican site)
section_title: Capital of the Purépecha Empire
hierarchical_section_title: Tzintzuntzan (Mesoamerican site) / Capital of the Purépecha Empire
caption_attribution_description: English: View of Lake Patzcuaro from the Tzintzuntzan archeological site
context_page_description: Tzintzuntzan was the ceremonial center of the pre-Columbian Tarascan state capital of the same name. The name comes from the Purépecha word Ts’intsuntsani, which means "place of hummingbirds". After being in Pátzcuaro for the first years of the Purépecha Empire, power was consolidated in Tzintzuntzan in the mid 15th century. The empire continued to grow and hold off attacks by the neighboring Aztec Empire, until the Spanish arrived. Not wanting to suffer the destruction that the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan did, the emperor in this city surrendered to the Spanish. Eventually, much of the site and especially its distinct five rounded pyramids called yácatas were destroyed and the city almost completely abandoned. Due to lack of interest in the old Purépecha dominion, excavation of this site did not begin until the 1930s. Its largest construction are the five yácata pyramids, which line up looking out over Lake Pátzcuaro. The other is the large Grand Platform excavated into the hillside on which the yácatas and other buildings rest. Today the site is still used for events such as the Festival Cultural de Fin de Año.
context_section_description: Tzintzuntzan was the capital of the Purépecha Empire when the Spanish arrived in 1522. As these people did not leave written records, what we know of this city and its empire come from Spanish writings and archeological evidence. The main Spanish document is called the Relación de las ceremonias y ritos población y gobierno de los indios de Michoacán, written by Jerónimo de Alcalá based on what he was told by the Purépecha elite in 1539. Other writings that refer to the capital include Hernán Cortés’ fourth letter in 1524, “La información de Don Vasco de Quiroga, sobre el asiento de su iglesia Catedral,” from 1538, “Tratado curioso y doctor de las cosas de la Nueva España” by Antonio de la Ciudad Real in 1590, “Relaciones goegráficas; las Crónica de la orden de Nuestro Seráfico Padre San Francisco, provincia de San Pedro y San Pablo de Mechoacan in la Nueva España” by Alonso de la Rea in the 17th century and the “Crónica de la provincia de los santos apóstoles San Pedro y San Pablo de Michoacán” by Pablo Beaumont.
  For a number of reasons, the Purépecha origins are shrouded in mystery. Much of Purépecha culture is very distinct from other Mesoamerican cultures. The Purépecha language has more in common with Zuni in the southwest U.S. and Quechua in Peru and is unrelated to any other Mesoamerican language. Jeromimo de Acalá's collection of stories from Purépecha elders states that these people migrated to the Lake Pátzcuaro region, developing alliances among the people who were already here. Eventually, they became the dominant group and established their city at Tzintzuntzan. According to collected evidence, the Purépecha people may have begun to dominate the Pátzcuaro Lake area as early as 1000 CE, but definitely by 1250.
  Purépecha traditional history states that around the year 1325 the king, warrior and hero Tarícuri declared himself lord and made Pátzcuaro his capital. His nephews were sent to rule neighboring Ihuatzio and Tzintzuntzan, and these two began to make military conquests from these points. During this time of expansion, the sphere of influence moved from Pátzcuaro to Tzintzuntzan, which had gained enough political dominance to bring the other cities under its control. During much of the empire's history, Tzintzuntzan had at least five times the population of any of the other cities, about 36 percent of the total Pátzcuaro Basin population. Around 1440, the empire was consolidated and an administrative bureaucracy founded at Tzintzuntzan. More expansion of the empire occurred between.
  The founding date of the city of Tzintzuntzan is most likely 1450, during the late post-classic period. The traditional history of the Empire for the 14th and 15th centuries is unclear because if it is to be believed, both Tarícuri and his nephews ruled for more than ninety years. Records are fairly clear that the consolidation of the empire began in the mid 15th century, producing a tributary state. The bureaucracy was centered in Tzintzuntzan and the empire expanded outside the Lake Pátzcuaro area from 1440 to 1500. This led to a very mixed ethnic composition for the empire, including the capital itself with only ten percent of the population of the lake area was ethnically Purépecha. About 25 to 35 percent of the population consisted of elites, their servants, and resident craft specialists. Political, economic and religious life was controlled from Tzintzuntzan. The site is located on the side of the Yauarato hill which permits a view of most of Lake Pátzcuaro and its shores. The hill protected this site from attack. The pre-Hispanic city of Tzintzuntzan extended from Lake Pátzcuaro to the hills just to the east and had a population of between 25,000 and 30,000 when the Spanish arrived in the 1520s. Purépecha power extended over a wide section of what is now central-west Mexico, encompassing what is now the state of Michoacán and parts of modern Guanajuato, Guerrero and Jalisco states. Despite being the capital of the second largest empire in Mesoamerica when the Spanish conquered Tenochtitlan, the city surrendered to the 
caption: View of Lake Pátzcuaro from the site
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