Puebla Tehuacán

Museum of the Valley

This museum belongs to the National Institute of Anthropology and History and occupies a part of the former Convent del Carmen, on top of which is the House of Culture and the municipal library. In their cabinets such articles are displayed as samples of prehispanic findings, vases, plates, necklaces accounts, grinding stones and remains of human skeletons. From its walls hang maps and slides synthesizing a history of nearly ten thousand years. We can learn the importance of Coxcatlán Viejo, one of the manors that flourished towards the fifteenth century.



We can also get an idea of the caves and archaeological sites in the valley, apart from several ruins of pyramids which are now almost exclusively visited by archaeologists. This is Because of Calipan, in the village of the same name, Sansuantzi in Coxcatlán, Cuta in Zapotitlan, Tepetiopan near Tepanco and Old Tehuacan just 5 kilometers of Tehuacan.

As corn is part of the main focus of this museum, it tries to follow the evolution of this cereal, one of the most important cornerstones of the world and the cultures of Mesoamerica.

The museum exhibits some of the most ancient and tiny ears of corn from the valley. Between 1960 and 1963 it was Dr. Richard McNeish who led the team of researchers in the project Archaeological Botanical Tehuacan that found the most interesting and significant prehistoric corn known: a set of ears from the caves of the Irrigation and Coxcatlán, dated between 5200 and 3400 B.C. The studies concluded that maize cultivation started in the valley around one hundred thousand years ago and it was the hunters and gatherers who turned the wild corn into domesticated maize.



This has led to support the thesis that Tehuacan was one of the first centers of the domestication of corn, the food and cultural basis of the peoples of the Americas.

Currently the museum has three rooms, the first an introduction room, the second of corn and a third of temporary exhibitions. The first section presents the history of research in the region as well as pieces representing different points of Mesoamerica; one of them is an urn MIXTECA representing a warrior carrying a bag copal for the ballgame and a belt with glyphs.

In the second room the hall "Corn food of the divine" shows the various stages of cultural development in Tehuacan in chronological order:

· AJUEREADO 7200 B.C.
· EL RIEGO 5000 B.C.
· COXCATLAN 3400 B.C.
· ABEJAS 2300 B.C.
· PURRON 1500 B.C.
· AJALPAN 900 B.C.
· SANTA MARIA 200 B.C.
· PALO BLANCO 700 A.D.
· VENTA SALADA 1540 A.D.

In the first few showcases displayed are the stages of the cultivation of maize, as well as the ears Teozintle the oldest maize located in the exploration of the cave Coxcatlán. Also displayed are samples of the seeds of various plants of prehistoric origin and then compared with fruits and seeds of today.

The next display case shows the development of stone tools made by the first inhabitants of Tehuacan, rocks of Lasqueadas from about 10000 years ago, the polishing of the stones, projectile points, objects used in the grinding seeds and vases carved in rock, as an antecedent of the first clay jars made. As a result of the domestication of plants and the settlement came the development of ceramics, exhibited are some fragments as old as the ceramics from over 4000 years ago reported only in Puerto Marques, Guerrero. Also displayed are different forms of domestic pottery and other ceramics for ceremonial use, mainly devoted to rituals and burial offerings. Also outlined are various ceramic objects that indicate the influence and important cultural exchange that took this region with various civilizations of Mesoamerica, such as ceramic thin orange.

In the fifth section of the exhibit are very important pieces from the regions near Tehuacan such as the model Policromas of Calipan, masks and wooden carved chimallis of Santa Anna Teloxtoc.

At the end of the room a large mural finishes off with maize seeds of different types and colors which represent Xilonen the goddess of corn and the tender young.