Tamtoc

Tamtoc, Tamtok or Tamohí (Téenek for "place of the water clouds") is an archaeological site of the Huastec culture, located in the municipality of Tamuín in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí, in what is known today as the Huasteca region. Since 2000 it has been improved and recovered by a team of professionals, with the archaeologist Estela Martínez Mora in charge of the studies at the site. Originally it was estimated that the flowering of this site took place between AD 900 and 1100, that is, during the Mesoamerican Postclassic Period, however recent findings - particularly Monument 32 - have led archaeologists to think that the flowering could have occurred in 600 BC during the Preclassic. With an area of about 210 hectares, Tamtoc was one of the most important Huastecan urban centers of the last pre-Hispanic period due to its dimensions and characteristics. Its development lasted a few centuries before the Spanish arrived, until its sudden abandonment in the 16th century. It is located on the northeast bank of the Tampaón River, part of the Pánuco River system. One of the characteristics that distinguishes Tamtoc is the remarkable feminine presence. To date, 90% of the burials discovered have been women. In addition, women are depicted in most of the clay and ceramic figurines found here and are thought to have held a high rank in the social divisions of the community. The area has been known since the late 1800s to have pre-Columbian vestiges. It was explored in the late 1930s by Joaquín Meade, and with greater intensity in the 1960s and was finally opened to the public on May 11, 2006 by the then-governor of San Luis Potosí, Marcelo de los Santos Fraga.