About the Classic in the Cerro de la Estrella in Iztapalapa Peninsula

Abstract

The advent of the Classic period in Mesoamerica witnessed the emergence of a huge city in the Central Highlands of major importance in the social configuration of groups living in the Basin of Mexico. Teotihuacan was undoubtedly the preeminent center that dominated Classic period Mesoamerica and strongly influenced population movements in the Basin of Mexico. This article describes what the principal evidence from archaeological projects in the nineteenth and twentieth century has revealed about occupation of Cerro de la Estrella from time immemorial. It offers hypotheses about the way of life that prevailed there, at the same time it tries to understand if there was an actual Teotihuacan occupation of the site, or if the metropolis only influenced the thinking of the inhabitants of Cerro de la Estrella. For this purpose, different authors are cited to guide discussion to thus refute or verify the hypotheses. This work ultimately contributes to knowledge of Cerro de la Estrella, an important center that is currently undergoing a process of destruction that must be contained, because material evidence disappears day by day from looting, encroaching urbanization, vandalism and erosion, which are processes currently threatening the site.