TURBULENT HISTORY

"This is all that's left of Xochicalco," said Marco Santos, director of the museum, as he peered out the second story. "The people who built this city never imagined it would end this way. Its rise and fall were quick. It was a city with a lot of internal conflicts that weren't resolved in time, so they burned it down."

Social order was important in ancient Xochicalco. People of wealth and position lived in a special apartment complex on top of the hill, physically removed from the merchants and peasants below, emerging to trade on market days, the one week day commoners were permitted entry. It was this rigid class structure which may have caused the internal revolt, something, Santos says, we should learn from today. Inside the museum, a circular green structure with cobblestone streets and parking lot, everything runs on schedule. Bathrooms are scrubbed, floors are swept, and staff are attentive and well informed.

Giving employees a more positive attitude about their jobs is important to Santos, who helped implement a 20-year plan, that has had a 40 person staff working on improving service, conserving grounds and conducting investigations, for the last three years. During that time, solar air conditioning was made more efficient, washrooms were added, plastic card guides in English and Spanish were installed near each exhibit and museum finances were improved.

Over the next three years, Santos expects to raise the five million dollars he needs to excavate the western hill of Xochicalco, where some of the city's most important sites are buried.

Private and public funds are being sought, 60 percent of which will be reinvested in local communities, where supplies will be purchased and 400 full time jobs created.

The museum depends on the National Anthropology Institute funds for administrative and upkeep costs, which means profits from entrance fees, which include 630,000 ticket sales a year, go to the Mexican tax department, something Santos wants to change.

EARTH-FRIENDLY ATMOSPHERE

Xochicalco is the only completely solar powered and ecologically run museum in Mexico.

Large cylindrical green cells convert sun's rays into electrical energy that powers the museum's computers, lights, and water. Ceramic art objects, bathed in sunlight, create a soothing, but well illuminated effect. Large prisms channel light to each exhibit room, and maximum use is made of sky lighting. Solar energy drives an internal cooling system which supplies a constant breeze and keeps the museum at a comfortable 20-25 degrees centigrade, even on hot days.

Rain water, collected in oversized cisterns, supply the museum eight months a year. During the remaining months, a truck hauls water from a nearby reserve.

Natural springs running under the building, contribute to the museum's cooler temperatures, a concept ancient Xochicalcans were familiar with. City dwellers kept indoor sunken patios filled with rainwater to provide natural air conditioning, drawing water from the nearby Tembembe River during the dry season.

COMMERCIAL CENTER

Xochicalco, a major trading center, rose to power after the fall of Teotihuacan in 700 A.D. Some inhabitants of Teotihuacan are believed to have emigrated to Xochicalco after the metropolis, known as the City of the Gods, fell. Teotihuacan influences are found in Xochicalco's architecture, as are traces of the Maya, Olmec and Zapotecan civilizations.

Xochicalco depended on produce from the fertile Miacatlan valley nearby. The staple diet consisted of corn, beans, chiles, squash, insects, and cereal, with dogs and turkeys for meat.

Although Xochicalcans honored the rain god Tlaloc, depicted in statues with two goggle-like rings around his eyes, and two protruding fangs, they are also the first recorded civilization to worship Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent.

As in much of Mesoamerica, human sacrifice was practiced in Xochicalco. The manner of death was thought to determine where an individual would spend eternity, in the multi-tiered preColumbian underworld. Young men were groomed for sacrifice to Tlaloc, considered both benevolent and evil. To the pre-Hispanic mind, good and bad were two sides of the same coin; they could not exist without each other.

Xochicalco's rise during the epi-classic period, a prelude to the post-classic decline of Mesoamerica from 900 to 1529 A.D., preceded the birth of Tula, in the state of Hidalgo. Its name, Xochicalco, devised by later Nahuatl-speaking tribes, meant "house of flowers" and is believed to refer to the abundance of cazahuate trees that grew up around the ruins of the city.

UNCOVERING THE PAST

In 1909, few ruins were visible above the earth, when archeologists rediscovered the area. But most of the city remained underground until 1986, later it became one of Pres. Carlos Salinas' administration's major excavation projects. The area surrounding Xochicalco, deforested by residents of nearby Tetlama and Cuentepec, had to be replanted after excavations were completed.

Today, residents work in the museum and keep land around the ruins, much of which belongs to them, clean. Local merchants, known for ceramic production, sell handmade comals (grills) and jars in the museum shop.

"By helping vendors sell wares in our shop, we avoid street vendors," Santos said. "Profits go directly to them, and everyone benefits." Inside the museum, exhibits are well planned, artifacts are clearly identified and rooms are designed for visitors to see in the order they choose.

Laura Amador, a history graduate from the state university, is one of the museum's on site tour guides. Her tours are lively, detailed, and punctuated with colorful anecdotes.

Amador explains that Xochicalco was on Mesoamerican commerce routes that stretched to Honduras. It flourished at a time original pottery was still being made by local potters, but molds were also becoming popular, and a few examples can be seen inside glass showcases.

Six showrooms recreate Xochicalco's history. Each showroom is devoted to an aspect of the former dwellers, that, taken together, create a picture of a living city. Sculptures at the entrance of every room, represent its theme.

When the tour is completed, Amador points to the ruins through a large glass window. She describes the former city as consisting of a large warehouse, three ball courts, two plazas, an acropolis, an observatory, several temples and a series of aqueducts.

Commercial transactions took place on a lower plaza, filled with carved rectangular stone stele. According to Amador, the presence of three ball courts in the east, north, and south of Xochicalco, indicate a fourth ball court under the unexcavated western hill, which ties in to the ancient concept of the link between four points of the compass, and cosmic balance.

"The ball game was a ritual that guaranteed the continuity of life," Amador concluded. "When the winning player was sacrificed, it was considered an honor, because blood was the food of the gods. So, in a way, the sacrificial victim became one of them" Engravings on the temple of the plumed serpent, depict a solar eclipse, that prompted Xochicalcans to adapt their calendar to coincide with the Maya concept of time.

An astronomical observatory was designed to funnel a shaft of light into a cave, creating a surreal effect, when the sun shone from 2.5 degrees north, during the summer solstice.

When this happened, residents knew it was time to plant their crops. The shaft of light effect can be seen every day at 1:15 p.m., from April through August 15.