TRENCHES CULTURE: ORIGIN, CHARACTERISTICS, RELIGION, CULTURE - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

The Trincheras culture is the pre-Hispanic civilization that between the years 200 to 1450 AD. C., lived in the northwest of Sonora in Mexico. It is a region as extensive as Switzerland, being today a large archaeological complex.

Most historians link it to the Paquimé culture, also called Mogollón, an Amerindian group that lived in the southwestern United States. Others highlight the possible influence of the Hohokam culture, another of the indigenous groups of ancient Oasisamerica.

Cerro de Trincheras, Sonora. Source: Navomen

The name Trincheras was assigned by archaeologists to refer to the artificial terraces built on the hills, to which missionaries and soldiers attributed a defensive function. However, numerous investigations have shown other uses of these terraces such as agricultural, residential and ceremonial.

Origin

Although its origins seem to go back to 200 AD. C. extending to 1450 d. C., it is considered that the heyday of the Trincheras culture was recorded between 800 and 1200 AD. In this period the first ceramics and rustic utensils in stone and sea shell were detected, as well as signs of the first settlements.

It is very likely that their descendants are the Tohono o'odham, who are usually called the Pápagos and who today live in Sonora and Arizona.

Archaeological investigations consider that this civilization shows a strong relationship with the Paquimé culture in the Mogollón area, rather than with the Hohokam group, whose settlement was closer.

Geographic location

The development of the Trincheras culture can be detected within four different ecological systems: the fluvial (Magdalena-Altar-Asunción-Concepción rivers), the coastal, the region of the mouth of the Concepción River and the interior (far from the rivers and the coast).

In this desert plain, which mediates between the Sierra Madre Occidental and the Gulf of California, two factors stand out that determined the place of the settlements: the hydrological basins and the hills of volcanic origin. The combination of both allowed optimizing the water resource and marked the routes to obtain other resources and establish temporary or permanent settlements.

Some researchers maintain that the Trincheras culture reached the states of Arizona and New Mexico to the north and the San Miguel River to the south.

characteristics

Detail of the walls built on the slope of the Trincheras hill. Source: Artotem from Here, There, and…

It was a group dedicated to agriculture, which practiced the cultivation of corn, beans, cotton and magüey. Although he never completely abandoned hunting and gathering according to the evidence.

The Trincheras culture settled in the middle of the Sonoran desert, but showed a preference for settling in the low hills of volcanic origin, which were in the area and which would allow them to take better advantage of the water.

These hills also facilitated access to the raw material for the manufacture of stone tools.

The particular structures that they developed in the area were multifunctional. Indications were found that they could be from elite residential areas, ritual enclosures and astronomical observatories to defense structures and cultivation terraces.

It is considered that in their heyday they also engaged in the large-scale seashell trade. This involved harvesting on the coast, where the first finishing phases were given and in the villages they were converted into pieces of ornament and then marketed in other areas.

Religion

If the spiritual value that different Amerindian groups gave to the hills is taken as a premise, it can be inferred that something similar happened with trenches. The hills served as houses for supernatural beings, spaces to deposit or protect sacred objects, as well as the origin of clouds, wind and water, so important in these arid places.

In the archaeological complex that surrounds the Trincheras hill, several were the structures of ceremonial use: the Plaza del Caracol, La Cancha, El Caracolito and those that include stone walls with regular geometric shapes and a repetitive pattern.

Astronomical observation

The representation of stars such as the Sun, the Moon, Venus and the stars in the petroglyphs of the hills of La Proveedora and San José, is considered an indicator of a careful observation of astronomical phenomena. From this a precise calendar was derived, associated with the cycles of agriculture, hunting and gathering.

Archaeologists consider that the ritual practices tied to that calendar sought to ensure sufficient rains for crops and were a request for abundance, order and harmony.

The spiral shape is a recurring element in the Trincheras hills, which refers to the seashell and which for scholars represents fertility and the sea. This is another factor that supports the ritual practice of the cycle of water and rains, an essential part of their belief system.

Cult of Tlaloc

Considering the ritual importance of rain as a guarantee of subsistence or of water in general, something typical of agricultural civilizations, it is not surprising that the cult of Tlaloc appears.

Tlaloc is the Mesoamerican deity of celestial water and is responsible for the rainy season. But he is also considered the patron of the hills, since they believed that the rain came from the mountains on whose summits the clouds were generated. The mountains had a divine character and were called the tlaloque, small servants of the god Tláloc who produced these climatic phenomena.

Researchers of the Trincheras culture have identified great relevance in the offerings of marine animals and green stones (also symbols of fertility) to Tláloc in the Templo Mayor.

Culture

For some researchers, the Trincheras culture is a heterogeneous phenomenon, of long duration and sometimes with ambiguous and contradictory archaeological information.

To differentiate the Trincheras culture, two main features have been described. The first refers to painted ceramics and the second to Cerro Trincheras.

Painted ceramics

Ceramics from this culture were brown in color but decorated with ground hematite, which is often in crystalline form, giving the pigment a shiny effect. This gives it a particular color, which is why the style of this ceramic was identified with the name of 'purple-on-red trenches ceramic'.

Hematite paints could be combined with red ocher paint to make multi-colored designs that were occasionally applied over a white clay slip.

Two other types of ceramics have also been detected which were called 'smooth trench ceramics', 'purple trench ceramics on brown'.

Cerro Trincheras

Regarding the second feature, Cerro Trincheras, it is located in the middle part of the Magdalena river valley, in northwestern Sonora.

The hill rises more than 150 meters above the desert plain of the area, which from afar has a “striped” appearance due to the 900 stone walls that this pre-Hispanic group built.

These walls range from 10 to 15 meters, but can reach 150 meters in length. They also lack mortar, that is, the rocks were placed one on top of the other making exclusive use of gravity, reaching up to 3 meters high.

The Cerro de Trincheras has three outstanding structures:

- The first, near the base of the hill, is La Cancha, a ceremonial community space that could have been used for dances, similar to the current ceremonies of the indigenous people of northern Mexico.

- The second is El Mirador, which, according to the ornaments of unusual use that were found, must have been the residence of the dominant family of this settlement.

- The third and most outstanding is the Plaza del Caracol, a peculiar construction with semicircular walls and a spiral-shaped access corridor. It is a spiral of 13 by 8 meters that has the shape of a snail cut in half with a small oval space attached on its south side. This area was of restricted and ritual use.

Other extensions

The cultural remains of Trincheras do not have a uniform distribution or an equivalent importance throughout the area, however it is worth highlighting two other important points: The Circles of the Quarry and the Petroglyphs of the Proveedora.

The Circles of the Quarry are located 90 km northwest of the Trincheras hill, in the vicinity of Magdalena de Kino. It is made up of several blocks of volcanic tuff about ten meters high.

In the flattened area there are grooves and holes of about ten centimeters that together form circles and squares of one meter in diameter. The purpose of this area has not been clarified, but there are engravings of a possible astronomical or religious nature.

About 15 km west of Caborca ​​are the Cerro de la Proveedora and surrounding mountains in whose rocks there are countless petroglyphs. Most are anthropomorphic figures, but animals are also represented in hunting scenes.

In addition, geometric lines, frets and spirals abound. Some consider this to be one of the largest rock art galleries in Mexico.

References

1. Trincheras culture. (2018, September 30). Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Recovered from es.wikipedia.org
2. Canchola, MEV (2014). The opening for public visit of cerro de trincheras, sonora. Annals of Anthropology, 48 (2), 97–117. doi: 10.1016 / s0185-1225 (14) 70245-0
3. Unknown Mexico. (2010, July 30). The mysterious vestiges of the Trincheras culture in Sonora. Recovered from mexicodesconocido.com.mx
4. (2018, January 15). Trincheras Archaeological Zone. Recovered from inah.gob.mx
5. Vllalpando Canchola, M. Elisa, “Cerro de Trincheras, Sonora. Stone walls that welcome the spiral of the sea ”, Mexican Archeology no. 97, pp. 39-45.
6. Acosta, C. (2011). The "trenches" hills in the Sonoran cultural landscape: evidence of collective memory? Ancient Mesoamerica, 22 (2), 411-423. Recovered from jstor.org