Having emerged fifteen centuries ago in the dense rain forest, between the Sierra Norte of Puebla and the black sand beaches of the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico, the Pyramid of los Nichos at El Tajin was and remains an unmistakable symbol of the originality of one of the greatest civilizations of Mesoamerica. However, there were other times when this imposing building was still taking shape; a much earlier time when the superhuman nature of its pristine rulers was already celebrated in stone stelae.
First, we know very little about the Tuxpan River Basin and even less about their cultural processes. The beginning of the Classic period, a turning point in the development of civilization, is best known in the former territories of El Tajin where their government centers emerged in the framework of well-defined areas and based upon a stratified society. However, it has been accepted that the gentle hills surrounding the Tuxpan River belonged to the Huasteca culture. There is no doubt that this was true by the Post Classic period, but there were other times when a civilization of different traits may have been gestated, which regardless of its age-old ethnic and linguistic substrate, came to be according to foreign cultural models and with those that trade put it in touch with.
This sculptural piece, of particularly complicated identification, is the representation in stone of an old man in a sitting position that, to some extent, can be taken to be of huasteco origin. Hundreds of them were produced in these lands, where the elders are usually represented with a cane in front in a bid to keep standing or even walking. The curious thing about this small sculpture, whose features depict a man with a creased face and bent by old age, is the stone used for such purpose. The style might even come, in of artistic production, from the Huasteca but the material decidedly comes from somewhere just south of the Tuxpan River, where there are deposits of basalt of these same characteristics.
By the Epiclassic Period there was an important penetration of traits of their culture into the Sierra de Papantla, the former territories of El Tajin, of sculptures and even of entire settlements that could be defined as a moment of intrusiveness against the political and social deterioration experienced by the region in XII century A.D. In summary, the face of our "old man" could well relate to early expressions of this typically huastecan sculptural production, but the stone necessarily refers to the area of Tuxpan River, including the Cazones basin, raising a combination of elements and cultural traditions that need to be studied.
Having emerged fifteen centuries ago in the dense rain forest, between the Sierra Norte of Puebla and the black sand beaches of the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico, the Pyramid of los Nichos at El Tajin was and remains an unmistakable symbol of the originality of one of the greatest civilizations of Mesoamerica. However, there were other times when this imposing building was still taking shape; a much earlier time when the superhuman nature of its pristine rulers was already celebrated in stone stelae.
