This important site is also known as Tinganio, which means “place where the fire begins” in Purépecha. It is one of the representative sites of the period prior to the height of Tarascan dominion, having some features clearly from Teotihuacan mixed with other local traditions.
There are few references to this area. Only one mention has been found in a Michoacán newspaper on the finding of a tomb in 1842. Archeologists Román Piña Chan and Kuniaki Ohi performed most of the archeological excavations and restorations that can be visited today from 1978 to 1979. Only a small part of the site, corresponding to the settlement’s religious and residential area, has been explored to date.
Investigations performed at Tingambato have allowed us to discover a little-known period in Michoacán’s history. This was a period of great change throughout Mesoamerica after the fall of Teotihuacan, prior to the large settlements founded by the Tarascans or Purépecha towards the end of the pre-Hispanic period.
We can clearly define two stages in the zone’s history. The first begins in 450 AD, when establishment of this ceremonial center begins. The settlement was inhabited by groups possessing a productive food economy, essentially based on farming and complemented by hunting and fishing. In this phase, its builders leveled the terrain to form an artificial platform on which they constructed the bases for temples, as well as certain buildings of a civic nature for the ruling class, together with numerous huts for the rest of the population. The second stage was from 600 to 900 AD, in which the influence of Teotihuacan is obvious. To explain the presence of features from the great metropolis, it is necessary to give a brief summary of its culture.
Referring to the culture of Teotihuacan implies a watershed in the Mesoamerican area. This was the period in which the first great metropolis appeared in the region. Teotihuacan was at its height from 100 to 575 AD, and it led the way for artistic, architectural and religious expression. This society was ruled by a theocracy that held a great deal of influence over many Mesoamerican settlements for more than 500 years. It also became the first great multi-ethnic city in Mesoamerica, where we now know there were neighbourhoods for people from different regions, including Michoacán.
After its collapse (in approximately 575 AD), Teotihuacan fell apart. However, it appears that people scattered far and wide from this great city, leading to some of its architectural elements beginning to appear in places a great distance from Teotihuacan. Such is the case for Tingambato. We can confirm Teotihuacan’s influence because rooms are located around sunken plazas, there were altars in the ceremonial center and we observe the characteristic talud-tablero or slope-panel feature (a backwards-sloping wall and a vertical wall) which is one of Teotihuacan’s significant architectural elements. The similarity of Tingambato’s Mesoamerican ballgame court to those of Tula and Xochicalco reinforces the theory that this settlement appeared after the fall of Teotihuacan, as these three sites flourished after the great city’s decline. It is very important to mention Tingambato’s funerary architecture, which harks back to an ancient tradition in Michoacán of burying certain dignitaries in impressive chambered tombs with vaulted ceilings.
Tingambato was definitively abandoned in approximately 900 AD. It displays none of the elements that would relate it to the late phases of Tarascan dominion. We believe that there was a conflagration at the end of Tingambato’s occupation, traces of which have been observed in archeological excavations.
