Xochitepec

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Xochitepec is a municipio (municipality) of the state of Morelos, in central Mexico. Xochitepec is also the name of its principal township and seat of the municipal government. It is located approximately 13 km (8.1 mi) to the south of the capital of Morelos, Cuernavaca, on the southern outskirts of that city's greater metropolitan area.

The municipality reported 45,643 inhabitants in the year 2000 census.

The toponym Xochitepec comes from the Nahuatl language, meaning "on the hill of flowers".

In June 2006 a research team from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) began excavations at Zazacatla, a pre-Columbian Mesoamerican archaeological site located within the municipal boundaries. The INAH team led by Giselle Canto reported finding evidence of Olmec cultural influences at the site. Prior to the find Olmec-influenced statuary and architecture had been almost completely unknown for other sites in the western Morelos region, and Zazacatla's excavation represents the strongest evidence yet for some form of trade or contact between the area and the "Olmec heartland" in the Gulf Coast region, some 400 km (249 mi) to the east.^[1]

In January 2007 the governor of Morelos, Marco Adame Castillo, announced an offer for the state to underwrite the preservation of Zazacatla and to incorporate it into the tourism and cultural heritage plans for Morelos. He foreshadowed that a tourism project would be initiated at the site's location in Xochitepec once the archaeological investigations had further developed.^[2]

[edit] Notes

^ García (2007), Lovgren (2007, pp.1–2).
^ García (2007).

[edit] References

García, Miguel Ángel. "Posible, nuevo plan arqueológico en Xochitepec", La Jornada Morelos, Editora de Medios de Morelos, 2007-01-26. Retrieved on 2007-02-09. (Spanish)