DNA INFORMS HISTORY: In situ remains of an elderly woman who died after the conquest of Xaltocan in 1395 and was buried under a patio near one of the city-state’s houses.© LISA OVERHOLTZER
In the northern basin of what is now central Mexico, not far from Mexico City, the ancient Otomí people lived on an island in the middle of Lake Xaltocan. From the 11th to the 14th centuries, the town of Xaltocan developed into one of several bickering city-states in the region that eventually succumbed to conquest by the Tepanecs, and was ultimately swallowed up by the Aztec empire.
“Historical sources say the population fled,” says Christopher Morehart, an anthropology professor at Georgia State University. Oral history, recorded by the Spanish centuries later, describes a Tepanec conquest in the late 14th century that left Xaltocan empty. But the archeological record paints a different picture. Artifacts dug up from excavation sites indicate that houses were still occupied during ...
