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Ancient Mesoamerica, 5 (1994). 1-1 1 Copyright O 1994 Cambridge University Press. Printed in the U.S.A.

THE SIZE OF THE AZTEC CITY OF YAUTEPEC
Urban survey in central Mexico

Michael E. Smithla Cynthia Heath-Smithlb Ronald Kohlerlc Joan Odessla Sharon Spanogleld and Timothy Sullivane
Department of Anthropology, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY 12222, USA blnstitute forMesoamerican Studies, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY 12222, USA CDepartmentof Anthropology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USA dDepartment of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA eDepartment of Anthropology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA

Abstract
In 1992 we conducted an intensive archaeological surface survey in andaround the modern town of Yautepec, Morelos, Mexico. Our goals were to determine the size and extent of the Aztec-period city of Yautepec, and to gather data on its spatial organization. This article describes the methods used and the results obtained toward achieving the first goal. Aztec Yautepec covered approximately 209 ha; this area is partly covered by the modern town and partly by open fields.Late Postclassic settlement was clustered around a structure that today is the largest known Aztec palace in central Mexico. We generate ethnohistoric and archaeological population estimates for Yautepec and discuss the city in relation to other Aztec urban settlements in Morelos and the Basin of Mexico.

The Aztec are widely recognized as a heavily urbanized culture, but modern scholars knowvery little about the nature of ~ z t e c cities and towns outside of the imperial capital Tenoch' titlan. Tenochtitlan was described by early Spanish observers (see Calnek 1976; Lombardo de Ruiz 1973; Rojas 1986), but other Aztec settlements received little comment in the written record. The Spanish practice of building colonial towns on top of existing Aztec towns and cities (Gibson 1964;McAndrew 1965) produced a situation where today the remains of nearly all Aztec urban sites lie buried under colonial and modern settlements. As a result, archaeologists can rarely determine the size of Aztec urban settlements, and for all but a few examples, issues such as spatial organization are not amenable to archaeological analysis. In this article we present preliminary results of a surveydesigned to investigate the Aztec city of Yautepec, which was located in and around the modern town of the same name in the Mexican state of Morelos (Figure 1). By a combination of still poorly understood historical circumstances, the growth of Yautepec in colonial and modern times has occurred primarily to the north of the Aztec settlement. Consequently, a large part of Aztec Yautepec has been onlyminimally disturbed. Through a program of intensive surface inspection and systematic surface collection, we are able to trace the size and extent of the Aztec city with a high degree of confidence.
'We use the term "Aztec" to designate the Nahuatl-speaking peoples of highland central Mexico in the Late Postclassic period (ca. A.D. 1350-1550). Most of the discussion in this article focuses on theareas of Morelos and the Basin of Mexico.

BACKGROUND Archaeological Research at Yautepec Yautepec's status as a Conquest-period settlement is known from references in various early colonial written sources. These sources include Aztec conquest and tribute lists (e.g., the Codex Mendoza [Berdan and Anawalt 1992:111:8r, 24r]), works of the chroniclers (e.g., Duran 1967:11:247), and Spanishadministrative documents (e.g., descriptions of the encomienda of Hernan Cortes; see Riley 1973). Although Yautepec appears often in

A Mexrca C I r A

YAUTEPEC

vaute ec

0 Modern Towns
contour inlelral
I ,

200 m

Figure 1. The location of Yautepec in Morelos.

Smith et al. ethnohistoric documents (see Maldonado 1990; Smith 1994), most instances merely mention the city in passing, and...