Carved monuments from Cerro Patlachique in the Teotihuacan Valley, Mexico

The article discusses mountain worship and pilgrimage in Mesoamerica based on recent mapping and survey data from Cerro Patlachique, located in the southern limit of the Teotihuacan Valley, Mexico. Thirtyfour unpublished stone monuments (now totaling 40 known monuments), surface ceramics, and mapping of a shrine on the summit confirm that Cerro Patlachique was an important pilgrimage site before, during, and after the Teotihuacan occupation. The iconography emphasizes mountain worship invoking the Storm God and the Water Goddess, which was likely executed during year-bearing dates of the ritual 260-day tonalpohualli (Nahua term for “count of days”) calendar. The dataset was compiled through field surveys and photographic documentation. The supplementary data includes photographs of 35 monuments in (.tif) format, which are called Elements, by the methodology of the Project Plaza of the Columns Complex. The supplementary table contains a file in (.xlsx) format with relevant information about each Element. Also included are field photographs of each element in color and grey scale, as well as 3D digital models in (.obj) format, a file with (.jpg) the texture of the model, and a file (.mtl); this file describes surface appearance properties to be applied to polygonal facets defined by the OBJ file.

Methods
Explorations at the summit of Cerro Patlachique were carried out from 2018-2022 by the Project Plaza of the Columns Complex & Ciudades Cosmicas Project (National Institute of Anthropology and History authorization numbers 401.1S.3-2018/963, 401.1S.3-2019/1058, 401.1S.3-2021/502, 401.1S.3-2022/140), as part of the ground-truth survey of archaeological features recognized by the 165 km2 Teotihuacan Valley Lidar map (Sugiyama et al. 2021, 10.1371/journal.pone.0257550). A total of 61.3 hectares was surveyed at Cerro Patlachique, resulting in the identification of 35 petroglyphs, 16 mounds, two depressions that function as water reservoirs called jagüeyes, as well as a possible avenue that connects the two main ceremonial complexes. This dataset provides photographs, photogrammetry models, and a supplementary table of the 35 petroglyphs analyzed in the article.