Teotihuacan (Other Keyword)
26-41 (41 Records)
Through an archaeological salvage project, the Quimicho archaeological site was explored for the first time. During the Prehispanic period there was a system of circulation of natural, human, and ideological resources, which different groups in different moments took advantage of. For this system to work, different routes of distribution of wealth were established, generating a cultural exchange between diverse ethnic groups. The Quimicho archaeological site, situated in the Northeast region of...
Residue Analysis of Plastered Floors and Function of the Rooms at Teopancazco, Teotihuacan (2017)
Teopancazco is a neighborhood center at Teotihuacan. It was excavated in the framework of the project Teopancazco "Teotihuacan. Elite y Gobierno" directed by Linda R. Manzanilla between 1997 and 2005). Samples from the plastered floors of the compound have been analysed at the Laboratorio de Prospección Arqueológica of the UNAM (Mexico) in order to understand the chemical enrichments of floors and the spatial distribution of activities. We show here the results of the analyses of the Xolalpan...
Reverential Termination of the Sun Pyramid Cave, Teotihuacan (2016)
Reverential termination is hypothesized for the human-made cave beneath the Sun Pyramid. While the idea of a mid-third century A.D. termination is not new and is based on radiocarbon dating and construction of blockages in the rear section of the cave and use of concrete, qualifying the termination as reverential is a refinement. The most direct information comes from examination of blockage construction, which is supported by two other lines of evidence. One also lays within the cave and...
Reverential Termination of Sun Pyramid Cave, Teotihuacan - Round 2 (2017)
The predominant view is that the paucity of material remains from the cave under the Sun Pyramid is attributable to looting, often described as exhaustive. This paper disputes that speculation, based on lack of evidence and, more convincingly, on a paucity of material remains from contexts that could not possibly have been looted any time after Teotihuacanos applied concrete to the cave in the mid-third century CE. I present evidence for timing, termination ritual, sealing of termination...
RITUAL DIVERSITY AND SOCIAL IDENTITIES: A STUDY OF MORTUARY BEHAVIORS AT TEOTIHUACAN (2009)
The research presented here confronts the issue of ritual variation and its role in structuring the social dynamics of ancient Teotihuacan, a state that dominated central Mexico during the first half-millennium A.D. Most of Teotihuacan’s urban population lived in apartment compounds located across the city, but the nature of these co-residing groups is not well understood. Even less is known about how subordinate settlements beyond the city limits were organized and to what degree they...
Seasonality in Central Mexican Painted Images of Tlaloc: From Classic to Postclassic (2016)
Tlaloc, the rain god of Central Mexico, has different seasonal avatars in painted imagery. Colonial codices document these variants in veintena festivals recorded to help Spanish friars detect survivals of indigenous religion. Rainy season imagery shows Tlaloc associated with maize plants and agricultural fertility. In contrast, imagery of the dry season emphasizes Tlaloc’s mountain aspect, because the rain god withdrew into the mountains to hold back the rainfall. The priests performed mountain...
Sounds in context. Musical instruments from Teotihuacan. (2017)
In this paper we present the advances in the organological, acoustic and contextual analysis of musical instruments excavated by Dr. Linda Manzanilla in the sectors of Teopancazco, Oztoyahualco, Tunnels and Xalla, all of them located in the archaeological site of Teotihuacan. These instruments were part of a complex system of sound communication that often accompanied the rituals and daily activities. We propose some interpretations on the use of certain instruments and their relationship with...
Talking about Epiclassic at Teotihuacan: the urban question (2015)
The collapse of Teotihuacan has traditionally marked the passage of the Classic to Epiclassic period in central Mexico.However, concepts like Epiclassic or collapse, they have different consequences if we analyze the urban center of the city or the Teotihuacan territory. In this paper , we focus on the collapse of the urban center of Teotihuacan analyzing the variability of the archaeological record that shows a very complex social process. SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of...
Teotihuacan at Night: Lighting a Prehispanic City (2017)
Teotihuacan was a large and populous city at its height with an estimated population of 100,000 people. Since it lies in an arid landscape with neither domesticated animals as a source of dung for fuel nor oils from tree seeds these fuel sources could not have been used for cooking, lighting and to a lesser degree heating. Only wood from trees and shrubs and other plant materials could have been used for fuel. These have been identified in charcoal from archaeological deposits at Teotihuacan,...
Teotihuacan Influence in the Maya Area as Documented by Archaeological Fieldwork and Museum Collections (2017)
There is extensive evidence of the exchange that occurred between Teotihuacan and the Maya area and new evidence has continued to surface in recent archaeological literature and in museum collections. This paper has several main objectives, first to revisit the history of research and analysis of iconographic symbols and epigraphy within the Maya area that notes a Teotihuacan influence. Secondly, to point out that the Maya obtained Central Mexican symbols and writing not merely for their...
Teotihuacan Style in Maya Stone: New Evidence from La Sufricaya (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Teotihuacan Entrada of 378 CE is one of the most archaeologically rich events in the Maya Lowlands. Systematic examination enables archaeologists to measure the resulting impact of Teotihuacan's presence in the Maya area. Recent excavations at the site of La Sufricaya in Petén, Guatemala, provide fresh evidence to support Teotihuacan's influence in the...
Urban growth and land use at Chicoloapan, an Epiclassic town in the southern Basin of Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Legacies of The Basin of Mexico: The Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization, Part 1" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The extensive surveys of the 1960s that culminated in Sanders, Parsons, and Santley’s pivotal 1979 volume put numerous archaeological sites on the map and advanced knowledge of the changing sociopolitical landscape of the Basin of Mexico through time. Data resulting from this work,...
Urban Palimpsest Landscapes: Interpreting the Teotihuacan LiDAR map (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. With 54% of the world’s population living in urban zones, investigating the nature and impact of urban centers has never been more relevant. Archaeology’s unique ability to reconstruct prehistoric urban systems across the long dureé makes the Pre-Columbian metropolis of...
Urbanism and Domestic Life in the Tlajinga District, Teotihuacan: New Research (2016)
Teotihuacan’s Tlajinga district comprises a cluster of neighborhoods of primarily common status apartment compounds, covering approximately 1km2 in the south of the city. Previous investigations at one of them, 33:S3W1 or “Tlajinga 33,” provided valuable information concerning daily life in the urban periphery. The Proyecto Arqueológico Tlajinga Teotihuacan (PATT) has thus far involved excavations at two other compounds (designated 17:S3E1 and 18:S3E1) and along the southern extension of the...
Use-wear Analysis and Obsidian Tool Functions Before and After Teotihuacan (2016)
Obsidian was one of the most important commodities for residents of ancient central Mexico before and after the great city of Teotihuacan. While previous research on stone tools in Mesoamerican archaeology has focused mostly on identifying production sequences, workshop locations, and market exchange, this presentation highlights how different technological forms of obsidian tools were actually used by household residents for specific tasks. A sample of 464 obsidian artifacts from the sites of...
Watering Tlaloc's Gardens: Ancient Irrigation in the Teotihuacan Valley (2016)
As showcased by the "Feeding Teotihuacan" symposium at the 79th Annual Meetings of the Society, there has been a surge of interest in understanding Teotihuacano agriculture or food production. Nevertheless, there is still the glaring question of how the ancient inhabitants dealt with water collection and irrigation in the semi-arid environment of the Northeastern Basin of Mexico. Although canal systems have been previously identified and excavated in various sites throughout the Teotihuacan...