What Happened after the Fall of Teotihuacan?
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "What Happened after the Fall of Teotihuacan?" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
The great metropolis of Teotihuacan in Central Mexico was a unique settlement in Classic Mesoamerica due to its huge size, orthogonal urban grid, and multiethnic society. The contradiction between the corporate base or the ruling council and the competitive behavior of the intermediate elite tore the multiethnic pact and provoked a revolt that set the core of the city on fire, the settings associated with the ruling elite. This event was contemporary with the heavy impact of urban sprawl in its immediate environment as well as a long-lasting drought in Central Mexico. The effects of the fall of Teotihuacan impacted all Mesoamerica. Most of the population fled from the city and was replaced by newcomers. This symposium will review the information we have on the Epiclassic and Postclassic groups that lived in the valley of Teotihuacan after the collapse of the Classic metropolis. The project I headed since 1987, “The Study of Tunnels and Caves in Teotihuacan,” offered a vast amount of information on subsistence; manufacture of objects; and funerary, fertility, and deity rituals of the Coyotlatelco people with links to the Bajío region, the Mazapa groups with relations to the Tula Valley, and the Aztecs.
Other Keywords
Highland Mesoamerica: Postclassic •
Caves and Rockshelters •
Geoarchaeology •
Ritual and Symbolism •
Highland Mesoamerica: Classic •
Chronology •
Zooarchaeology •
historical ecology •
Epiclassic •
Cánidos
Geographic Keywords
United Mexican States (Country) •
North America (Continent) •
Hidalgo (State / Territory) •
Colima (State / Territory) •
Queretaro (State / Territory) •
Michoacan (State / Territory) •
Mexico (State / Territory) •
Morelos (State / Territory) •
Jalisco (State / Territory) •
Nayarit (State / Territory)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-9 of 9)
- Documents (9)
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Beyond Teotihuacan: The Decline of Teotihuacan's Sociopolitical System (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "What Happened after the Fall of Teotihuacan?" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Toward the end of the sixth century AD, a great fire destroyed the ceremonial center of Teotihuacan, capital of the largest urban development in Mesoamerica. This event was the culmination of a long process of disintegration of Teotihuacan’s macroregional system, a process that began during the ancient city’s apogee. This presentation will...
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Chemical Analyses of Activity Areas at Cueva de las Varillas in Teotihuacan (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "What Happened after the Fall of Teotihuacan?" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We present the chemical analysis of human activities in a cave occupied during the Epiclassic and Postclassic periods (AD 600–1500) at Teotihuacan. The archaeological context is formed by different cultural occupations within the same space, but during different periods of time. Due to the cultural and temporal diversity, we implemented a...
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Chronology of the Post-Teotihuacan Occupations in the Teotihuacan Valley (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "What Happened after the Fall of Teotihuacan?" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The moment of the collapse of Teotihuacan and the subsequent occupation of the area by other cultures are still subjects of debate concerning this important urban center in Mesoamerica. Understanding what happened after the collapse and dating the different reoccupations of Teotihuacan can be challenging due to different factors, including...
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Geophysical Prospecting of the Teotihuacan Subsoil (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "What Happened after the Fall of Teotihuacan?" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A geophysical study was carried out on the eastern flank of the Pyramid of the Sun to define the continuation of a tunnel discovered in 1974 under the western entrance of the pyramid. The investigation was carried out in the vicinity of Las Varillas cave, a structure excavated by settlers to obtain construction materials employed to build the...
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Introduction: What Happened after the Fall of Teotihuacan? (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "What Happened after the Fall of Teotihuacan?" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The fall of the metropolis of Teotihuacan with the 570 CE great fire in the core of the settlement shook Mesoamerica. Demographic displacements, balkanization into small polities, military competition between sites, were all events of the so-called Epiclassic. This symposium will review data from my interdisciplinary project “The Study of...
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Los cánidos en las ocupaciones post-teotihuacanas (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "What Happened after the Fall of Teotihuacan?" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Derivado del proyecto arqueológico “Estudio de túneles y Cuevas en Teotihuacan” es una colección de 455 cánidos que fueron estudiados para conocer su diversidad y la forma como interactuaron estos animales con los hombres en las diversas épocas (siglos VII-XX). En la colección fueron reconocidos perros comunes, xoloitzcuintles, híbridos de...
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Reassessing a Postclassic Subterranean Ceremonial Complex at Teotihuacan (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "What Happened after the Fall of Teotihuacan?" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Life in the ancient city of Teotihuacan did not end with the collapse of Classic period society, but rather, until the constitution of the current zone of archaeological monuments, the area was a place of residence, rituals, and somewhat later, pastures and crops. We must remember that the period from AD 600 until 1521 occupies a broader...
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Regional Settlement, Subsistence, and Environment after the Demise of Teotihuacan (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "What Happened after the Fall of Teotihuacan?" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Significant changes in sociopolitical and economic organization following the collapse of the Teotihuacan state between the sixth and seventh centuries CE are evident in settlement patterns as well as archaeological materials including ceramics and lithics. The potential magnitude of this event and subsequent ramifications within the valley...
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The Tunnels in Teotihuacan: Geology and Technology to Extract Tezontle (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "What Happened after the Fall of Teotihuacan?" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper aims to review how the Teotihuacanos took advantage of the available geological resources for the construction of the city. The study of the geological characteristics of the Teotihuacan Valley has revealed that what we presently observe is the consequence of the long-term volcanic activity produced in several steps. First, a...