The Multiplicity of Murals: Translating Landscapes at Teotihuacan

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Teotihuacan: Multidisciplinary Research on Mesoamerica's Classic Metropolis" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The murals at Teotihuacan have become a common source of fascination in the archaeology and scholarly considerations of the site. Although the site itself may need no introduction, the murals that decorate its walls have been studied with a level of uncertainty. Often depicting complex and abstract representations of landscapes and deities, these polychrome works created a style that spread from Teotihuacan and was later collected by major museums around the world. The murals become particularly interesting when seen not purely from a decorative or didactic point of view, but rather as activating devices and 3D spaces functioning in 2D depictions. The mural schemes at Teotihuacan serve a cartographic function as well, created as a way for the Teotihuacanos to visually map, understand, and metaphorically access the spaces they inhabited and the realms beyond their reach. In this paper, I will explore the messages mediated by the decorated surfaces of Teotihuacan, and present an alternative view of their function and capacity for transformation in the Classic period site.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Teotihuacan: Multidisciplinary Research on Mesoamerica's Classic Metropolis

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32252