Hunting and Husbandry at the Ancient Mexican City, Teotihuacan

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Cultivating Cities: Perspectives from the New and Old Worlds on Wild Foods, Agriculture, and Urban Subsistence Economies" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Mesoamerica is a unique example of a center of urban development that thrived in the absence of large domesticated animals. And, while turkeys and dogs have a long history of domestic production in Mesoamerica, at the metropolis of Teotihuacan, we lack clear evidence that dog and turkey husbandry were major components of the urban economy. Recently, scholars found that captive management of wild carnivorous animals and cottontail rabbits was key to sourcing animals for state rituals and domestic consumption. Nonetheless, a large proportion of animal remains recovered from Teotihuacan derive from wild-hunted animals. This project examines the role of hunting practices and animal management in supplying animals for domestic consumption at Teotihuacan, and presents new data from Tlajinga and Tlailotlacan (the Oaxacan Barrio)—two ethnically distinct neighborhoods in the southern and western sectors of the city. By integrating zooarchaeological and collagen-based identification methods with isotopic analysis, this research presents new insights into the diversity of avian fauna, and the management of turkeys and leporids consumed at the site. I argue that wild foods made up a major component of the diet at Tlajinga, while contrasting consumption patterns at the two neighborhoods emphasize the diversity of subsistence strategies employed at Teotihuacan.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Cultivating Cities: Perspectives from the New and Old Worlds on Wild Foods, Agriculture, and Urban Subsistence Economies

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32553