Materialization of Time, Space, Nature, and Societies Denoted by New Lidar Maps at Teotihuacan

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Ancient Landscapes and Cosmic Cities out of Eurasia: Transdisciplinary Studies with New Lidar Mapping" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Primary archaeological data indicate that the current reconstruction of the city of Teotihuacan was apparently built with a master plan around AD 200. Three major monuments were harmoniously integrated into a rigorously calculated city layout with functional and/or symbolic units including the Avenue of the Dead, plazas, administrative facilities, or residential compounds. We have mapped, excavated, and consolidated buildings since the 1990s, recording architectural features, sculptures, or murals with total stations, drone-mounted lidar, Slam-lidar, 3D scanners, and photogrammetric devices. To explore architectural principles, artistic aesthetics, and integrated ideological factors like worldview or concepts of time and space, we analyze populous urban zones, surrounding cultivation lands, and mountaintop areas of Cerro Gordo and Patlachique, where Teotihuacanos left their concerns to landscape and astronomy. Taking advantage of ArcAstroVR, a new astroarchaeology program built on Stellarium, we reconstruct ancient skyscapes with masonry buildings precisely defined by our maps and analyze the city’s standardized orientations, dimensions, and spatial distributions, often reflecting astronomical phenomena of particular periods and time. We particularly test previous interpretations of the city’s N-S and E-W axes and argue in archaeological contexts the sociopolitical implications of advanced astronomical knowledge and the invention of Mesoamerican calendar systems blueprinted at Teotihuacan.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Ancient Landscapes and Cosmic Cities out of Eurasia: Transdisciplinary Studies with New Lidar Mapping   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39705.0