An Introduction to the History of Teotihuacan

Mesoamerica's First Metropolis in the Early Classic

Jun 18, 2009

The Mesoamerican Early Classic (200-600 CE) saw the zenith of the city centre in highland Mexico called Teotihuacán.

Teotihuacán is one of the most iconic and mysterious of Mexico’s many Pre-Columbian cities. It is also one of the earliest and its importance had ramifications throughout Mesoamerica.

City Layout and Monuments

At its peak, the city had an estimated population of 100,000, a staggering number anywhere in the world at that time. The city also exhibits a level of planning in its layout which makes it unique among the other accreted centres in Mesoamerica.

The city rests upon a landscape that, to the Mesoamerican mind, is very powerful: its grand Pyramid of the Sun was aligned with nearby mountain Cerro Gordo, whence also comes the spring that is Teotihuacán’s fresh water supply. A cave runs under the Pyramid of the Sun. Mountains and caves are both powerful symbols in many Mesoamerican mythologies. They emulate the mountains in their temples, reaching to the heavens, and caves are gates to the underworld.

Teotihuacan’s Trade Network

At the same time, they had access to some of the region’s finest mineral deposits: obsidian, associated with the underworld and also used in a vast range of tools and weapons, and jade, its verdant hue making more precious to Mesoamericans than gold. Pachuca obsidian, a unique form of obsidian which had both the green colour and the practical applications were their pride, examples of which have been found as far away as Belize.

Social Hierarchy and Leadership

Exactly the nature of this society is slightly unclear: the city is arranged in apartment blocks, believed to hold extended families or people of a particular calling, such as priests. The designs of the apartments are basically the same, but the quality and décor denote the social standing of the inhabitants. There are palace complexes, indicative of an oligarchic society, which briefly went clearly monarchical in the Third Century with the construction and sacrifices accompanying the Feathered Serpent Palace, and at one stage, an overthrow of that a ruling dynasty, evidenced by the Palace being walled off in the Fifth Century. Depictions of individual rulers are rare; the idea of a ruler was much more important. He and other officials were a public institution, not persons.

Imperialism and Legacy

Teotihuacán’s also commanded an army, and is believed to have maintained a kind of military academy. From the Fifth Century it subjugated its immediate neighbors who had resources they wanted. While they did not command an ‘empire’ in the sense of the much later Aztecs, they made their influence known. As far north as the southern United States and south to Honduras, architectural similarities, goods and symbolism all show the influence of Teotihuacán. The Maya city of Kaminaljuyu contains Teotihuacán-style structures suggestive of an embassy or mercantile enclave. The Zapotecs have records of state visits from Teotihuacan. Kings in Kaminaljuyu, Tikal and Copan all make use of emblems of Teotihuacán in their statues of themselves, and use that example to legitimate their rule. Teotihuacan princes may actually have struck out to form their own dynasties abroad.

Much later on, the Aztecs came upon the site when they entered central Mexico and perceived it to be the place where the gods met to create the world, calling it the Place Where Time Began, and leaving devotional offerings among the ruins, and even excavating some of them.

Teotihuacan, however, did not last far beyond 500 CE. Managing a population of such magnitude was a new problem in Early Classic Mesoamerica. And while Teotihuacan’s location was commercially viable, the semiarid environment meant that agriculture on the necessary scale was not sustainable. Ultimately, the population diminished to a quarter of its grandest scale, and finally it was abandoned altogether. But its example remained formidable ever after.

The Maya and Teotihuacan: Reinterpreting Early Classic Interaction. Edited by Geoffrey E. Braswell. University of Texas Press, Austin. Pgs 337-356

1999 Lords of Tikal: Rulers of an AncientMayaCity. Thames and Hudson Ltd., London.

2004 Ancient Mexico and Central America: Archaeology and Culture History. Thames and Hudson Ltd., London.

The copyright of the article An Introduction to the History of Teotihuacan in Archaeological Buildings is owned by Alex Graham-Heggie. Permission to republish An Introduction to the History of Teotihuacan in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.