What is the history of Teotihuacan?
Archeological evidence suggests that Teotihuacan was a multi-ethnic city, and while the official languages used by Teotihuacan is unknown, Totonac and Nahua, early forms of which were spoken by the Aztecs, seem to be highly plausible. This apparent regionally diverse population of Teotihuacan can be traced back to a natural disaster that occurred prior to its population boom. At one point in time, Teotihuacan was rivaled by another basin power, Cuicuilco. Both cities, roughly the same size and hubs for trade, both were productive centers of artisans and commerce. Roughly around 100 BC however, the power dynamic changed when Mount Xitle, an active volcano, erupted, and heavily impacted Cuicuilco and the farmland that supported it. It is believed that the later exponential growth of Teotihuacan's population was due to the subsequent migration of those displaced by the eruption. While this eruption is referenced as being the primary cause for the mass exodus, recent advancements of dating have shed light on an even earlier eruption. The eruption of Popocatepetl in the middle of the first century preceded that of Xitle, and is believed to have begun the aforementioned degradation of agricultural lands, and structural damage to the city; Xitle's eruption further instigated the abandonment of Cuicuilco.
Why is Teotihuacan called Teotihuacan?
The term has been glossed as "birthplace of the gods", or "place where gods were born", reflecting Nahua creation myths that were said to occur in Teotihuacan. Nahuatl scholar Thelma D. Sullivan interprets the name as "place of those who have the road of the gods." This is because the Aztecs believed that the gods created the univers e at that site. The name is pronounced [te.oːtiːˈwakaːn] in Nahuatl, with the accent on the syllable wa. By normal Nahuatl orthographic conventions, a written accent would not appear in that position. Both this pronunciation and the Spanish pronunciation [te.otiwaˈkan] are used, and both spellings appear in this article.
What was the largest population in the Basin of Mexico during its occupation?
Human sacrifices found at the foundations of La Ciudadela. Teotihuacan was one of, or was, the largest population in the Basin of Mexico during its occupation. Teotihuacan was a large pre-historic city that underwent massive population growth and sustained it over most of the city's occupancy.
When did the population of Teotihuacan grow?
In the Tzacualli phase (c. 1–150 CE) , Teotihuacan saw a population growth of around 60 to 80 thousand people, most of which are believed to have come from the Mexican basin. Following this growth however the influx of new residence slowed, and evidence suggests that, by the Miccaotli phase, c. 200 CE.
How many square miles is Teotihuacan?
The city covered eight square miles; 80 to 90 percent of the total population of the valley resided in Teotihuacan. Apart from the pyramids, Teotihuacan is also anthropologically significant for its complex, multi-family residential compounds, the Avenue of the Dead, and its vibrant, well-preserved murals.
When was the first human settlement in Mesoamerica?
The first human establishment in the area dates back to 600 BC, and until 200 BCE there were scattered small villages on the site of the future city of Teotihuacan. It is estimated that the total population of the Teotihuacan Valley during this time was approximately 6,000 inhabitants. During the period from 100 BC to 750 AD, Teotihuacan had evolved into a huge urban and administrative center with cultural influences throughout the broader Mesoamerica region.
What does Teohuacan mean?
Archeologist Veronica Ortega of the National Institute of Anthropology and History states that the city appears to have actually been named "Teohuacan", meaning "City of the Sun" rather than "City of the Gods", as the current name suggests.
What language did the Teotihuacan speak?
The Teotihuacan people spoke Nahuatl language. The Pyramid of the Sun determined the orientation of the city. At the beginning of the Teotihuacan, culture society was matriarchal.
Where is the Teotihuacan civilization located?
The Teotihuacan Civilization: Important Facts. The archeological zone of Teotihuacán, México, is located approximately 40 miles northeast of México City. There is little doubt that Teotihuacán was a major city-state that housed a complex urban society. Teotihuacan was established in the year 200 B.c.
What were the main crops of Teotihuacan?
The people of Teotihuacan were farmers. The main crops they harvested were corn, pumpkin, nopal and maguey. Tools for cultivation came from obsidian and rocks, as the mixed stone, to process the fiber of maguey. Their clothes were made from maguey fibers and colored with pigments extracted from plants and minerals.
What are the most important pyramids in Teotihuacan history?
The Teotihuacan worshiped various gods, so they were polytheistic. The most important pyramids are the Temple of the Sun and of the Moon. The Pyramid of the Moon and its ceremonial square were called the Palace of Quetzalcoatl, which means divine butterfly.
What is the Mexican birthday song?
Las Mañanitas is the traditional Mexican birthday song. It is so popular that it is now sung in most Latin American countries. Usually this beautiful song is sung when the birthday person wakes up or before blowing the candles on the …
What became of the people of Teotihuacan?
Teotihuacan, also known as the “ birthplace of the Gods ”, is an ancient city that held high importance among the Aztecs (Mexica).
The Teotihuacan life
Founded in 400 B.C., Teotihuacan covered a small area of eight square miles. The city boasted several temples, palaces, and pyramids, including the famous Pyramid of the Moon and the Pyramid of the Sun. At its peak, the town homed over 200,000 people.
The collapse of the ancient city
Despite the harmony between the people and the peaceful life they lived, the city was suddenly reduced to ashes.
What is the axis of the city of Teotihuacan?
The city of Teotihuacan is aligned, like other Mesoamerican cities such as La Venta, on a north-south axis. This alignment is made explicit by the central artery, known as the Avenue of the Dead, which extends more than 1.5 miles across the city. Entering the city from the south, the Avenue of the Dead leads visitors to the city’s three main architectural monuments, the Ciudadela, a sunken plaza at the southernmost tip that contained temples, including the Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent (above), the Pyramid of the Sun further down the avenue (below), and the Pyramid of the Moon (top of page) located at the northernmost point. In the distance and behind the Pyramid of the Moon, visitors can also catch a glimpse of the impressive Cerro Gordo, an extinct volcano that frames the pyramid and demonstrates the harmonious relationship between architecture and natural topography. Running perpendicular to the Avenue of the Dead another street follows the San Juan River. These axes help to define the grid of intersecting horizontal and vertical corridors that structure and organize the city plan. The urban grid helped to establish order for religious, domestic, and commercial complexes and a structural coherence that supported the management of the city and its population. Thousands of apartment complexes also reflect the ordered planning of the site.
What is Teotihuacan's figurative art?
Considering the cosmopolitan nature of the city, it had been thought that Teotihuacan’s figurative art was not portraiture, but rather generic representations that sought to unify a diverse population.
What is the mural of Teotihuacan?
For example on the walls of the apartment complex in the Tepantitla district, we find an elaborate mural showing a figure often identified as the Great Goddess and more recently as a mountain-tree. The female figure stands frontally while a blossoming tree with butterflies and spiders emerges from her head (potentially a reference to the heavenly realm), while her feet remain attached to the underworld. The inverted u-shape found below the mountain-tree may function as a symbolic womb, similar to the cave found at the Pyramid of the Sun.
When was Teotihuacan built?
Largely created before 250 C.E., Teotihuacan is a testament to the ambition of its people, who built the first American city on a grid plan. Pyramid of the Moon seen from the Avenue of the Dead with Cerro Gordo in the distance, Teotihuacan, Mexico.
Where is the mural from Tepantitla?
Reconstruction of mural from Tepantitla in Teotihuacan in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. Reconstruction of mural from Tepantitla in Teotihuacan in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.
Where is Teotihuacan located?
The ruins of Teotihuacán, one of the largest cities in the ancient world, lie about 50 km (31 miles) Northeast of Mexico City. It’s believed that the city was established in 1 B.C. By the year 2 A.D., it was a thriving metropolis with a population of about 150,000 to 200,000 residents. It was given its name by the Aztecs who made pilgrimages to ...
How big is Teotihuacan?
The architectural layout of Teotihuacán indicates that it would have been perfect for an ancient spaceport. It is 20 square kilometers (12 sq. miles) and has a “precise grid layout.”
What are the two pyramids in Teotihuacan?
Two great pyramids dominate the Teotihuacán landscape with a smaller one nearby: 1 The Pyramid of the Sun at one end of the Avenue of the Dead 2 The nearby Pyramid of the Moon 3 The Temple of Quetzalcoatl Archeologists discovered that their “size, layout and particularly their positions relative to each other almost exactly match those of the three pyramids at Giza in Egypt .”
What minerals were found in Teotihuacan?
Both mica and mercury — minerals that play an integral role in today’s aerospace industry — have been discovered in Teotihuacán’s ruins.
Where are the ruins of Teotihuacan?
The ruins of Teotihuacán, one of the largest cities in the ancient world, lie about 50 km (31 miles) Northeast of Mexico City. It’s believed that the city was established in 1 B.C. By the year 2 A.D., it was a thriving metropolis with a population of about 150,000 to 200,000 residents. It was given its name by the Aztecs who made pilgrimages to the ruins in later years.
What is the name of the Mayan city?
The place: Teotihuacán, one of the largest Mayan cities in ancient Mexico. Its name means “City of the Gods,” or “the place where men become gods.”. Despite the ancient time period, the civilization was a bustling metropolis, housing sophisticated infrastructure, engineering, and technology. Suddenly, the residents of the great city disappeared in ...
What made it difficult to learn about Teotihuacan?
One thing that’s made it difficult to learn about Teotihuacan is the absence of a formal written language. By contrast, the Maya, along with other Mesoamerican peoples, used a formalized written script, and left thousands of inscriptions and other texts for archaeologists to study.
What led the residents to leave Teotihuacan?
What led the residents to leave — drought, famine, warfare — is unknown. But even after it lay empty, the city’s scale and impressive monumental structures lent it an aura of magnificence.
When was Teotihuacan built?
Teotihuacan was built more than two thousand years ago, and was a flourishing city by the second century A.D. The city itself was built according to a rigorous design plan — it is laid out geometrically, and features a complex network of irrigation canals drawn from the nearby San Juan river.
Where did the Totonacs come from?
Others have suggested the Totonacs, a culture about which less is known, though Totonac descendants still live in Mexico today. Another theory is that the city’s genesis came about as the result of a natural disaster, perhaps a volcanic eruption, that forced many people from their homes.
Did Teotihuacan speak a language?
While the people of Teotihuacan did use a written notational system, it doesn’t appear to constitute an actual language. For this reason, archaeologists still don’t know what language (or languages) the city’s residents spoke. Also unclear is the how the city was governed.
Teotihuacan was not built by the Aztecs! Just named by them
Yes, you heard it right. Teotihuacan was built between 100 BC – 400 AD, long before the Aztecs arrived in the Mexico Valley.
Pyramid of the Sun is one of the tallest in the world
One of the most amazing facts about Teotihuacan is that it is home to one of the tallest pyramids in the world.
Similarities between Teotihuacan and Chichen Itza are uncanny
Chichen Itza and Teotihuacan are located on two opposite sides of Mexico. The distance between them is nearly 900 miles (1450km). Yet, we see a number of similarities between the two civilizations, some of them outright incredible.
Mural collection of Teotihuacan will blow your mind away
Well, this is something I was not even aware of while planning my visit to Teotihuacan from Mexico City.
The Teotihuacan script has not yet been deciphered!
Even though Teotihuacanos were skillful painters, they never got around to developing a written script. Or may be they did but we haven’t gotten around to deciphering it yet.
Main deity at Teotihuacan was a female
Teotihuacan was most probably a polytheistic society but their primary deity could have been a female.
Teotihuacan was once a major exporter of obsidian
When we talk about trade and industry, we know for sure that Teotihuacan was a rich kingdom. Majority of its wealth came from the monopoly that it had on the trade of obsidian (a black-colored semiprecious stone) in the region.
Overview
Teotihuacan /teɪˌoʊtiːwəˈkɑːn/ (Spanish: Teotihuacán) (Spanish pronunciation: [teotiwa'kan] (listen); modern Nahuatl pronunciation (help·info)) is an ancient Mesoamerican city located in a sub-valley of the Valley of Mexico, which is located in the State of Mexico, 40 kilometers (25 mi) northeast of modern-day Mexico City. Teotihuacan is known today as the site of many of the most archi…
Name
The name Teōtīhuacān was given by the Nahuatl-speaking Aztecs centuries after the fall of the city around 550 CE. The term has been glossed as "birthplace of the gods", or "place where gods were born", reflecting Nahua creation myths that were said to occur in Teotihuacan. Nahuatl scholar Thelma D. Sullivan interprets the name as "place of those who have the road of the gods." This is because th…
History
The first human establishment in the area dates back to 600 BCE and until 200 BCE there were scattered small villages on the site of the future city of Teotihuacan. It is estimated that the total population of the Teotihuacan Valley during this time was approximately 6,000 inhabitants. During the period from 100 BC to 750 AD, Teotihuacan had evolved into a huge urban and administrat…
Culture
Archeological evidence suggests that Teotihuacan was a multi-ethnic city, and while the official languages used by Teotihuacan is unknown, Totonac and Nahua, early forms of which were spoken by the Aztecs, seem to be highly plausible. This apparent regionally diverse population of Teotihuacan can be traced back to a natural disaster that occurred prior to its population boom. A…
Archeological site
Knowledge of the huge ruins of Teotihuacan was never completely lost. After the fall of the city, various squatters lived on the site. During Aztec times, the city was a place of pilgrimage and identified with the myth of Tollan, the place where the sun was created. Today, Teotihuacan is one of the most noted archeological attractions in Mexico.
Threat from development
The archeological park of Teotihuacan is under threat from development pressures. In 2004, the governor of Mexico state, Arturo Montiel, gave permission for Wal-Mart to build a large store in the third archeological zone of the park. According to Sergio Gómez Chávez, an archeologist and researcher for Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) fragments of an…
See also
• Asteroid 293477 Teotihuacan
• Cerro de la Estrella, a large Teotihuacano-styled pyramid in what is now part of Mexico City
• List of archaeoastronomical sites by country
• List of megalithic sites
Further reading
• Berrin, Kathleen; Esther Pasztory (1993). Teotihuacan: Art from the City of the Gods. New York: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-23653-6. OCLC 28423003.
• Braswell, Geoffrey E. (2003). "Introduction: Reinterpreting Early Classic Interaction". In Geoffrey E. Braswell (ed.). The Maya and Teotihuacan: Reinterpreting Early Classic Interaction. Austin: University of Texas Press. pp. 1–44. ISBN 978-0-292-70587-6. OCLC 49936017.