Teotihuacán
Teotihuacán was the most famous city of the America précolombienne. The name indicates also the civilization which it dominated and which with its maximum extension included most of the Mésoamérique.
The city is with the current site of the municipality of San Juan Teotihuacán, located in the State of Mexico City at the Mexico, with approximately 40 kilometers in the North-East of Mexico City and which recovers an total surface area of 82,66 km ² ().
In fact the Aztèques gave its current name to the city, several centuries after its fall. It can be translated “the place where the men become gods”. Recently a Glyphe representing the city was translated “the place of the invaluable sacrifice”.
Archaeological excavations showed that Teotihuacán was a multiethnic city with distinct districts for the Zapotèques, the Mixtèques or the Mayas. The Totonaques always affirmed that they were the builders, remarks confirmed later by the Aztec ones. The city was also mentioned under the name of Tollan , name which will indicate later centuries the capital Toltèque Tula ( Tollan Xicocotitlan in Nahuatl).
History
Teotihuacán is a name Nahuatl meaning “the place where the men become gods”. Indeed, according to a legend, it is the place where the gods met to create the men.
The construction of the city began towards -300, the Pyramid of the Sun was completed in -150. The city knew its apogee between 150 and 450 of our era. It was then the center of an important civilization. The city recovered 30 km ² and sheltered a population of more than 150.000, even 200.000 inhabitants. Teotihuacán was an important layer of Obsidienne and a place of exchanges with the other political entities of Mésoamérique, in particular for the trade of the Jade, of the Copal, the onyx, the aromatic resin of the coast of the Gulf of Mexico or caudal feathers of the Quetzal come from the Maya country.
The principal central avenue of the city, the “Alley of dead” ( Miccaohtli in nahuatl), today is still bordered of an impressive architecture cérémoniale, including/understanding immense the Pyramide of the Sun (the second more important pyramid of the Nouveau World after the Grande Pyramid of Cholula) and Pyramide of the Moon , the Temple of Quetzalcoatl or Temple of the Plumed serpent and of many palates and temples of less importance.
The Aztec ones named these pyramids according to their own beliefs but the Pyramid of the Sun was actually dedicated to Tlaloc and is built on a cave, probably crowned. The contents of this cave were unfortunately catch, perhaps as of the pre-Hispanic time. The Pyramid of the Moon was dedicated to the wife of Tlaloc, Chalchiuhtlicue, and was also used as funerary place for the important people of the city.
Unfortunately, no text nonideographic of this city exists or existed. The city however is mentioned on certain Maya monuments, showing that the nobility of Teotihuacán travelled and contracted matrimonial alliances with local potentates until the area of the current Honduras. Maya glyphes refer to an individual called by the historians the “lanceuse Owl of lance” and which would be an emperor of Teotihuacán having reigned nearly 60 years and which would have imposed his/her parents as kings of Tikal and Uaxactun on the current site of the Guatemala. The majority of what one can know of the civilization of Teotihuacán come from the murals which decorate the site and others, the such Murals of Wagner, which are in particular collections.
One initially believed that in the neighborhoods of the VII {{E}} - VIII {{E}} century S, the city had been put at bag and had been burned by invaders, probably of the Chichimèques. However, of the more recent excavations seem to indicate than the fire of the city was limited to the structures and dwellings associated above all with the leading class. The poorer slums and districts were almost not touched. Many affirms from now on which it is the proof that the fire was caused by a riot inside the city and that the theory of the invasion is distorted. Indeed, like the first archaeological work focused themselves on the palates and the temples, places attended by the elites, and that all these sites showed traces of fire, the archeologists concluded from it that the whole of the city had burned. However, it appears now that the destruction of the city was limited to the symbols of the capacity: certain statues seem to be methodically destroyed and their dispersed fragments.
On the other hand, the defenders of the theory of the invasion are based on murals of Cacaxtla, a rival city, in which one found a painting of battle representing the glyphe of Teotihuacán on a pyramid in flames, symbol of a city conquered in Mésoamérique. That would like to say that there was an attack against Teotihuacán conducted by the inhabitants of Cacaxtla. However it was not rare at the time potentates allot a victory wrongfully.
The archeological site
The memory of the imposing ruins of forever lost Teotihuacán. At the time of Aztec, a pilgrimage moved towards the city in ruins which was related to the myth of Tollan, the place where the sun would have been created; since the 19th century, it is one of the places most visited with the Mexico.
Not very important archaeological excavations were led to the 19th century. In 1905, more important projects of excavations and restoration started at the instigation of Léopold Batres. In 1910, to celebrate the centenary of the independence of Mexico, the Pyramid of the Sun was restored. Teotihuacán remains a destination appraisal of the tourists. A museum was open there. Archaeological excavations nowadays continue in order to improve knowledge of the civilization of Teotihuacán.
Chronology of the site
According to the museum of the site of Teotihuacán:- phase Patlachique (100 av. J. - C. until 50 apr. J. - C.): occupation from 4 to 6 km;
- phase Tzacualli (50-150 apr. J. - C.): beginning of the construction of the Roadway of Deaths, the pyramids of the Sun and the Moon;
- phase Miccaotli (150-250 apr. J. - C.): construction of the Pyramid of the Plumed serpent and the Citadel; the city reaches its maximum expansion: it occupies 22,5 km and would have counted approximately 45.000 inhabitants;
- phase Tlamimilolpa (250-450 apr. J. - C.): artistic production with an esthetic high degree; construction of the pyramid leant with the Pyramid of the Plumed serpent and the building of the emplumées Conches; relations with the Maya zone and the coast of the Gulf of Mexico; the population is estimated at 65.000 inhabitants;
- phase Xolalpan (450-650 apr. J. - C.): diffusion of the cultural features of Teotihuacán through all Mésoamérique; construction of the complexes habitationnels, monks and administrative of Tetitla, Yayahuala, Atetelco, Tepantitla, Xolalpan, Tlamimilolpa; increase in the surface of occupation of 20,5 km; the population is estimated at 85.000;
- phase Metepec (650-750 apr. J. - C.): decline; the population falls from 70.000 to 2.000 inhabitants.
External bonds
- Page of Archaeological Research Institute of the University of Arizona devoted to Teotihuacán
- Files photographs of the site of Teotihuacán
- Teotihuacán: The Metropolis of the Gods as well as the cradle of the Fifth Sun
- the page of the site World Mysteries devoted to Téotihuacan
- Discovered of Teotihuacán in photographs