<pCollege of Environmental Design
Department of Architecture, UC Berkeley
Architecture Slide Library
Department of Architecture Architecture 170A College of Environmental Design Fall, 1995 Study Aid for Sept. 21, 1995
We are studying Teotihuacan, a site destroyed by 750 CE but held sacred in the form of ruins by the Aztecs of the 16th C CE. Teotihuacan was the cultural wellspring for civilizations which arose throughout Highland Mexico, or the Valley of Mexico (between Mexico's two coastal ranges, 7200 ft. in elevation, about 3024 square miles). In the Valley of Mexico were a series of huge lakes, the largest Lake Texcoco.
Influences upon Teotihuacan: Olmec interventions; the Tlatilco culture, Cuicuilco, the cylindrical pyramid near present University of Mexico in Mexico City.
Olmecs ("the rubber people" so-called). Most famous sites are San Lorenzo, La Venta, and Tres Zopotes in the Olmec heartland in Veracruz and Tabasco. Sculptures and iconography: Figures have attenuated heads and sometimes wear head gear of two distinct types, perhaps related to warfare or the ball game. Were-Jaguar child-like figurines with snarling mouths have both human and feline characteristics are common.
La Venta (ca. 1100-400 BCE) ceremonial center and probably city near the Gulf of Mexico oriented N-S, 8 degrees west of due North on a 2 sq. mile island in Tonala River in Tabasco. Rebecca Gonzales has recently discovered the site is far more extensive than previously believed. What was buried underground, including layers of special sands and stones arranged in patterns, was remembered and every bit as important as the architecture raised above the ground.
Complex A: composed of basalt boundary posts, rectangular earth mounds, pyramids (one with basalt sarcophagus and buried basalt post and lintel enclosure), buried stone pavements claimed to be jaguar masks, sunken courts, buried offerings of figurines and celts. Complex C: a conical pyramid perhaps in the shape of a mountain with gullies or perhaps a simple truncated pyramid. Hypothesis that the pyramid was built to resemble the volcanoes of the Tuxtla mountains where the Olmecs quarried their basalt and from which they may have migrated.
Tlatilco (1200 BCE) a village located west of the lake on a small stream in which 340 pit burials were found containing hollow or solid figurines of men, women, and children in many different garbs and activities.
Cuicuilco (3000 BC - 150 CE) a late Pre-Classic site which illustrates the progression from Tlatilco, a village, to a major ceremonial center with stone structure. Located on the southwestern shore of Lake Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico.
Cylindrical pyramid in three tiers faced with stone with stairs to perishable structure on top. Surrounded by smaller structures. Inundated with lava (now called the pedregal) from eruption of Xictli c 150 CE.
Teotihuacan. The name is Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs. We do not know what the Teotihuacanos called themselves. In Nahuatl Teotihuacan means "the place where the gods reside." Pop. 2000 in 200 BCE, 60,000 in 100 CE and 150,000 in 600 CE. Destroyed in 750 CE. Teotihuacan is a "city": permanently populated; high representing classes; multiple urban functions in differentiated architecture, including markets, living quarters, workshops, and administrative and religious centers, monumental architecture. The city occupies 8 square miles, main axis "The Road of the Dead" (of course this is an Aztec name). City is laid out 15 and 1/4 degrees east of north in the Valley of Teotihuacan northeast of Mexico City on the former shores of Lake Texcoco.
Architectural "Signature" of culture: The talud-tablero. Construction method: cut stone and rubble masonry with a core of fill. Walls were composed of a type of pudding-like material composed of clay, gravel, and mortar into which were inset pieces of volcanic stones called tezontle.
General attributes of the city: Repetitive elements, directionalism; north-south and east-west axes; barrier mounds; three mound systems; apartment and palace complexes (more than 2000) and numerous pyramids. Site slopes from Moom pyramid south along the Road of the Dead. Road partitioned into many courts and stairs (comparisons with a site to the south in the Valley of Oaxaca: Monte Alban occupied by the Zapotecs). No exterior defensive network. Problems of water, agricultural support for large population solved by intensive farming, control of surface water, and underground springs.
Structures:
Moon pyramid ( Image 1 or Image 2) begun c 1 CE and 100 CE enlarged. Probably surmounted by stone sculpture identified as a mother goddess. Also called Calchiuhtlicue: Jade skirt, the female Deity whose province was surface water, streams, an dlakes. Sister or wife of Tlaloc.
Sun pyramid begun c 1 CE and built almost as high as it is today. Interior cave present before the pyramid was erected. From mouth of cave looking 15.5 degrees north of due West sun sets on 12 August and 29 April. Bifurcated top came to light in tunnel excavated in the top of the pyramid.
Ciudadela an enormous enclosure of 440 square yards includes two palaces which flank the Temple of the Feathered Serpent (or Quetzalcoatl) (150-200 CE) 120 human skeletons found buried in pyramid, stone carvings unique to Teotihuacan. 365 masks in all indicate calendric symbolism. This entire pyramid was buried after 2000 CE. Iconography of pyramid in Aztec religion used: Tlaloc. The Aztec god of rain, water and fertility. Attributes: fangs and goggle eyes. Quetzacoatl: Plumed serpent god, one of four sons of Ometeotl. Aztec and Toltec god Topiltzin Quetzacoatl: perhaps historical personage who lived in Tula around the year 1000 CE.
Quetzalpapalotl(after 200 CE): The palace on the west side of the Moon plaza next to Jaguar Palace.
Compounds (after 200 CE):
Zacuala: West of the Road of the Dead, the clearest plan of the compounds.
Tititla: Near Zacuala, very complicated plan with many courtyards and murals.
Yayahuala: Also west of the Road of the Dean with complicated plan and miniature pyramid-temple.
Tlaminilolpa: East of the pyramid of the Sun, totally destroyed. A cramped compound with many very small rooms.
Tepantitla: Only a few walls survive, on one the largest intact mural in Teotihuacan, the Tlaloc Paradise.
Hypothesis connecting location (cave under Sun pyramid) and orientation (toward Cerro Gordo) to importance of caves in relation to celestial bodies. The key to the meaning of the city is the mountain called Cerro Gordo, north of the pyramid of the Moon because it was seen as fertile mountain, associated with the "storm god" later called Tlaloc as well as female fertility.
Casto Edward Vocal Jr.
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Department of Architecture, Slide Library
University of California, Berkeley
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