Search Results

Teotihuacan emerged as the first great empire in Mesoamerica. It also penetrated far north into the desert and south into the Maya area. Its economy penetrated much of Mesoamerica and drew in ethnic foreigners. The prominence of atlatls at Teotihuacan reflects a major change in wars and how they were fought in Mesoamerica. Confronting Cholula militarily bore substantial risks for Teotihuacan. Teotihuacan was large enough to dominate any of its potential competitors, but controlling a vast area was beyond its means. Colonial control had several advantages that complemented the limitations of Teotihuacan expansion. Despite creating connections between Teotihuacan and more distant areas, the corridors were not equally accessible to foreign groups. The Teotihuacan corridor sped transit to distant areas without simultaneously opening Teotihuacan up to threats returning along the same conduit. Teotihuacan's approach to imperial domination and expansion led in the greatest degree of political integration yet achieved in Mesoamerica.

Teotihuacan did not overthrow other empires, but dominated largely in the absence of other significant Mesoamerican powers. Teotihuacan exercised power and honed its military skills locally, but expanded in a partial political vacuum and its fate depended as much on its own actions as on what others did. Teotihuacan did not conquer Monte Alban in the Valley of Oaxaca and the lowland Maya cities. Teotihuacan did not conquer Monte Alban, probably because of the difficulty of doing so rather than any disinclination. Teotihuacan had a larger army, although logistical constraints doubtless kept its army from enjoying numerical superiority in the Valley of Oaxaca. Teotihuacan's expansion simply reached the limits feasible under existing conditions: it was not thwarted by superior powers. Some groups it encountered were doubtless locally powerful, especially Monte Alban, aided as it was by its geographical setting, but these local powers were (probably) all aristocratic.

Significant changes took place in Teotihuacan's military, affecting armaments, organization, and tactics. Teotihuacan's trade and colonial network show a progressive withdrawal on all fronts that generally reversed the sequence of its initial expansion. The city was not in an obvious state of decline when it was destroyed. The sketchy data available suggest that Teotihuacan fell of its own weight. It had dominated vast stretches of Mesoamerica but was incapable of militarily incorporating every independent city into a Teotihuacan empire. Teotihuacan's withdrawal and demise signaled a major shakeup of relations throughout Mesoamerica and affected all the societies with which it had contact. The power and position of rulers of independent polities, such as Monte Alban and Tikal, had grown stronger because of their access to Teotihuacan and Teotihuacan-traded goods. Once Teotihuacan withdrew, the wealth and prestige of local elites fell and their capitals declined.

Following Teotihuacan's decline, various Maya cities reasserted themselves, albeit in smaller political groupings, and continued a more limited exchange. Warfare increased with the disintegration of the Maya lowlands into independent city-states and relatively small polities. Most Late Classic Maya settlements did not have fortifications, which suggest that cities were rarely attacked. Late Classic Maya civilization collapsed during the mid eighth to early tenth centuries ad, especially in the southern lowlands, which is partly due to the result of economic difficulties. El Tajín had close trade connections with central Mexico that continued to flourish after the demise of Teotihuacan. The political instability that fostered the rise of hilltop fortified sites, such as Cacaxtla and Xochicalco, waned in the tenth century. As the Mexican city-states reasserted their dominance and conventional armies grew large enough to both secure trade routes and threaten raider sites, fortified trade centers withered and their occupants withdrew.

The population of the Valley of Mexico became more dispersed and ruralized following Teotihuacan's decline, although the northern third of the valley was densely settled, culturally eclipsing the southern area. The Toltecs were a multiethnic society. In Teotihuacan, Toltec arms and armor reflected standardized weapons. It has been suggested that the Toltec polity encompassed much of central Mexico. The Toltecs expanded throughout Mesoamerica and also traded far to the north. Chichen Itza presents an interesting picture of Mesoamerican warfare because it is not only the clash of two different cultures, but of two different weapons complexes as well. Largely as a result of its superior road-based political integration, Coba and its dependencies remained independent of Chichen Itza.

This chapter presents the osteobiography of an older man from Teotihuacán (Tlamimilolpa period, A.D. 250–300). The location of this grave and the elaborate accompanying grave goods (including a shell headdress and shell bead collar) indicate an extensive ritual attended the death of this individual, who may have been the founder of this residential compound.

The Epiclassic Period is generally recognized as an era of major expansions of Nahua-speaking communities throughout Central Mexico, east to the Gulf Coast, and south into Central America. However, these Epiclassic expansions rest on a deeper history that, while often neglected or mischaracterized, can be elucidated by linguistic evidence. This evidence shows that the Nahua did not originate as hunter-gatherers: the Proto-Nahua speech community emerged among cultivators who lived within the Mesoamerican tropics. This evidence also suggests that, rather than remaining on the Mesoamerican margins until the Epiclassic, some Nahua speakers may have been among the elites at Teotihuacan as early as the 5th century A.D. This chapter reviews the major debates about the linguistic history of the Nahua that underlies their Epiclassic expansions.

Systematic surveys in the Tula region in southern Hidalgo has revealed a long and diverse history of settlement that included at least three different episodes of migration. Each was quite different in terms of scale and mode of execution, including what appears to have been 1) well-orchestrated mass migrations or colonization of the region by Teotihuacan, 2) small scale migrations involving the appearance of a foreign enclave of possibly mixed Teotihuacan/Zapotec whose members comprised an entire settlement, and 3) uncoordinated multiple migrations of Coyotlatelco traditional peoples, each probably involving small groups from varying areas of origin within a larger region of the same general destination. All three appear to have involved relatively short-distance migration, which we believe was a common practice in Mesoamerica, where knowledge of the destination was a likely "pull" factor that facilitated both multiple and return migration events.

This chapter argues that the Late Classic/Epiclassic ceramic style known as Coyotlatelco has roots in the eastern El Bajío of Near West Mexico. Coyotlatelco became a widespread ceramic tradition in Epiclassic Central Mexico. Its chief defining characteristic is its suite of unsupported and tripod-supported vessels decorated with red-painted geometric designs on plain brown or cream slipped pottery. Ceramic data and radiocarbon dating produced from Tulane University’s Ucareo-Zinapecuaro (U-Z) Project (1989-1995) shed additional light on the ongoing debate regarding whether or not the Coyotlatelco style originates with the native population or if it shows evidence of the migration of non-local people into the central highlands of Mexico. The ceramic chronology for the U-Z source area throughout the Late Formative and Classic periods in NE Michoacan begins a discussion about shared decorative modes among red on brown ceramic types that connect Michoacan with societies in both the El Bajio and the Basin of Mexico regions, including Teotihuacan. The conclusions drawn suggest that the Coyotlatelco ceramic style has deep roots in the pottery traditions of the eastern El Bajio and, given the equally long history of various modes of regional and back migration, there seems little need to look beyond Central Mexico for the origins of Coyotlatleco.

This study addresses long-standing issues regarding the nature of interregional interaction between central Mexico and the Maya area through the analysis of dental variation. In total, 23 sites were included in this study, 20 Maya sites, and the Teotihuacán, Tula, and Cholula sites. The large number of sites allows for a more comprehensive picture of population structure within the Maya area and between these two regions. This study estimates biological distances between sites, and it identifies individual Maya sites that are more genetically variable than expected. This would indicate that they might have been recipients of differential interaction from external populations. The results of this study support hypotheses about widespread interaction between the Maya and Central Mexico.

The best evidence about ancient migrations will likely come from DNA and good skeletal and dental proxies for DNA. Stable isotopes of strontium and oxygen are less secure indicators. Local adoption of both decorative and technological styles of ceramics or other materials that resemble styles in a source region suggests migration; adoption of a foreign decorative style and persistence of local technological style suggests emulation rather than movement of people. Bayesian analysis of numerous ¹⁴C determinations is critical for dating migrations. Droughts and “population pressure” have too readily been proposed as causes of migration; more attention should be given to sociopolitical factors. Multiple lines of evidence bearing on the decline and fall of the ancient Mesoamerican state of Teotihuacan in central Mexico and possible invaders from western Mexico are evaluated. The evidence suggests a sizable migration and rapid loss of Teotihuacan ethnic identity.

Ancient Mesoamerica was home to a great number of cities. Some of them were very large, for instance Teotihuacan and especially Tenochtitlan. This chapter presents the extant documentary and archaeological data about Tenochtitlan and its role in the evolution of the area.

The colonial era of the Mexicanos started with the sixteenth-century invasion of Guatemala. This chapter seeks to clarify the terms mexicano or “Mexican”, and the Mexico-Mayan relationship. It also discusses two epochs of ancient Mesoamerican history that bear on the later, sixteenth-century invasion of Maya lands. First is a brief period in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. when Teotihuacan emerged as a major settlement in the Basin of Mexico and subsequently appears to have influenced or interfered in Maya politics. Second is the period from the twelfth century to the arrival of Christianity to Mesoamerica in the sixteenth, the time of Tollan Zuyuán.

A deep history of Mesoamerica traces how the transition from nomadic foragers to settled farmers of maize and other crops resulted in the first villages, unifying art styles, and later cities, states, and empires. Cultures such as the Olmecs, Mayas, Teotihuacanos, and Toltecs preceded the Aztecs, who incorporated elements of all of them, particularly the last two from the same region of central Mexico. This chapter examines millennia of Mesoamerican history known through archaeology, the history of art, and epigraphic study of the few extant Native texts from the pre-Hispanic era. It explores how Mesoamericans first cultivated maize and other crops to establish an agricultural base somewhat familiar to readers as Mexican and Central American cuisine; the development of the earliest team sports involving rubber balls; urbanization into populous cities featuring pyramidal temple complexes; the invention of hieroglyphic scripts and the concept of zero before it existed in Europe; and the political rise and collapse of successive civilizations prior to the Aztecs.

Olivia Navarro-Farr and colleagues explore another example of how the Snake Kings manipulated the political landscape of the Classic period with a fascinating case study in ancient Maya queenship at Waka’ in Chapter 10. Waka’ was first embroiled by the geopolitics of the lowlands during the Teotihuacan entrada of AD 378, after which the kingdom was apparently incorporated into the New Order’s political network based at Tikal. Kaanul subsequently brought Waka’ into its hegemony near the end of the Early Classic period with the marriage of the first of at least three royal Kaanul women to kings of Waka’. Beyond simply telling this story, Chapter 10 explores monumentality in two ways. First, Waka’ is presented as a contested node on the vast political and economic network of the Classic period, its importance evident in its role in the entrada, the deliberate and long-term strategy to integrate it into the Kaanul hegemony through royal marriage, and Tikal’s Late Classic star war conquest of Waka’ in AD 743. Second, Navarro-Farr and colleagues examine how, through reverential manipulation of monumental sculpture and architecture, the occupants of Waka’ continued to honor the great Kaanul queens for over a century following the failure of institutional kingship at the city.

We analyze a 2400-year rainfall reconstruction from an ultra-high-resolution absolutely-dated stalagmite (JX-6) from southwestern Mexico (Lachniet et al., 2012). Oxygen isotope variations correlate strongly to rainfall amount in the Mexico City area since 1870 CE, and for the wider southwestern Mexico region since 1948, allowing us to quantitatively reconstruct rainfall variability for the Basin of Mexico and Sierra Madre del Sur for the past 2400 years. Because oxygen isotopes integrate rainfall variations over broad geographic regions, our data suggest substantial variations in Mesoamerican monsoon strength over the past two millennia. As a result of low age uncertainties (≤ 11 yr), our stalagmite paleoclimate reconstruction allows us to place robust ages on past rainfall variations with a resolution an order of magnitude more precise than archeological dates associated with societal change. We relate our new rainfall reconstruction to the sequence of events at Teotihuacan (Millon, 1967; Cowgill, 2015a) and to other pre-Colombian civilizations in Mesoamerica. We observe a centuries long drying trend that culminated in peak drought conditions in ca. 750 CE related to a weakening monsoon, which may have been a stressor on Mesoamerican societies. Teotihuacan is an ideal location to test for links between climate change and society, because it was located in a semi-arid highland valley with limited permanent water sources, which relied upon spring fed irrigation to ensure a reliable maize harvest (Sanders, 1977). The city of Teotihuacan was one of the largest Mesoamerican cities, which apparently reached population sizes of 80,000 to 100,000 inhabitants by AD 300 (Cowgill, 1997; 2015a). Following the “Great Fire”, which dates approximately to AD 550, population decreased to lower levels and many buildings were abandoned (Cowgill, 2015). Because of the apparent reliance on rainwater capture (Linn é, 2003) and spring-fed agriculture in the Teotihuacan valley to ensure food security and drinking water, food production and domestic water supplies should have been sensitive to rainfall variations that recharge the surficial aquifer that sustained spring discharge prior recent groundwater extraction.

The chapter provides a broad synthesis of over one millennia of central Mexican prehistory spanning the Formative and Classic periods, with particular focus on the later Formative (ca. 600 BC—AD 100) and the transition to the Classic period (AD 100–600). The chapter deals with issues of comparative chronology, aggregating multiple settlement studies, and provides descriptions for better known sites that could be classified as cities, towns, and villages—all part of an urban landscape. It provides a framework for explaining variability in urbanism and in the political uses of religion. Better known cases discussed include Teotihuacan, Cholula, and Cuicuilco. The site of La Laguna, which provides many of the case examples for the rest of the study, is also introduced.

Bernal Diaz de Castillo was a young soldier serving under Hernán Cortés on that memorable day in November 1519 when a small detachment of conquistadors gazed down at the city of Tenochtitlán, the spectacular capital of the Aztec civilization. Diaz wrote these words when he was in his seventies, the experiences of the Spanish conquest etched in his memory so clearly that it was as if they had happened a week before. The conquistadors gaped in amazement at a native American metropolis larger than Seville, then Spain’s most populous city, and certainly better planned than many chaotically organized European capitals. Diaz relished his memories, but then added an almost melancholy footnote: “Today all that I then saw is overthrown and destroyed . . . nothing is left standing.” Nothing is left standing. Diaz wrote the literal truth. Today, the architectural, cultural, and material legacy of the Aztecs lies buried under the urban sprawl of Mexico City. Cortés himself hastened the disappearance, ordering the construction of an imposing Catholic cathedral atop the central precincts of Tenochtitlán, where temples to the sun and rain god reeked with the blood of human sacrifice. The conquistadors wandered through an enormous market attended by more than 20,000 people a day. There one could buy gold and tropical feathers, jade and chocolate, every valuable and commodity possible, at the heart of a sprawling city of singlestory houses, terraced pyramids, canals, and well-defined ethnic neighborhoods. More than 200,000 people lived in Tenochtitlán in 1519. Two years later, the city was a smoking ruin. Within a century, the native population of the former Aztec domains was less than a fifth of what it had been a century earlier. Measles, smallpox, and other infectious diseases decimated the people. The population of the Basin of Mexico declined from an estimated 1.5 million to about 325,000 between 1519 and 1570. By that point, it was almost as if Aztec civilization had never existed. Those who had survived had been forcibly converted to Catholicism—the old beliefs, customs, and oral traditions destroyed by church decree.