Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T18:51:42.489Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Excavations at the Southern Neighborhood Center of the Tlajinga District, Teotihuacan, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2021

David M. Carballo Open the ORCID record for David M. Carballo [Opens in a new window] ,
Luis Barba ,
Agustín Ortiz ,
Jorge Blancas ,
Daniela Hernández Sariñana ,
Maria C. Codlin ,
Alfredo Saucedo  and
Gloria Dolores Torres Rodríguez
David M. Carballo*
Affiliation:
Anthropology Department and Archaeology Program, Boston University, 675 Commonwealth Avenue, Suite 347, Boston, MA02215, USA
Luis Barba
Affiliation:
Laboratorio de Prospección Arqueológica, Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, Ciudad de México, 04510, Mexico
Agustín Ortiz
Affiliation:
Laboratorio de Prospección Arqueológica, Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, Ciudad de México, 04510, Mexico
Jorge Blancas
Affiliation:
Laboratorio de Prospección Arqueológica, Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, Ciudad de México, 04510, Mexico
Daniela Hernández Sariñana
Affiliation:
Anthropology Department and Archaeology Program, Boston University, 675 Commonwealth Avenue, Suite 347, Boston, MA02215, USA
Maria C. Codlin
Affiliation:
Anthropology Department and Archaeology Program, Boston University, 675 Commonwealth Avenue, Suite 347, Boston, MA02215, USA
Alfredo Saucedo
Affiliation:
Programa de Posgrado en Estudios Mesoamericanos, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, Ciudad de México, 04510, Mexico
Gloria Dolores Torres Rodríguez
Affiliation:
Zona de Monumentos Arqueológicos Teotihuacan, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Carretera México–Pirámides 46.5 Teotihuacán, Estado de México, Mexico
*
([email protected], corresponding author)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Investigations of the Proyecto Arqueológico Tlajinga Teotihuacan (PATT) in 2019 focused on the southern neighborhood center of this cluster of non-elite residences in the southern periphery of the ancient Mexican metropolis. Our objective was to better understand the social infrastructure of public space within the district and how it tied its inhabitants together. Our methods included excavations at two large architectural complexes, geophysical prospection of these and adjacent structures and plazas, and chemical residue analysis of floors and sediments. They revealed architecturally elaborate complexes decorated with mural painting that appear to have been the loci of civic-ceremonial activities. Materials from the excavated portions of the complexes are inconsistent with residential uses, although it is possible that local elites lived elsewhere in the complexes or in others located nearby. The investigations therefore demonstrate that the semipublic spaces of neighborhood centers were distributed as distantly as this periphery of Teotihuacan and could be as elaborate as those in the urban epicenter, underscoring the city's more muted social inequality.

Las investigaciones del Proyecto Arqueológico Tlajinga Teotihuacan (PATT) realizadas en el 2019 se enfocaron en la parte sur de un centro de barrio localizado en la periferia sur de la antigua metrópoli, en un contexto residencial no elitista. Entre los objetivos principales se incluyen el mejorar nuestra comprensión de la infraestructura social de los espacios públicos dentro del distrito y cómo éstos vinculaban a sus habitantes. La metodología de estudio incluyó excavaciones en dos complejos arquitectónicos de gran tamaño, el estudio geofísico con técnicas electromagnéticas de los mismos y de estructuras y plazas adyacentes, así como el estudio de residuos químicos en pisos. Los resultados revelaron conjuntos arquitectónicos bien elaborados y decorados con pintura mural, por lo que parecen haber sido el centro de actividades cívico-ceremoniales. Los materiales que se recuperaron de las excavaciones de estos complejos no son compatibles con un uso residencial, aunque es posible que las élites locales vivieran en otras áreas del complejo o en otro cercano. Los resultados de nuestras investigaciones demuestran que los espacios semipúblicos de los centros de barrio se encuentran presentes aún en la periferia de Teotihuacan y podían ser tan elaborados como los del epicentro de la ciudad, lo que nos muestra menos niveles de desigualdad social en la gran urbe.

Keywords

urbanismneighborhoodssocial infrastructuremuralsexcavationfloor chemistryCentral MexicoClassic periodurbanismovecindariosinfraestructura socialmuralesexcavaciónestudios químicosAltiplano Central mexicanoperiodo Clásico
Type
Article
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , September 2021 , pp. 557 - 576
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for American Archaeology

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Altschul, Jeffrey H. 1987 Social Districts of Teotihuacan. In Teotihuacán: Nuevos datos, nuevas síntesis, nuevos problemas, edited by de Tapia, Emily McClung and Rattray, Evelyn Childs, pp. 191–217. UNAM, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Angulo Villaseñor, Jorge 2001 Teotihuacán: Aspectos de la cultura a través de su expresión pictórica. In La pintura mural prehispánica en México, I: Teotihuacán, Tomo II: Estudios, edited by de la Fuente, Beatriz, pp. 65–186. Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, UNAM, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Barba, Luis 2007 Chemical Residues in Lime-Plastered Archaeological Floors. Geoarchaeology 22:439–452.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berrin, Kathleen (editor) 1988 Feathered Serpents and Flowering Trees: Reconstructing the Murals of Teotihuacan. Fine Arts Museums, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Blancas, Jorge, Luis Barba, Agustín Ortiz, Guillermo Acosta, Andrés G. Mejía Ramón, and David M. Carballo, 2019 Estudio de conjuntos departamentales y organización de barrios utilizando sensores remotos y geofísica en el distrito de Tlajinga, Teotihuacan. Ancient Mesoamerica 30:115–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cabrera Castro, Rubén 1996 Las excavaciones en La Ventilla: Un barrio Teotihuacano. Revista Mexicana de Estudios Antropológicos 42:5–30.Google Scholar
Cabrera Castro, Rubén, and Chávez, Sergio Gómez 2008 La Ventilla: A Model for a Barrio in the Urban Structure of Teotihuacan. In Urbanism in Mesoamerica, Vol. II, edited by Mastache, Alba Guadalupe, Cobean, Robert H., Cook, Ángel García, and Hirth, Kenneth G., pp. 37–84. INAH, Mexico City; Pennsylvania State University, University Park.Google Scholar
Carballo, David M. 2011 Advances in the Household Archaeology of Highland Mesoamerica. Journal of Archaeological Research 19:133–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carballo, David M. 2017 Daily Life in Teotihuacan's Southern Periphery: The Tlajinga District. In Teotihuacan: City of Water, City of Fire, edited by Robb, Matthew H., pp. 124–129. Fine Arts Museums, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Carballo, David M. 2019 Urban Life on Teotihuacan's Periphery: New Research at the Tlajinga District. Ancient Mesoamerica 30:91–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carballo, David M. 2020 Power, Politics, and Governance at Teotihuacan. In Teotihuacan: The World beyond the City, edited by Hirth, Kenneth G., Carballo, David M., and Arroyo, Barbara, pp. 57–96. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Carballo, David M., Barba, Luis, Ortiz, Agustín, Blancas, Jorge, Cingolani, Nicole, Barrera, Jorge Toledo, Walton, David, López, Isabel Rodríguez, and Couoh, Lourdes 2014 Suprahousehold Consumption and Community Ritual at La Laguna, Mexico. Antiquity 88:141–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carballo, David M., Hirth, Kenneth G., Sariñana, Daniela Hernández, Buckley, Gina M., Mejía Ramón, Andrés G., and Kennett, Douglas J. 2019 New Research at Teotihuacan's Tlajinga District, 2012–2015. Ancient Mesoamerica 30:95–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de la Fuente, Beatriz 2001 Zona 5A: Conjunto del Sol. In La pintura mural prehispánica en México, I: Teotihuacán, Tomo I: Catálogo, edited by de la Fuente, Beatriz, pp. 59–79. Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, UNAM, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Evans, Susan Toby 2006 Aztec Palaces and Other Elite Residential Architecture. In Palaces of the Ancient New World, edited by Evans, Susan Toby and Pillsbury, Joanne, pp. 7–58. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Fargher, Lane F., Blanton, Richard E., and Heredia, Vernice Y. 2017 Aztec State-Making, Politics, and Empires: The Triple Alliance. In The Oxford Handbook of the Aztecs, edited by Nichols, Deborah L. and Rodríguez-Alegría, Enrique, pp. 143–159. Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Fargher, Lane F., Heredia Espinoza, Verenice Y., and Blanton, Richard E. 2011 Alternative Pathways to Power in Late Postclassic Highland Mesoamerica. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 30:306–326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gazzola, Julie 2005 La producción lapidaria en Teotihuacan: Estudio de las actividades productivas en los talleres de un conjunto habitacional. In Arquitectura y urbanismo: Pasado y presente de los espacios en Teotihuacan: Memoria de la Tercera Mesa Redonda de Teotihuacan, edited by Gallut, María Elena Ruiz and Peralta, Jesús Torres, pp. 841–878. INAH, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Gómez Chávez, Sergio 2012 Structure and Organization of Neighborhoods in the Ancient City of Teotihuacan. In The Neighborhood as a Social and Spatial Unit in Mesoamerican Cities, edited by Charlotte Arnauld, M., Manzanilla, Linda R., and Smith, Michael E., pp. 74–101. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Helmke, Christophe, and Nielsen, Jesper 2017 Of Gods and Rituals: The Religion of Teotihuacan. In Teotihuacan: City of Water, City of Fire, edited by Robb, Matthew H., pp. 130–137. Fine Arts Museums, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Juárez Osnaya, Alberto 2014 El dsarrollo arquitectónico de Totometla en el marco del sistema urbano de Teotihuacan. INAH, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Klinenberg, Eric 2018 Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life. Crown, New York.Google Scholar
Langley, James C. 1986 Symbolic Notation of Teotihuacan: Elements of Writing in a Mesoamerican Culture of the Classic Period. BAR International Series 313. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Lightfoot, Elizabeth, McCleary, Jennifer Simmelink, and Lum, Terry 2014 Asset Mapping as a Research Tool for Community-Based Participatory Research in Social Work. Social Work Research 38:59–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
López Luján, Leonardo, and Rogel, Michelle De Anda 2019 Teotihuacan in Mexico-Tenochtitlan: Recent Discoveries, New Insights. PARI Journal 19(3):1–26.Google Scholar
Magaloni-Kerpel, Diana, O'Neil, Megan E., and Uriarte, María Teresa 2020 The Moving Image: Painted Murals and Vessels at Teotihuacan and the Maya Area. In Teotihuacan: The World beyond the City, edited by Hirth, Kenneth G., Carballo, David M., and Arroyo, Barbara, pp. 193–224. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Manzanilla, Linda R. 2006 Estados corporativos arcaicos: Organizaciones de excepción en escenarios excluyentes. Cuicuilco 13(36):13–45.Google Scholar
Manzanilla, Linda R. 2012a Neighborhood and Elite “Houses” at Teotihuacan, Central Mexico. In The Neighborhood as a Social and Spatial Unit in Mesoamerican Cities, edited by Charlotte Arnauld, M., Manzanilla, Linda R., and Smith, Michael E., pp. 55–73. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Manzanilla, Linda R. 2012b Banco de datos del sitio de Teopancazco. Proyecto “Teotihuacan: elite y gobierno,” 1997–2005. In Estudios arqueométricos del centro de barrio de Teopancazco en Teotihuacan, edited by Linda R. Manzanilla, pp. 467–552. Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, UNAM, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Manzanilla, Linda R. 2015: Cooperation and Tensions in Multiethnic Corporate Societies Using Teotihuacan, Central Mexico, as a Case Study. PNAS 112:9210–9215.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Manzanilla, Linda R. 2017 Teopancazco: A Multiethnic Neighborhood Center in the Metropolis of Teotihuacan. In Multiethnicity and Migration at Teopancazco: Investigations of a Teotihuacan Neighborhood Center, edited by Manzanilla, Linda R., pp. 1–48. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Manzanilla, Linda, López, Claudia, and Freter, AnnCorinne 1996 Dating Results from Excavations in Quarry Tunnels behind the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan. Ancient Mesoamerica 7:245–266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Arthur G. 1973 The Mural Painting of Teotihuacan. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Millon, Rene 1973 The Teotihuacan Map, Part One: Text. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Murakami, Tatsuya 2014 Social Identities, Power Relations, and Urban Transformations: Politics of Plaza Construction at Teotihuacan. In Mesoamerican Plazas: Arenas of Community and Power, edited by Tsukamoto, Kenichiro and Inomata, Takeshi, pp. 34–49. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Navarijo Ornelas, Lourdes 2001 La presencia de las aves en la pintura mural teotihuacana. In La pintura mural prehispánica en México, I: Teotihuacán, Tomo II: Estudios, edited by de la Fuente, Beatriz, pp. 325–341. Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, UNAM, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Nielsen, Jesper, and Helmke, Christophe 2015 The Fall of the Great Celestial Bird: A Master Myth in Early Classic Central Mexico. Ancient America 13:1–46.Google Scholar
Ortiz Butrón, Agustín 2015 Determinación de las características de un barrio teotihuacano con arqueometría: El caso de Teopancazco. PhD dissertation, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, UNAM, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Ortiz Butrón, Agustín, Pecci, Alessandra, and Barba, Luis 2018 Las actividades del centro de barrio de Teopancazco a partir de sus residuos químicos. In Teopancazco como centro de barrio multiétnico de Teotihuacan: Los sectores funcionales y el intercambio a larga distancia, edited by Manzanilla, Linda R., pp. 83–156. Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Académico, Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, UNAM, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Pecci, Alessandra, Barba, Luis, and Ortiz, Agustín 2017 Chemical Residues as Anthropic Activity Markers: Ethnoarchaeology, Experimental Archaeology and Archaeology of Food Production and Consumption. Environmental Archaeology 22:343–353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rapoport, Amos 1988 Levels of Meaning in the Built Environment. In Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Nonverbal Communication, edited by Poyatos, Fernando, pp. 317–336. C. J. Hogrefe, Lewiston, New York.Google Scholar
Rappaport, Roy A. 1971 The Sacred in Human Evolution. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 2:23–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robertson, Ian 2005 Patrones diacrónicos en la constitución de los vecindarios teotihuacanos. In Arquitectura y urbanismo: Pasado y presente de los espacios en Teotihuacan: Memoria de la Tercera Mesa Redonda de Teotihuacan, edited by Gallut, Maria Elena Ruiz and Peralta, Jesús Torres, pp. 277–294. INAH, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Séjourné, Laurette 1966 Arquitectura y pintura en Teotihuacán. Siglo Veintiuno, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Séjourné, Laurette 1976 Burning Water: Thought and Religion in Ancient Mexico. Shambala Publications, Berkeley, California.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael E., Chatterjee, Abhishek, Huster, Angela C., Stewart, Sierra, and Forest, Marion 2019 Apartment Compounds, Households, and Population in the Ancient City of Teotihuacan, Mexico. Ancient Mesoamerica 30:399–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Michael E., Dennehy, Timothy, Kamp-Whittaker, April, Colon, Emily, and Harkness, Rebecca 2014 Quantitative Measures of Wealth Inequality in Ancient Central Mexican Communities. Advances in Archaeological Practice 2:311–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Talen, Emily 2000 Measuring the Public Realm: A Preliminary Assessment of the Link between Public Space and Sense of Community. Journal of Architectural and Planning Research 17:344–360.Google Scholar
Urcid, Javier 2013 Scribal Traditions from Highland Mesoamerica (300–1000 AD). In The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerica Archaeology, edited by Nichols, Deborah L. and Pool, Christopher A., pp. 855–868. Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Von Winning, Hasso 1987 La iconografía de Teotihuacan: Los dioses y los signos, Tomo I. UNAM, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Widmer, Randolph J. 2019 Lapidary Craft Production at 17:S3E1 and 18:S3E1, the Tlajinga District, Teotihuacan. Ancient Mesoamerica 30:181–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Widmer, Randolph J., and Storey, Rebecca 1993 Social Organization and Household Structure of a Teotihuacán Apartment Compound: S3W1:33 of the Tlajinga Barrio. In Prehispanic Domestic Units in Western Mesoamerica: Studies of the Household, Compound, and Residence, edited by Hirth, Kenneth G. and Santley, Robert S., pp. 87–104. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.Google Scholar
Widmer, Randolph J., and Storey, Rebecca 2012 The “Tlajinga Barrio”: A Distinctive Cluster of Neighborhoods in Teotihuacan. In The Neighborhood as a Social and Spatial Unit in Mesoamerican Cities, edited by Charlotte Arnauld, M., Manzanilla, Linda R., and Smith, Michael E., pp. 102–116. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Wright Carr, David Charles 2012 Teoatl tlachinolli: Una metáfora marcial del centro de México. Dimensión Antropológica 19(55):11–37.Google Scholar
Zurita Noguera, Judith, Azúa, Raúl Valadez, Galicia, Bernardo Rodríguez, Yrízar, Diana Martínez, and Morales, Emilio Ibarra. 2013 Evidencias botánicas y zoológicas de los periodos Xolalpan tardío y Metepec en el sitio arqueológico de Teopancazco, Teotihuacan (siglos V y VI dC). Boletín Antropológicas 1(20):1–18.Google Scholar