Abstract
A curious attribute of Teotihuacan studies is that until excavations transpired at the Moon Pyramid in the late 1990s and early 2000s, this prominent temple at Teotihuacan received comparatively little attention. Indeed, there are reasonable grounds behind scholars’ preoccupation with the other two major pyramids at the site. The Sun Pyramid astounds visitors with its sheer massive size. Appearing more mountain than pyramid, even at its reduced height of 61 m, the temple clearly announces its importance in Teotihuacan religious practices. Likewise, the Feathered Serpent Pyramid (FSP) warrants attention for its lavishly sculpted facades and the sheer number of sacrificial victims dispatched at its dedication (Sugiyama 2005). The recent excavations within the Ciudadela further reveal that the Feathered Serpent Pyramid, like the Sun Pyramid, also concealed a cavernous tunnel beneath the monument, and the extravagant offerings placed in the subterranean chamber express a Teotihuacan vision of the watery underworld, and the position Teotihuacan’s leaders held within that cosmologically-defined space (Gómez Chávez 2017; Gómez and Lina 2010; Heyden 1981; Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia 2014; Reuters and Mark Prigg 2014).
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
Many scholars prefer the name, Storm God, as the name, Tlaloc, derives from the Aztec.
- 5.
Sugiyama and López (2007) acknowledge this semantic distinction in their analysis of the Moon Pyramid offerings. The name, burial, is largely the result of archaeological naming practices.
- 6.
See David Carballo’s (2007) article for an analysis of the Moon Pyramid’s lithics and their military associations.
- 7.
As research has proceeded, there have been discrepancies in the literature about the number and type of animals in the Moon Pyramid deposits. The data used here come from López and Sugiyama (2017) as well as N. Sugiyama (2014:120, 2017a) and Sugiyama et al. (2015). For the most detailed account of the animal remains Nawa Sugiyama’s (2014) dissertation should be consulted, especially concerning the difficulties of determining the number of animals and their precise identification.
- 8.
- 9.
See Headrick (2007:Figure 4.17) for an example of this form of wall decoration.
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Burial 6, contemporary with Burial 2 and part of Building 4’s dedicatory materials, also contained a staggering number of sacrificial animals and 12 human victims, reinforcing that military and economic expansion likely underlie the significant expansion of the Moon Pyramid (López and Sugiyama 2017; N. Sugiyama 2017a).
- 12.
- 13.
Carballo and Robb (2017:12) and Sugiyama (2017b) note that the major Teotihuacan pyramids were not mortuary monuments. This present study has not considered all of the materials in Burial 2, and it should be noted that some of these, particularly the central objects, may have overt references to a particular ruler that are presently not well understood. Thus, my argument is not that a ruler is absent, but that his identity is closely enfolded with the military.
- 14.
- 15.
Nikolai Grube (personal communication 2010) suggested that the stela displays not a Maya ruler dressed in foreign garb, but a Teotihuacano, thus the stela commemorates the foreigner’s visit.
- 16.
- 17.
- 18.
It is important to note that Grove (1968:488) called into question whether the carving of the sacrificial victim actually includes a phallus.
- 19.
Recent evidence from the site of Witzna suggests that total warfare occurred more frequently and earlier than previously thought, another indicator that warfare was a common characteristic of Mesoamerica (Wahl et al. 2019).
- 20.
- 21.
- 22.
Grove (1984:26) similarly emphasizes that Monument 1 depicts a cave as the source of water and fertility.
- 23.
- 24.
Klein (1980:174) notes that not only do the Aztec and Maya versions of the earth lord reside inside of mountains, but further recognizes that the Zapotec rain and lightning deity lives in a mountain.
- 25.
Catherine DiCesare (2015) offers a compelling argument that the events Durán described as occurring on Mt. Tlaloc were unique in some aspects due to calendrical intermeshing that caused the simultaneous celebration of multiple festivals.
- 26.
Using the phrase, “We eat the earth and the earth eats us” encountered in his ethnographic research, John Monaghan (1990) makes a similar argument that the modern and ancient Mixtec believed that the rain deity would extract payment if not properly propitiated.
- 27.
- 28.
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Headrick, A. (2024). Blood and Water: A Mesoamerican Social Cement. In: Mendoza, R.G., Hansen, L. (eds) Ritual Human Sacrifice in Mesoamerica. Conflict, Environment, and Social Complexity. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36600-0_6
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