Editing Teotihuacan (section)

==Culture==
[[File:Incensario Lid,Teotihuacan style, 400-700 C.E.,75.148.jpg|thumbnail|''Incensario Lid'', Teotihuacan style, 400–700 CE, [[Brooklyn Museum]]]]

Archeological evidence suggests that Teotihuacan was a multi-ethnic city, and while the predominant language or languages used in Teotihuacan have been lost to history, early forms of [[Totonac languages|Totonac]] and [[Nahuatl]] seem to be highly plausible.<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal|last=Grove|first=David|date=March 1994|title=Art, Ideology, and the City of Teotihuacan: A Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks, 8th and 9th October 1988 . Janet Catherine Berlo.|journal=American Anthropologist|volume=96|issue=1|pages=215–216|doi=10.1525/aa.1994.96.1.02a00570|issn=0002-7294}}</ref> This apparent regionally diverse population of Teotihuacan can be traced back to a natural disaster that occurred prior to its population boom. At one point in time, Teotihuacan was rivaled by another basin power, [[Cuicuilco]].<ref name=":6" /> Both cities, roughly the same size and hubs for trade, were productive centers of artisans and commerce.<ref name=":6" /> Roughly around 100 BCE, however, the power dynamic changed when Mount Xitle, an active volcano, erupted, and heavily affected Cuicuilco and the farmland that supported it. It is believed that the later exponential growth of Teotihuacan's population was due to the subsequent migration of those displaced by the eruption.<ref name=":6" /> While this eruption is referenced as being the primary cause of the mass exodus, recent advancements of dating have shed light on an even earlier eruption.<ref name=":8">{{Cite journal|last=Nichols|first=Deborah L.|date=March 2016|title=Teotihuacan|journal=Journal of Archaeological Research|language=en|volume=24|issue=1|pages=1–74|doi=10.1007/s10814-015-9085-0|s2cid=254607946 |issn=1059-0161}}</ref> The eruption of Popocatepetl in the middle of the first century preceded that of Xitle, and is believed to have begun the aforementioned degradation of agricultural lands and structural damage to the city. Xitle's eruption further instigated the abandonment of Cuicuilco.<ref name=":8" />

In the Tzacualli phase ({{circa|1}}–150 CE), Teotihuacan saw a population growth to approximately 60,000 to 80,000 people, most of whom are believed to have come from the Mexican basin.<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal|last=Cowgill|first=George L.|title=State and Society at Teotihuacan, Mexico|date=1997-10-21|journal=Annual Review of Anthropology|volume=26|issue=1|pages=129–161|doi=10.1146/annurev.anthro.26.1.129|issn=0084-6570}}</ref> Following this growth, however, the influx of new residents slowed, and evidence suggests that, by the Miccaotli phase, {{circa|200 CE}}, the urban population had reached its maximum.<ref name=":7" />

In 2001, [[Terrence Kaufman]] presented linguistic evidence suggesting that an important ethnic group in Teotihuacan was of [[Totonacan languages|Totonacan]] or [[Mixe–Zoquean languages|Mixe–Zoquean]] linguistic affiliation.<ref>[http://www.albany.edu/anthro/maldp/Nawa.pdf Terrence Kaufman, "Nawa linguistic prehistory"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200119013512/https://www.albany.edu/anthro/maldp/Nawa.pdf |date=2020-01-19 }}, SUNY Albany</ref> He uses this to explain general influences from Totonacan and Mixe–Zoquean languages in many other [[Mesoamerican languages]], whose people did not have any known history of contact with either of the abovementioned groups. Other scholars maintain that the largest population group must have been of [[Otomi]] ethnicity because the Otomi language is known to have been spoken in the area around Teotihuacan both before and after the Classic period and not during the middle period.<ref>* {{cite journal |first1=Wright |last1=Carr |first2=David |last2=Charles |date=2005 |title=El papel de los otomies en las culturas del altiplano central 5000 a.C – 1650 d.C|journal=[[Arqueología Mexicana]] |volume=XIII |issue=73 |pages=19|language=es}}</ref>

Teotihuacan compounds show evidence of being segregated into three classes: high elites, intermediate elites, and the laboring class.<ref name=":4">{{Citation|last=Cowgill|first=George L.|title=Central Mexico Classic |date=2001|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Prehistory|pages=12–21|publisher=Springer US|doi=10.1007/978-1-4615-0525-9_2|isbn=978-1-4684-7132-8}}</ref> Residential architectural structures seem to be differentiable by the artistry and complexity of the structure itself.<ref name=":4" /> Based on the quality of construction materials and sizes of rooms as well as the quality of assorted objects found in the residency, dwellings radiating outward from the Central district and along the Avenue of the Dead might have been occupied by higher status individuals.<ref name=":4" /> However, Teotihuacan overall does not appear to have been organized into discrete zoning districts.<ref name=":4" /> The more elite compounds were often decorated with elaborate murals. Thematic elements of these murals included processions of lavishly dressed priests, [[jaguar]] figures, the storm god deity, and an anonymous goddess whose hands offer gifts of maize, precious stones, and water.<ref name="Miller1973">{{cite book |last1=Miller |first1=Arthur G. |title=The mural painting of Teotihuacán |date=1973 |publisher=Trustees for Harvard University |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=9780884020493 |url=https://www.doaks.org/resources/publications/books/the-mural-painting-of-teotihuaca-n |access-date=31 August 2022}}</ref><ref name="Berrin1988">{{cite book |last1=Berrin |first1=Kathleen |title=Feathered serpents and flowering trees : reconstructing the murals of Teotihuacán |date=1988 |publisher=Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco |location=San Francisco |isbn=9780295967035 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-antiquity/article/abs/feathered-serpents-and-flowering-trees-reconstructing-the-murals-of-teotihuacan-kathleen-berrin-editor-the-fine-arts-museums-of-san-francisco-1988-238-pp-appendix-index-3995-cloth/7A76C70D7B5D17D5C465693DF9B6B96B |access-date=31 August 2022 |language=en}}</ref> Rulers who may have requested to be immortalized through art are noticeably absent in Teotihuacan artwork.<ref name="Cowgill1979">{{cite book |last1=Cowgill |first1=George L. |last2=Hammond |first2=Norman |last3=Willey |first3=Gordon R. |title=Maya archaeology and ethnohistory |date=1979 |publisher=University of Texas Press |location=Austin |isbn=9780292762565 |pages=51–62 |doi=10.7560/750401-007 |s2cid=240078108 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.7560/750401-007/html |access-date=31 August 2022}}</ref> Observed artwork, instead, tends to portray institutionalized offices and deities. It suggests their art glorifies nature and the supernatural and emphasizes egalitarian rather than aristocratic values.<ref name="Pastorzy1997">{{cite book |last1=Pasztory |first1=Esther |title=Teotihuacan: An Experiment in Living |date=1997 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |location=Oklahoma |isbn=9780806128474 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vclgHOQayFAC |access-date=10 July 2023}}</ref> Also absent from Teotihuacan artwork is writing, despite the city having a strong network of contact with the literate Maya.<ref name="Langley1986">{{cite book |last1=Langley |first1=James C. |title=Symbolic notation of Teotihuacan : elements of writing in a Mesoamerican culture of the classic period |date=1986 |publisher=B.A.R Publishing |location=Oxford, England |isbn=9780860544005 |url=https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/1j92g901w |access-date=31 August 2022}}</ref>

The laboring classes, themselves also stratified, consisted of farmers, skilled craftworkers, and the peripheral rural population.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal|last=Manzanilla|first=Linda R.|date=2015-03-16|title=Cooperation and tensions in multiethnic corporate societies using Teotihuacan, Central Mexico, as a case study|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=112|issue=30|pages=9210–9215|doi=10.1073/pnas.1419881112|pmid=25775567|pmc=4522775|bibcode=2015PNAS..112.9210M|issn=0027-8424|doi-access=free}}</ref> The city dwelling craftspeople of various specialties were housed in apartment complexes distributed throughout the city, known as neighborhood centers, and evidence shows that these centers were the economic and cultural engines of Teotihuacan.<ref name=":5" /> Established by the elite to showcase the sumptuary goods that the resident craftsmen provided, the neighborhood centers representing diversity in goods was aided by the heavy concentration of immigrated individuals from different regions of Mesoamerica.<ref name=":5" /> Along with archeological evidence pointing to one of the primary traded items being textiles, craftspeople capitalized on their mastery of painting, building, the performance of music and military training.<ref name=":5" /> These neighborhood centers closely resembled individual compounds, often surrounded by physical barriers separating them from the others. In this way, Teotihuacan developed an internal economic competition that fueled productivity and helped create a social structure of its own that differed from the larger structure.<ref name=":5" /> The repeated actions of the craftworkers left their physical mark.<ref name=":5" /> Based on the wear of teeth, archeologists were able to determine that some bodies worked with fibers with their frontal teeth, insinuating that they were involved with making nets, like those depicted in mural art.<ref name=":5" /> Female skeletons provided evidence that they might have sewn or painted for long periods of time, indicative of the headdresses that were created as well as pottery which was fired and painted. Wear on specific joints indicate the carrying of heavy objects over an extended period of time. Evidence of these heavy materials is found in the copious amounts of imported pottery, and raw materials found on-site, such as rhyolitic glass shards, marble, and slate.<ref name=":5" /> The residences of the rural population of the city were in enclaves between the middle-class residences or the periphery of the city while smaller encampments filled with earthenware from other regions, also suggest that merchants were situated in their own encampments as well.<ref name=":4" />

===Religion===
In ''An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya'', Miller and Taube list eight deities:<ref>Miller & Taube, pp. 162–63.</ref>
* The Storm God<ref>Instead of "Storm God", Miller and Taube call this deity "[[Tlaloc]]", the name of the much later Aztec storm god. Coe (1994), p. 101, uses the same term. However, the use of [[Nahuatl]] Aztec names to denote Teotihuacan deities has been in decline (see Berlo, p. 147).</ref>
* The [[Great Goddess of Teotihuacan|Great Goddess]]
* The [[Feathered Serpent]].<ref>Instead of "the Feathered Serpent", Miller and Taube call this deity "[[Quetzalcoatl]]", the name of the much later Aztec feathered serpent god.</ref> An important deity in Teotihuacan; most closely associated with the [[Feathered Serpent Pyramid]] (Temple of the Feathered Serpent).
* The Old God
* The War Serpent. Taube has differentiated two different serpent deities whose depictions alternate on the Feathered Serpent Pyramid: the Feathered Serpent and what he calls the "War Serpent". Other researchers are more skeptical.<ref>Sugiyama (1992), p. 220.</ref>
* The Netted Jaguar
* The [[Pulque]] God
* The Fat God. Known primarily from figurines and so assumed to be related to household rituals.<ref name = "Pasztory 1997, p. 84">Pasztory (1997), p. 84.</ref>

Esther Pasztory adds one more:<ref>Pasztory (1997), pp. 83–84.</ref>
* The Flayed God. Known primarily from figurines and so assumed to be related to household rituals.<ref name = "Pasztory 1997, p. 84" />

[[Image:Great Goddess of Teotihuacan (T Aleto).jpg|right|thumb|300px|A mural showing what has been identified as the [[Great Goddess of Teotihuacan]]]]

The consensus among scholars is that the primary deity of Teotihuacan was the [[Great Goddess of Teotihuacan]].<ref>Cowgill (1997), p. 149. Pasztory (1992), p. 281.</ref> The dominant civic architecture is the pyramid. Politics were based on the state religion, and religious leaders were the political leaders.<ref>Sugiyama, p. 111.</ref> Religious leaders would commission artists to create religious artworks for ceremonies and rituals. The artwork likely commissioned would have been a mural or a [[censer]] depicting gods like the [[Great Goddess of Teotihuacan]] or the [[Feathered Serpent]]. [[Censer]]s would be lit during religious rituals to invoke the gods including rituals with [[human sacrifice]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Teotihuacan : art from the city of the gods|last=Manzanilla|first=Linda|publisher=Thames and Hudson|year=1993|isbn=978-0500277676|editor-last=Berrin|editor-first=Kathleen|location=New York, New York|pages=95|editor-last2=Pasztory|editor-first2=Esther}}</ref>

As evidenced from human and animal remains found during excavations of the pyramids in the city, Teotihuacanos practiced [[human sacrifice]]. Scholars believe that the people offered human sacrifices as part of a dedication when buildings were expanded or constructed. The victims were probably enemy warriors captured in battle and brought to the city for ritual sacrifice to ensure the city could prosper.<ref>Coe (1994), p. 98.</ref> Some men were decapitated, some had their hearts removed, others were killed by being hit several times over the head, and some were buried alive. Animals that were considered sacred and represented mythical powers and the military were also buried alive or captured and held in cages such as cougars, a wolf, eagles, a falcon, an owl, and even venomous snakes.<ref>Sugiyama: 109, 111</ref>

Numerous stone masks have been found at Teotihuacan, and have been generally believed to have been used during a funerary context.<ref name=BMA>{{cite book|author=Birmingham Museum of Art|author-link=Birmingham Museum of Art|title=Birmingham Museum of Art : guide to the collection|date=2010|publisher=Birmingham Museum of Art|location= Birmingham, AL |isbn = 978-1-904832-77-5 |page =83|url= http://artsbma.org/}}</ref> However, other scholars call this into question, noting that the masks "do not seem to have come from burials".<ref>Pasztory (1993), p. 54.</ref>

===Population===
[[File:Teotihuacán_-_Menschenopfer_2.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Human sacrifices found at the foundations of La Ciudadela.]]

Teotihuacan had one of the largest, or perhaps had the largest, population of any city in the [[Basin of Mexico]] during its occupation. Teotihuacan was a large pre-historic city that underwent massive population growth and sustained it over most of the city's occupancy. In 100 CE, the population could be estimated at around 60,000–80,000, after 200 years of the city's occupancy, within {{val|20|u=km2}} of the city. The population, eventually, stabilized around 100,000 people around 300 CE.<ref name="State and Society at Teotihuacan, M">{{cite journal |last1=Cowgill |first1=George |title=State and Society at Teotihuacan, Mexico |journal=Annual Review of Anthropology |date=October 1997 |volume=26 |pages=129–161 |doi=10.1146/annurev.anthro.26.1.129}}</ref>

The population reached its peak numbers around 400 to 500 CE. During 400 to 500 CE, the Xolalpan period, the city's population was estimated to be 100,000 to 200,000 people. This number was achieved by estimating compound sizes to hold approximately 60 to 100, with 2,000 compounds.<ref name="State and Society at Teotihuacan, M"/> These high numbers continued until the city started to decline between 600 and 700 CE.<ref name="Teotihuacan" />

One of Teotihuacan's neighborhoods, Teopancazco, was occupied during most of the time Teotihuacan was as well. It showed that Teotihuacan was a multiethnic city that was broken up into areas of different ethnicities and workers. This neighborhood was important in two ways; the high [[infant mortality]] rate and the role of the different ethnicities. The high infant mortality rate was important within the neighborhood, and the city at large, as there are a large number of perinatal skeletons at Teopancazco. This suggests that the population of Teotihuacan was sustained and grew due to people coming into the city, rather than the population reproducing. The influx of people came from surrounding areas, bringing different ethnicities to the city.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Manzanilla|first=Linda R.|date=2015-03-16|title=Cooperation and tensions in multiethnic corporate societies using Teotihuacan, Central Mexico, as a case study|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|language=en|volume=112|issue=30|pages=9210–9215|doi=10.1073/pnas.1419881112|pmid=25775567|pmc=4522775|bibcode=2015PNAS..112.9210M|issn=0027-8424|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Teotihuacan also had two other neighborhoods that prominently depicted this multiethnic city picture. Both neighborhoods contained not only different architecture from the other parts of Teotihuacan but also artifacts and burial practices that began the narrative of these places. Archaeologists have also performed oxygen isotope ratio testing and strontium isotope ratio testing to determine, using the bones and the teeth of the skeletons uncovered, whether these skeletons were native to Teotihuacan or were immigrants to the city.<ref name=":13"/><ref name=":22">{{Cite journal |last1=White |first1=Christine D. |last2=Spence |first2=Michael W. |last3=Le Q. Stuart-Williams |first3=Hilary |last4=Schwarcz |first4=Henry P. |date=July 1998 |title=Oxygen Isotopes and the Identification of Geographical Origins: The Valley of Oaxaca versus the Valley of Mexico |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jasc.1997.0259 |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=25 |issue=7 |pages=643–655 |doi=10.1006/jasc.1997.0259 |bibcode=1998JArSc..25..643W |issn=0305-4403}}</ref><ref name=":32">{{Cite journal |last1=White |first1=Christine D. |last2=Spence |first2=Michael W. |last3=Longstaffe |first3=Fred J. |last4=Law |first4=Kimberley R. |date=December 2004 |title=Demography and ethnic continuity in the Tlailotlacan enclave of Teotihuacan: the evidence from stable oxygen isotopes |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2004.08.002 |journal=Journal of Anthropological Archaeology |volume=23 |issue=4 |pages=385–403 |doi=10.1016/j.jaa.2004.08.002 |issn=0278-4165}}</ref> The oxygen ratio testing can be used to determine where someone grew up, and the strontium ratio testing can be used to determine where someone was born and where they were living when they died.<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":22" /><ref name=":32" /> These tests revealed a lot of information, but specifically enabled clear distinction between the people living in the ethnic neighborhoods and those native to Teotihuacan.

One neighborhood was called Tlailotlacan and was believed to be a neighborhood of migrants predominantly from the Oaxaca region.<ref name=":22" /><ref name=":32" /> The excavations there featured prominently artifacts in the Zapotec style of from the Zapotec region, including one tomb with an antechamber.<ref name=":13" /> The oxygen isotope ratio testing was particularly helpful when analyzing this neighborhood because it painted a clear picture of the initial influx from Oaxaca, followed by routine journeys back to the homeland to maintain the culture and heritage of the following generations.<ref name=":22" /><ref name=":32" /> Later oxygen isotope ratio testing also revealed that out of the skeletons tested, four-fifths of them had immigrated to the city or were born in the city, but spent their childhood in their homeland before returning to Teotihuacan.<ref name=":32" /> There was evidence of constant interaction between Teotihuacan and the Oaxacan homeland through journeys taken by children and mothers, keeping the culture and the roots to their homeland alive.<ref name=":32" />

The other main neighborhood was called Barrio de Los Comerciantes, or the Merchants' Barrio.<ref name=":13" /> There is less information about those who lived here (or perhaps more research needs to be done), but this neighborhood also had clear differences from other areas of the city. The architecture was different, featuring round adobe structures, as well as foreign pottery and artifacts identified as belonging to the Gulf Coast region.<ref name=":13" /> This neighborhood, similarly to Tlailotclan, saw a huge influx of immigration, determined by the strontium isotope ratio testing of bones and teeth, with people spending a significant part of their lives before death in Teotihuacan.<ref name=":13" />

===Writing and literature===
There was a big find in the La Ventilla district that contains over 30 signs and clusters on the floor of the patio.<ref>de la Fuente B, ed. 1995. La Pintura Mural Prehispánica en México I: Teotihuacan. Tomo 1: Catálogo. Mexico City: Inst. Investigaciones Estéticas, Univ. Nac. Autón. Méx.</ref> Much of the findings in Teotihuacan suggest that the inhabitants had their own writing style. The figures were made "quickly and show control" giving the idea that they were practiced and were adequate for the needs of their society.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cowgill |first1=George L. |title=State and Society at Teotihuacan, Mexico |journal=Annual Review of Anthropology |volume=26 |pages=129–161 |publisher=Annual Reviews|doi=10.1146/annurev.anthro.26.1.129 |year=1997 }}</ref> Other societies around Teotihuacan adopted some of the symbols that were used there. The inhabitants there rarely used any other societies' symbols and art.<ref>Pasztory E. 1990. El poder militar como realidad y metáfora en Teotihuacan. See Cardós 1990, pp. 181–204</ref> These writing systems were not anything like those of their neighbors, but the same writings show that they must have been aware of the other writings.<ref>Berlo JC. 1989. Early writing in central Mexico: in Tlilli, in Tlapalli before A. D. 1000. See Diehl & Berlo 1989, pp. 19–47</ref>

===Obsidian workshops ===
[[File:Teotihuacan Obsidian Blade.jpg|thumb|Example of a Teotihuacan Obsidian Blade, Metropolitan Museum of Art]]
The processing of obsidian was the most developed art and the main source of wealth in Teotihuacan and many other ancient Mesoamerican cultures. The workshops produced tools or objects of obsidian of various uses and types (black and grey colors), intended for commercial transactions beyond the geographical boundaries of the city, with cities such as Monte Alban in Oaxaca Mexico, Tikal in Guatemala, and some Mayan states.<ref>{{Cite web |title='Astounding new finds' suggest ancient empire may be hiding in plain sight |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/astounding-new-finds-suggest-ancient-empire-may-be-hiding-plain-sight |access-date=2023-04-30 |website=www.science.org |language=en}}</ref> Figurines, blades, arrowheads, spikes, knife handles, jewelry, masks, or ornaments, etc were some of the most notable and common objects constructed. Obsidian came mainly from the mines of Pachuca (Teotihuacan) and its processing was the most important industry in the city, which had acquired the monopoly in the trade of obsidian in the broader Middle American region.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2694078.pdf|jstor = 2694078|title = The Obsidian Industry of Teotihuacan|last1 = Spence|first1 = Michael W.|journal = American Antiquity|year = 1967|volume = 32|issue = 4|pages = 507–514|doi = 10.2307/2694078|s2cid = 54083199}}</ref> The state also heavily monitored the trade, movement, and creation of obsidian tools, as it was such an important industry in the city that it was limited to the regional workshops where the tools were produced.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/280105.pdf|jstor = 280105|title = Obsidian Production and the State in Teotihuacan|last1 = Spence|first1 = Michael W.|journal = American Antiquity|year = 1981|volume = 46|issue = 4|pages = 769–788|doi = 10.2307/280105|s2cid = 164044287}}</ref> This brittle yet strong rock, was mainly formed into objects by flaking off pieces from a larger cone, but wood and bone tools have also been found to have been used in the process.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cartwright |first=Mark |date=August 24, 2022 |title=Obsidian in Mesoamerica |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2060/obsidian-in-mesoamerica/ |website=World History Encyclopedia}}</ref>