Teotihuacan City of Water City of Fire Art Pieces

Digital Stories

Teotihuacan: Urban center of Water, City of Burn

de Immature Museum

September 30, 2017–Feb 11, 2018

The Beginning City of the Americas

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View of the Lord's day Pyramid. Photograph by Jorge Pérez de Lara Elías

Teotihuacan—the massive archaeological site nestled in the northeastern part of the Valley of Mexico conjures visions of enormous pyramids and long avenues surrounded past mountains and volcanoes. But there is more to this place than meets the eye. Within and beneath the urban center's many plazas, buildings, and awe-inspiring structures prevarication secrets that are only now coming to light.

Teotihuacan: City of Water, City of Fire (prune), 2017. Produced by the Los Angeles Canton Museum of Art, the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia of Mexico (INAH), and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco © 2017 Museum Associates / LACMA and INAH

3 pyramids—two impressive examples and a smaller third—ballast the center of the aboriginal city, which dates to around 100 BCE–550 CE. It is difficult for us, in the 21st century, to imagine the sheer human endeavour it took to construct these grand architectural statements without the use of working animals or metal tools.

At its peak Teotihuacan occupied roughly 8 square miles. Archeologists have determined that many groups of people migrated to Teotihuacan around 100 CE, although it is unclear what prompted these relocations. Teotihuacan was the most densely populated urban center in the ancient Americas, with approximately 100,000 people residing there; it was the cultural, political, economic, and religious center of aboriginal Mesoamerica.

Ceremonial Core

Map of Teotihuacan

This exhibition examines archaeological discoveries from the iii main pyramids, all located along the massive Street of the Dead, as well as from several of the many apartment compounds that housed the city'due south population.

The Moon Pyramid

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View of the Moon Pyramid. Photograph past Jorge Pérez de Lara Elías

Why was such a large population attracted to Teotihuacan? A modest temple constructed at the very first of Teotihuacan's history, at effectually l to 100 CE, suggests a powerful religion may accept attracted many groups of people from the surrounding areas. Over the centuries, this temple was enlarged and became a massive pyramid, standing over 151 anxiety alpine. Now known as the Moon Pyramid, it is the second-largest monument at Teotihuacan.

View of the Moon Pyramid looking north, with the acme of Cerro Gordo in the background. Photograph past Jorge Pérez de Lara Elías

During i menstruum of the Moon Pyramid's expansion, around 250 CE, the construction was greatly enlarged, indicating a catamenia of increasing wealth and political centralization in the metropolis.

Elaborate buried offerings were fabricated at the dedication of this larger pyramid. Placed in each burial were carefully arranged groups of greenstone and obsidian sculptures, slate, pyrite, and ceramic objects. Man and brute skeletons were as well found in many of the Moon Pyramid burials.

At the center of each offering were man figures, like those shown here, fabricated from obsidian and greenstone. Past examining the materials used to create these figures we can begin to answer some questions near the urban center.

Continuing Figure, 200–250. Obsidian, nineteen 5/8 × 5 × 1 one/8 in. (49.nine × 12.viii × three cm). Zona de Monumentos Arqueológicos de Teotihuacán, 10-615748 3/three. Photograph by Jorge Peréz de Lara Elías, © INAH

Obsidian is the glass that results from the fierce heat and eventual cooling of volcanic lava. It has been used for thousands of years as a cutting tool. In ancient times it was a highly valuable trade commodity. Obsidian played a crucial role in the establishment of the Teotihuacan state. The early city leaders gained command over obsidian deposits in the area and organized work crews to larn the raw material. They oversaw the artisans who carved it into utilitarian blades and elaborate figures as well at the local and long-distance merchandise of the material.

Standing Figure with Earflares, 200–250. Greenstone, pyrite, and shell, 12 × 4 1/2 × 3 in. (30.half-dozen × 11.4 × 7.6 cm) shells 2 in. (five cm) and 1 vii/viii in. (4.8 cm). Zona de Monumentos Arqueológicos de Teotihuacán, ten-614783 0/iii. Photo by Jorge Peréz de Lara Elías, © INAH

Jade and greenstone were extremely valuable materials for the ancient Teotihuacanos. Many of these precious stones came from afar, imported forth Teotihuacan's vast supply of trade networks. They were prized for their color, which symbolically represented maize and agricultural fertility. The success of the maize ingather was crucial to the survival of the city and to the position of its ruling elite. Early Teotihuacanos were able to efficiently farm maize by rerouting water sources and developing complex irrigation systems to produce a supply of food adequate for a large population.

The Ciudadela and the Feathered Snake Pyramid

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View of the facade of the Feathered Serpent Pyramid, assembled as a mosaic of large and pocket-size sculptures. Photograph by Jorge Pérez de Lara Elías, © INAH

The Feathered Serpent Pyramid is the 3rd-largest edifice in Teotihuacan. It takes its proper name from the undulating serpents carved into its sides. It is situated in a plaza known as the Ciudadela ("Citadel"), a place for Teotihuacanos to get together and engage in large public rituals.

The Feathered Snake Pyramid is enclosed in the Ciudadela, which consists of 15 stepped platforms surrounding an enormous sunken plaza. Archaeologists accept found testify that the immense plaza may have been periodically flooded in rituals that turned it into a simulacrum of the primordial ocean. The Feathered Ophidian Pyramid thus symbolically became the sacred mountain that, in Mesoamerican creation narratives, emerged from the primordial sea to begin time. Time and the ancient Mesoamerican agenda were cyclical and required renewal through ceremony. The Ciudadela may have been the site of massive ceremonies held to appease the gods and as well to remind Teotihuacan's populace of the leaders' divine right to practise potency under the auspices of the Feathered Serpent.

Blitheness: View eastward from the southwest corner of the Ciudadela. Photograph by Jorge Pérez de Lara Elías, © INAH

In 2003, Mexican archaeologists discovered a large tunnel, the length of a football field, running westward to e underneath the Ciudadela and the Feathered Serpent Pyramid. This tunnel was made early in Teotihuacan's history, around 100 CE, before the structure of the pyramid to a higher place.

Teotihuacan: City of Water, City of Fire (prune), 2017. Produced past the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Instituto Nacional de Antropología eastward Historia of Mexico (INAH), and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco © 2017 Museum Associates / LACMA and INAH

A decade of explorations in the tunnel has yielded an astonishing array of objects notable for both their complexity and quantity. Enquiry and interpretation of the site and these finds is ongoing, but it has allowed scholars to establish that the tunnel was manmade and to propose dates for key events. The tunnel was apparently sealed and re-entered on multiple occasions between the fourth dimension it was first made and its permanent closure (effectually 250 CE, which coincides with the structure of the Feathered Serpent Pyramid). Evidence supports its estimation as a representation of the cosmic underworld—a sacred infinite below ground that connects with our understanding of the ceremonial infinite above as a site for re-creating narratives on the origin of the universe.

Particular of the tunnel'southward exploration. Photo past Sergio Gómez Chávez

2 standing anthropomorphic sculptures in a tunnel nether the Feathered Serpent Pyramid. Photo by Sergio Gómez Chávez

In ancient Mesoamerican cosmology, tunnels provide access to the underworld, seen as an aquatic place filled with riches and nourishing seeds; inhabited by deities and creative forces responsible for maintaining order in the universe. Archaeologists found that the walls of the tunnel sparkled; they had been dusted with the cogitating mineral pyrite. The dazzling walls recreated the shimmering environs of a cosmic place.

More than than l,000 objects were deposited as offerings in the tunnel; the wealth of offerings attests to the sacred nature of what might be the almost of import ritual space in Teotihuacan.

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  Continuing figure, 200–250. Greenstone, xx ½ x 9 ¼ in. (52 ten 23.5 cm). Zona de Monumentos Arqueológicos de Teotihuacán. Photograph by Jorge Pérez de Lara Elías, © INAH

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  Standing effigy, 200–250. Greenstone, 14 i/8 x 6 i/2 in. (36 x 16.5 cm). Zona de Monumentos Arqueológicos de Teotihuacán. Photograph past Jorge Pérez de Lara Elías, © INAH

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  Continuing figure, 200–250. Greenstone, 14 ane/8 x 6 i/2 in. (36 x xvi.5 cm). Zona de Monumentos Arqueológicos de Teotihuacán. Photograph by Jorge Pérez de Lara Elías, © INAH

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  Continuing Figure, 200–250. Greenstone,18 1/2 × 7 i/2 in. (47 × 19 cm). Zona de Monumentos Arqueológicos de Teotihuacán. Photograph past Jorge Pérez de Lara Elías, © INAH

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  Standing Figure, 200–250. Greenstone, twenty 1/2 × nine ane/iv in. (52 × 23.5 cm). Zona de Monumentos Arqueológicos de Teotihuacán. Photograph by Jorge Peréz de Lara Elías, © INAH

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  Incised Shell, 150–250. Beat out, 15 3/iv × 9 in. (40 × 23 cm). Zona de Monumentos Arqueológicos de Teotihuacán. Photograph past Jorge Peréz de Lara Elías, © INAH

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  Effigy Vessel, 100–200. Ceramic 6 1/4 × 9 five/8 × 5 in. (xvi × 24.5 × 12.seven cm). Zona de Monumentos Arqueológicos de Teotihuacán. Photo by Jorge Peréz de Lara Elías, © INAH

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  Storm God Vessel, 150–250. Ceramic, 11 1/4 × 8 1/iv in. (28.5 × 21 cm). Zona de Monumentos Arqueológicos de Teotihuacán. Photo by Jorge Peréz de Lara Elías, © INAH

Well-nigh the tunnel'southward concluding chamber, directly beneath the center of the Feathered Serpent Pyramid is an offering believed to mark the axis mundi, a symbolic pillar connecting heaven, world, and underworld as well equally the meeting place of the four compass directions. This offering contained four enigmatic sculptures, some evidently carrying numberless of greenstone objects and iron-ore mirrors and discs, suggesting a deeper, more than ritual significance. They may correspond Teotihuacan's founding ancestors, witnesses to the nascence of time.

View of the facade of the Feathered Serpent Pyramid, assembled as a mosaic of large and small sculptures (item). Photograph past Jorge Pérez de Lara Elías

The size of the Feathered Ophidian Pyramid is not extraordinary in comparison to the Sun and Moon Pyramids, but all four sides were covered in luxurious and monumental carvings that represent the highest expenditure of energy amid all of the sculptural programs in Teotihuacan, signifying the structure's importance.

The facade depicts undulating serpents with heads that are surrounded past wreaths of feathers. The serpents' bodies support facelike elements that announced to be headdresses, with nose pendants carved under the upper jaw. These images may correspond a primordial crocodile, a symbol that was later used by the Aztecs equally a calendar sign to marking the beginning of a new era.

Approximately 100 years later on it was built, the western facade of the Feathered Serpent Pyramid was covered over by an additional structure and the sculptures on the other three sides of the pyramid were deliberately damaged or removed. Scholars are still unsure as to what political result led to this devastation. These two carvings from the façade were plant on dissimilar sides of the pyramid'due south base.

Sculpture Fragment, 200–250. Andesite, 32 one/four × 57 ane/8 × 44 i/viii in. (82 × 145 × 112 cm).Zona de Monumentos Arqueológicos de Teotihuacán. Photo by Jorge Peréz de Lara Elías, © INAH

Sculpture Fragment, 200–250. Andesite, 32 one/iv × 57 1/8 × 44 i/8 in. (82 × 145 × 112 cm).Zona de Monumentos Arqueológicos de Teotihuacán. Photograph by Jorge Peréz de Lara Elías, © INAH

Feathered Serpents and Flowering Copse mural (Feathered Serpent 1), 500–550. Earthen aggregate, stucco, and mineral pigments, 22 1/4 x 160 1/4 in (56.5 x 407 cm). Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Bequest of Harald J. Wagner, 1985.104a

The unabridged facade of the Feathered Serpent Pyramid was originally colored with light-green and red pigment and may take resembled this landscape of a feathered serpent from an apartment compound near the ceremonial middle of the metropolis. This mural represents a similar plumed snake that embodied the union of earth and sky. Notice the water emerging from the snake's mouth that seems to nourish the plants below.

The murals of Teotihuacan decorated many of the city'south apartments and authoritative centers; they reiterated the ascendant ideology of the urban center. The cherry-red backgrounds on most murals identify them in cosmic time and the sacred world. Sparkling minerals, hematite and pyrite, were mixed into the pigment which was placed directly on a wet surface of stucco so burnished, creating a durable surface that can concluding for centuries. These shiny surfaces would have been activated by light reflected from shallow pools in the compounds' central patios. In this fashion the murals, like the sparkling tunnel cached below the Feathered Serpent Pyramid, recreated the physical environment of supernatural realms.

The Sun Pyramid

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View of the Sun Pyramid. Photo past Jorge Pérez de Lara Elías

The Sun Pyramid dominates the center of the city. It is Teotihuacan's most massive monument, and one of the largest ever congenital in the aboriginal world. The structure was built in ane single, massive endeavor effectually 200 CE. Its square programme covers roughly sixty,000 square yards, and it rises 200 feet loftier, making it ane of the tallest buildings in the Western Hemisphere until the advent of the mod skyscraper.

Basin Brazier

The figure is encumbered with a brazier atop his head. Burn marks bespeak that it was most likely used for formalism incense burning. Communal ceremonies played a big role in binding the denizens together.

Volcanic Stone

The Old Fire God is usually represented in volcanic stone, suggesting a specific connexion between the deity and the smoldering volcanoes surrounding the Valley of Mexico.

Earflares

The old man wears rounded earflares, probably representing an association with the precious materials these accessories were commonly made from, jade or greenstone, and indicating his links to the elite.

Erstwhile Fire God, 150–550. Stone, 25 9/xvi × 24 13/xvi × 26 in. (65 × 63 × 66 cm). Museo Nacional de Antropología / INAH, x-81811.

Archaeologists believe that the Sunday Pyramid supported a temple on its elevation, which housed this large stone etching of an elderly, cross-legged effigy with a brazier atop his caput. This represents the Erstwhile Burn God. Fire was an essential force that both powered and threatened the metropolis; information technology required careful direction. The art of Teotihuacan represents manifestations of natural forces and the beings and rituals designed to keep these elements in cosmic balance.

The Old Fire God also played an important role in unifying the urban center. Before versions of this deity appeared in cardinal and western United mexican states and Oaxaca in advance of Teotihuacan'southward rise. With the rapid influx of people from these areas early in the city's history, and with the challenge of unifying such diverse populations, urban center leaders appear to take taken advantage of this deity-in-mutual, the Sometime Fire God. Teotihuacano modifications of the before traditions helped to demark the many different ethnic groups together. More than 100 Old Fire God figures have been found throughout the metropolis, in locations reflecting both high and low status of its residents.

Other deities in Teotihuacan include the Tempest God and the Maize God.The Teotihuacan Tempest God is identified by arching eyebrows or goggled optics, a curved upper lip, and ambitious fangs. This Storm God also holds a lightning scepter in his correct hand, referencing fire and vehement storms. Teotihuacan is located in a relatively dry region that gets picayune rainfall outside of the rainy season that lasts from June to October. Agricultural land was created and maintained past modifying and diverting the natural springs and rivers that ran through the city. Withal, agronomical productivity relied on favorable weather condition and therefore on appeasing the Tempest God. Many ceramic vessels depicting the Storm God have been establish at Teotihuacan, as well as images on murals of aristocracy figures dressed as Storm God impersonators.

Storm God Vessel, 150–250. Ceramic, 11 1/4 × 8 1/4 in. (28.5 × 21 cm). Zona de Monumentos Arqueológicos de Teotihuacán. Photograph past Jorge Peréz de Lara Elías, © INAH

Mask, 300–600. Listwanite (serpentinite), 9 × eleven × 4 3/5 in. (22.5 × 28 × 12 cm). Museo Nacional de Antropología / INAH, ten-9628

Images of maize gods are familiar among about aboriginal Mesoamerican cultures but have been curiously absent from Teotihuacan. New research suggests that the many enigmatic stone masks found around Teotihuacan depicting an idealized human being's face may, in fact, represent the Maize God. This would accord with the deity's delineation throughout much of Mesoamerica as a physically pristine youthful male. Many stone faces have been plant along the Street of the Dead, indicating their importance to elite ritual, but their exact apply is unknown. More than 500 similar masks have been identified to appointment, approximately three dozen of which have archaeological contexts inside the metropolis itself.

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  Storm God Vessel, 100–200. Ceramic, three 1/ii × two 7/viii in. (9 × 7.three cm). Zona de Monumentos Arqueológicos de Teotihuacán, 10-615843 ½. Photograph by Jorge Peréz de Lara Elías, © INAH

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  Mask, 300–600. Green serpentine, 8 1/2 10 8 1/16 ten 4 1/8 in. (21.half dozen x 20.5 x x.v cm). Robert Forest Elation Drove (PC.B.054). Photo © Dumbarton Oaks, Pre-Columbian Collection, Washington, DC

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  Mask, 300–600. Tecali (travertine), eight 3/four × viii in. (21.5 × 20 cm). Academy of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, NA10799. Courtesy of Penn Museum, Image #150382

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  Storm God Vessel, 150–250. Ceramic, 11 1/4 × 8 1/iv in. (28.5 × 21 cm). Zona de Monumentos Arqueológicos de Teotihuacán. Photograph by Jorge Peréz de Lara Elías, © INAH

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  Mask, 300–600. Limestone, half dozen 3/16 × 6 × 3 1/viii in. (15.7 × xv.3 × seven.nine cm). Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James C. Gruener, 1990.229. © The Cleveland Museum of Fine art

Apartment Compounds

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Small household shrines at Teotihuacan. The central shrine in Patio two at Atetelco. Photo © Christophe Helmke, courtesy of the Zona Aqueológica de Teotihuacan

Outside of the formalism core, a large portion of Teotihuacan consisted of architecturally similar apartment complexes that were built in a gridlike layout. These apartments were occupied by extended family groups often specializing in specific arts and crafts production—obsidian or ceramics, for example. Although we practise not know the dominant language spoken by Teotihuacanos, we do know that the city was home to a diverseness of ethnic groups from different parts of Mesoamerica who spoke multiple languages; some resided in ethnic enclaves, where they carried out some of the cultural practices of their homelands.

Techinantitla Mural, North Wall. Photograph past Saburo Sugiyama

It is estimated that in that location were around 2,000 apartment compounds throughout Teotihuacan, ranging in physical size and level of decoration. In many cases the walls of these apartments were decorated with elaborate landscape paintings. The murals have survived the centuries because they were painted straight into the plaster roofing the walls when information technology was still moisture, creating an extremely durable surface. But as the upper walls crumbled, only the paintings on the lower registers survived, leaving us with only a glimpse of what they one time were.

Tassel Headdress Mural Fragment (Talon Glyph), 500–550. Earthen amass, stucco, and mineral pigments, 30 1/2 × 43 5/16 in. (77.v × 110 cm). Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Bequest of Harald J. Wagner, 1985.104.5

The virtually elaborate murals were limited to the administrative centers and the apartments of the upper and centre classes. This landscape comes from a chemical compound of wealthy residents, and we tin presume that the richly dressed figure in profile represents an elite member of Teotihuacan social club. Archaeologists and art historians hypothesize that these elite figures played crucial leadership roles.

Read like a Teotihuacano.

Decoding the events depicted on these intricate murals requires shut looking and patient viewing.

Headdress

Many Teotihuacano elites are shown wearing headdresses that are topped with long feathers; although these are depicted in red, they represent the dark-green feathers of the tropical bird called the quetzal. These feathers were valued for their irised, shiny green color and for their rarity; imported from the Maya regions of southern Mexico and Guatemala, near 600 miles abroad, they are emblematic of Teotihuacan's far-reaching diplomatic and trade relationships. The headdress also contains tassels, projectile points, and round ornaments. These headdresses may accept belonged to high-ranking individuals involved with diplomatic, military, and trade contacts in other parts of Mesoamerica.

Speech Scrolls

This speech scroll is probably an allusion to agricultural fertility, or to a "flowery" kind of spoken language.

Incense

The correct hand holds an incense pouch. Archaeologists believe that burning incense played an important role in the metropolis, and many elaborate incensarios (incense burners) have been found there.

Blooming Flowers

A stream that concludes in flowers flows from the left hand. It is likely a reference to the role of the aristocracy in ensuring agronomical fertility.

Earflares and Goggled Optics

The figure wears jade or greenstone earflares. Similar the green feathers, these would accept been precious, exotic objects. Throughout history, elites have worn luxury items equally a visual display of their loftier condition. The circular rim surrounding the figure'due south centre perhaps depicts an object made of shell; information technology is most likely a reference to the Tempest God and his feature goggled eyes.

Footprints

The elite figure marches on a band of footprints that most likely refers to the act of walking in individual and customs processions, highlighting the importance of ritual. This effigy is one of many from the same set of murals, all walking to the right as they make ceremonial offerings.

Glyph

This glyphlike object is wearing a Tassel Headdress, including Storm God goggles and flames. A class of picture writing with glyphs that seem to represent things or places appears at Teotihuacan, but whether or not it represents a spoken language is however debated by scholars.

The Dandy Fire and Legacy

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View from the Moon Pyramid looking due south toward the Street of the Dead and the Sun Pyramid. Photograph by Jorge Peréz de Lara Elías

Blitheness: Standing Effigy, 500–550. Calcite marble, 50 three/8 × 18 1/viii × vii 7/eight in. (128 × 46 × xx cm). Museo Nacional de Antropología / INAH, 10-642614

Several sculptures from Teotihuacan, including this marble figure, showroom show of tearing devastation relating to a great burn that marked the metropolis'south demise. Effectually 550 CE, the ceremonial center was burned and ritual objects were intentionally smashed and scattered in acts meant to divest them of their ritual power. Teotihuacan's demise may have resulted from environmental difficulties or from political unrest and societal tensions rooted in the migrations into the Valley of United mexican states. Any the cause, the systems of urban and religious maintenance devised past the Teotihuacan rulers that had succeeded for over 400 years brutal apart, and Teotihuacan's regional dominance ended.

To the Aztecs, who came to prominence almost 900 years after the fall of Teotihuacan, the ancient city was considered the place where the gods brought the globe into existence. They gave information technology the name we use today, also naming the Sun and Moon Pyramids and the Street of the Expressionless. The city's monuments take been central to Mexican national identity always since the ancestry of archaeology in the late 19th century. Equally an ancient ruin, Teotihuacan is one of the most visited archaeological sites in the earth, welcoming millions of visitors a year. Equally information technology did in antiquity, Teotihuacan's scale and planning keep to inspire awe in modern visitors and scholars. It is simultaneously a place that a modernistic metropolis-dweller would instantly recognize equally an urban surroundings and a place that reflects the intentions of its creators to build a mirror of the cosmos.

Teotihuacan: Urban center of Water, City of Fire (clip), 2017. Produced by the Los Angeles Canton Museum of Art, the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia of Mexico (INAH), and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco © 2017 Museum Associates / LACMA and INAH

Teotihuacan in San Francisco

Though the state of Teotihuacan collapsed well-nigh i,500 years agone, the legacy of the ancient city is nonetheless alive today. In San Francisco's Mission Commune, images of the Feathered Snake twist and turn over storefronts and throughout alleyways. In Teotihuacan, the symbol of the Feathered Snake was function of an iconography reflecting a common civilisation and belief organization that united diverse populations and contributed to a shared urban identity. The tradition continues: the art of Teotihuacan, now a symbol of Mesoamerican history and civilisation, contributes to the multiculturalism that San Francisco celebrates.

24th and Harrison. Leia Maahs, Jaime Wynn, Leyenda Azteca, © 2000 Precita Eyes

Ralph Maradiaga Mini-Park, 24th & York. Mosaic sculpture, Colette Crutcher and Aileen Barr, 2010. Two murals past Michael Rios, Quetzalcoatl, 1974 and ABC, 1980

24th and Capp. H.O.M.Due east.Y., Eric Norberg, Mike Ramos, Breaking Down Barriers, 2007

Mild Aisle, mid-block. Carla Wo, The Wanderer, 2011

streicherhurew1943.blogspot.com

Source: https://digitalstories.famsf.org/teo/

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