Teotihuacan Art
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At the city remains, some of the elite residences still show some of their painted walls, especially along the bottom edges. Buildings along the "Street of the Dead" were also originally painted; some of the fresco works survive there, too. The seven white objects in this mural are conchs, associated with rainmaking winds and ritual music.
National Museum of Anthropology and History
And this is one of the surviving frescoes mentioned above. The painting is from the wall of a building immediately flanking the "Street of the Dead's" eastern side. The dominant object in the painting is the mountain lion. That almost all the buildings were formerly painted in colorful murals is very possible. To reconstruct such a vibrant city is always an artistic challenge.
Teotihuacan
No longer intact to the wall, this painting was discovered in a precinct outside the city's main center, possibly Techinantitla. The parrot's brilliant colors have faded little. From its upturned mouth the parrot emits a symbol connected with wind and breath; at times this symbol is abbreviated into a small crook to indicate a song. The symbol is often associated with evocation and flowing of a power from within the figure. Similarly, the footprints surrounding the bird could indicate dancing.
Beatriz de la Fuente Mural Museum at Teotihuacan
In Mesoamerican thought, the human being was believed to contain several spiritual forces or "souls." The one most connected to life itself is teyolia, derived from the root word for heart (yollotl). While the other souls may be able to leave the body at different times, as for example, when someone is dreaming, teyolia must remain in the body. When it leaves, the person dies. This small sculpture shows a human with the chest cavity open, revealing a small sigil that may represent the heart.
Teotihuacan
A richly painted censer with several bird faces. The most abundant source of incense in Mesoamerica was the ceiba tree, whose resin was converted into a fragrant incense the Maya called pom and the Aztecs called copalli. This is one of the finest Teotihuacan censers I have seen.
National Museum of Anthropology and History
This mask is characteristic of Teotihuacan: a flat, smooth face bordered into the shape of an upside-down trapezoid. An interesting study suggests that this shape may outline an inverted Teotihuacan temple! (Compare the mask's shape to the image of the Sun Temple below and decide for yourself.) If the large nosepiece is some floral emblem, this mask may represent the flower god Xochipilli, or its Teotihuacan likeness. For an elaborate image of Xochipilli, see his Aztec rendition.
National Museum of Anthropology and History
A fine mask, made from a single piece of deeply colored greenstone and inlaid with shell eyes and teeth. This is one of two Teotihuacan masks that were actually found at the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital, where they were buried in tribute to the majesty of the Aztec empire. The Aztecs looked to the ancient city of Teotihuacan for cultural inspiration. In fact, the name itself means "Where the Gods Become" as the Aztecs believed this city to be the site where the gods created the earth. Most of the names now applied to the city are still from the original Nahuatl names, misleading many to think that this city was also Aztec. It was actually a distinctive civilization that reached its peak around the sixth century C.E., five hundred years before the Aztecs even migrated from northwestern Mexico.
Aztec Great Temple Museum
These two standing figures have been dated to the Early Classic Period, between 300 and 600 C.E. Many of these slender, abstract figures were carved from schist or slate and painted red. They are very common to Teotihuacan, and they often stand with graceful poses.
National Museum of Anthropology and History
At its heyday around the sixth century C.E., the metropolitan area of Teotihuacan may have reached a population of 200,000, which would have made it one of the largest cities on Earth at the time. The Sun Temple is the largest structure in the city, with a base area larger than that of the Cheops Pyramid in Egypt. The buildings in the foreground are minor temples. At the bottom right corner is part of the "Street of the Dead," the main avenue that runs for a mile as the main axis of the city. It really formed the central marketplace for the city. The great market avenue and the enormous pyramids probably gave the city in its antiquity the same strength it has today: commerce from tourism.
Teotihuacan
In Mesoamerica: if something has a counterpart, expect it to be built. The natural complement to the sun is the moon, and in some myths they were divine partners as husband and wife. The Moon Temple's front overlooks the "Street of the Dead" from the street's northernmost end. The temple was built in a way that mimicked the large mountain behind it. A mountain was believed to point up to the heavens, and in copying its shape the builders were hoping to construct a miniature of that sacred spire.
Teotihuacan
This stone head looks out from the entrance to the Temple of the Quetzal-Butterfly, on the northern end of the "Street of the Dead." The face shows a few traces of the paint that must have fully covered it two thousand years ago. The gnarling face on this jaguar shows the same style of expression as the Feathered Serpent from this city, and it is possible that this may represent the jaguar aspect of the Rain Lord Tlaloc.
Teotihuacan
The Temple of the Quetzal-Butterfly opens to a small patio in its center, framed by a square colonnade. Each of the columns was carved with reliefs of birds with obsidian eyes. Small holes were also cut into the pillars to drape long curtains across. The pillars have undergone major restoration in recent times. Here are a corner of the patio and a detail from one of the pillar reliefs.
Teotihuacan
Immediately behind the Temple of the Quetzal-Butterfly lies the Temple of the Feathered Conch, named for the reliefs in the interior as here. The right side of each conch is spread with long feathers, as displayed here. The jambs and friezes within the temple are also lined with reliefs of flowers, totaling 52 - an important number in the Mesoamerican concept of time.
Teotihuacan
At the site museum I walked upon a bridge crossing over a scale model of the city center, which illustrates its deliberate construction along a grid-like layout. The film starts upon the Sun Temple and then pans toward the Moon Temple, at the north end of the city's central axis. (Looming overhead through the windows is the south side of the Sun Temple itself!) I turn the camera along the Street of the Dead until I reach the southern precincts, punctuated with the massive Citadel toward the southeast corner. The Temple of the Feathered Serpent is the tall structure dominating this part of the city.
Here you can appreciate the immensity of this imperial capital, one of the largest cities ever built in the ancient Americas.
Teotihuacan Site Museum
