Teotihuacan 200 B.C.- 400 A.D. The name Teotihuacan means "place of the gods"
and was given by the later Mexica (Aztec), as it was believed to be where the
current cycle of time began. Teotihuacan is recognized not only as the remains
of an impressive pre-Columbian civilization, but also as the earliest city in
the New World and the largest city ever to develop in ancient
Mesoamerica.
The city covered about 8 square miles (20 sq. km) and had
a population of 125,000 to 200,000, making it among the largest cities of the
world. The city was arrayed on an enormous grid plan and centered on the largest
pyramidal structure ever to be constructed in pre-Columbian America. Completed
between A.D. 100 and 200, the Temple of the Sun was an immense stone-faced
rubble-cored pyramid greater in volume ( 1,175,000 cubic meters) than the Great
Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt. This urban giant was the center of a powerful
political-religious center that dominated the politics and economy of the basin
of Mexico and had long-distance commercial and political ties throughout
Mesoamerica. The city was supported by a system of intensive agriculture
including terraces and irrigation canals. The population of Teotihuacan was
housed in large apartment complexes that covered a densely built-up area of more
than 7.5 square miles(20 sq. km) and housed many foreign colonies of merchants
and craftsmen. 350 obsidian workshops dispersed across the city chipped the
immense numbers of dart and spear points and the sharp blades for war clubs that
were in unquenchable demand everywhere. This monopoly on obsidian and the city's
position as the most powerful religious shrine in central Mexico drew power and
wealth there like a magnet.
Around 150 A.D. the focus of religious activity
shifted just south of the Pyramid of the Sun with the bulding of the Temple of
the Feathered Serpent and its vast Ciudadela complex of temples, palaces, and
granaries. On this Temple, four-ton figures of the goggle-eyed Storm god,
Tlaloc, and the Feathered Serpent alternate in ascending bands up the structure.
It was in theis center that the cult of sacred-war-and-sacrifice associated with
the Feathered Serpent deity Quetzalcoatl, the Storm God Tlaloc, and the planet
Venus and its cyclical motions, was born. This complex religious cult
revolutionized warfare in Mesoamerica, introducing the concept of conquest for
territory and the taking of captives for sacrifice that was to be embraced by
future Mesoamerican societies.
Teotihuacan had a distictive art style
visible in architecture, murals, ceramic artifacts, figurines, and stone masks
which influenced other cultures in Mesoamerica. The power of the city apparently
ended about 750 A.D. when the central part of the city was destroyed by fire.
Perhaps a long era of repeated droughts, which occur with frequency in the
Valley of Mexico, lowered the flow of the underground springs around
Teotihuacan. In the wake of these droughts. Teotihuacan's military power and
population fell, making the city vulnerable to repeated attacks from northern
barbarians who eventually devastated Teotihuacan by invasion.
During the
three hundred years that followed the collapse of Teotihuacan, bands of northern
nomads continued to enter the Valley of Mexico in succesive waves. In the late
tenth century, one of these tribes established itself just north of the valley
in the Basin of Tula. Some of its members may have been descendants of the
hordes who participated in the sacking of Teotihuacan. Others may have included
distant offspring of the Teotihuacanos themselves. Whatever its true origins,
the tribe came to be known as the Toltecs, meaning "Builders" in the Nahua
language spoken by most of the inhabitants of the Valley of Mexico. In Tula, the
Toltecs built a city-state clearly inspired by Teotihuacan's monumental
archictecture.
Written by Indio
