Teotihuacan city layout as a cosmogram: Preliminary results of the 2007 Measurement Unit Study

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511760822.016

11 - Teotihuacan city layout as a cosmogram: Preliminary results of the 2007 Measurement Unit Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012

Saburo Sugiyama

Edited by

Iain Morley and

Colin Renfrew

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Iain Morley: Affiliation:
The MacDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
Colin Renfrew: Affiliation:
The MacDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

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Summary

Introduction

Teotihuacan, an ancient and highly planned city in the Mexican Highland, has been the focus of varied archaeological inquiries. Those related to its genesis, including the causal factors behind the foundation of such a populous city at this particular location, are of concern not only to Mesoamericanists, but also to those who pursue general themes related to state formation, preindustrial urbanism, or the evolution of human cognitive systems. Ideological factors and an innovative system of urban planning were formulated and applied on a grand scale at Teotihuacan, as is suggested by its unique city layout, unprecedented monumental architecture, and consistent spatial orientations. Here I discuss an indigenous measuring system that the Teotihuacanos could have used to create their precise city layout and major constructions. With newly available data I identify a measurement unit used in Teotihuacan. I present my preliminary interpretations of the ideological principles underlying Teotihuacan's urban arrangement and suggest how the ruling groups of this city conceived their world in time and space and materialized their worldview in city planning. Teotihuacan is a source of exceptionally comprehensive data relevant to better understanding the cognitive structures of ancient Mesoamerican societies, compiled through the extensive excavation and consolidation of the city's major monuments, which are maintained for our benefit by the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).

Type: Chapter
Information: The Archaeology of Measurement
Comprehending Heaven, Earth and Time in Ancient Societies
, pp. 130 - 149

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511760822.016 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2010

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