Within the decorative borders that frame the painted murals of Teotihuacan, artists constructed a unique landscape. Stylized natural imagery is frequently organized according to recurring patterns. A medallion form, for instance, sometimes surmounted by a face or headdress, may be the representation of a supernatural being that floats freely, unfettered by the constraints of gravity. Disembodied hands, painted in association with this form or as components of other structures, dispense riches that fall in carefully measured streams.

Recent excavations in Tlailotlacan, the “Oaxaca barrio,” near the western periphery of the ancient city of Teotihuacan, revealed remains of irrigation features associated with the early history of the city. Small floodwater irrigation canals were found underneath a residential structure that had been occupied by Zapotec immigrants from Oaxaca. Radiocarbon dating, corroborated by ceramic evidence, places the earliest architecture in the Early Tlamimilolpa phase (ca. a.d. 200–300), thus providing a concrete terminal date for the hydraulic system, an advantage not enjoyed by previous canal explorations in the region. The hydraulic features consist of segments of two superimposed canal networks that, based on associated pottery, date to the Terminal Formative period (Tzacualli and Miccoatli phases), which represents the earliest well-documented date for the use of irrigation at Teotihuacan. Shortly after the canals were abandoned, control over this land passed from the original inhabitants to Zapotec immigrants. We suggest that this change in ownership and land use directly involved the Teotihuacan state and was part of a policy of maintaining control over the location of economically important “resources,” including foreign immigrants like the Zapotec, who had important trade connections.

Excavations in the Classic Period apartment compound, site 33:S3W1, in the ancient city of Teotihuacan, Mexico, have revealed the existence of two lapidary workshops. These workshops were spatially discrete and separate from domestic quarters and were located on the periphery of the compound, but still inside it, in open courtyard areas with packed earth surfaces. A number of stone grinding tools and work surfaces initially identified these areas as lapidary workshops. This assessment was confirmed by microartifact analysis of associated soil samples which indicate that a number of different raw material classes were used in the lapidary production. All of these materials, with the exception of basalt, are imported from outside of the valley of Mexico. Differential use of raw materials is present and appears to be based on the value of the commodity. Basalt and slate are the most common materials used, with greenstone and shell being the scarcest. The volume of raw material debitage is much greater than would be required for local consumption by the compound, suggesting that the lapidary artifacts were produced for exchange in the market of Teotihuacan. The scale of production, however, does not appear to be large enough to indicate that these materials were produced for long-distance exchange.

This article is concerned with an analysis of the structure of mural paintings at Teotihuacan. It describes the preeminent role of borders that circumscribe Teotihuacan murals and breaks down the corpus of these borders into several different categories. Finally, it suggests how content and form may be combined to make a symbolic statement.

No evidence of writing in the form of inscriptions or documentary records has been found at Teotihuacan, the most populous, urbanized, and mercantile society of its period in Mesoamerica (circa a.d. 500), although it had close contact over several centuries with other cultures that had developed writing systems. What do exist are glyphic signs that form part of the iconography of mural paintings and pottery decoration. Analysis of over a thousand of these artifacts suggests that the Teotihuacanos developed an unusual notational system comprising, at present count, about 120 signs. This article discusses the sign system and the ways in which it was used to supplement the information conveyed pictorially by Teotihuacan art.

This article describes an elaborate “theater-type censer” found around a burial in a residential apartment compound of the Late Xolalpan phase excavated at Teotihuacan. It consists of a richly dressed human figure associated with representations of plants and food, clouds and flowers, and butterfly symbols. Its context and the associated elements attached to the censer evoke fire, death, and fertility symbolism.