Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T10:57:54.005Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

When was the Sun Pyramid Built? Maintaining the Status Quo at Teotihuacan, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Rebecca Sload
Rebecca Sload*
Affiliation:
P.O. Box 5022, Andover, MA 01810-9993, ([email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The traditional view based on ceramics is that construction of the Sun Pyramid at Teotihuacan commenced in the first century A .D. Likewise, radiocarbon dates from the artificial cave beneath the Pyramid indicate that it was created at about the same lime. Both Pyramid and cave are seen as having a role in the founding of the city. Recent excavation inside the Pyramid produced radiocarbon dates that cluster in the mid-third century A.D. Members of the Sun Pyramid Project interpreted the dates as representing initial construction of the structure, moving it significantly later in time than previously thought. They also reinterpreted the dates for the construction of the cave, making it contemporaneous with the revised Pyramid construction. This paper adds radiocarbon dates from the cave to the original set and employs Bayesian analysis. The initial interpretation is supported: the dates reflect a cycle of cave creation through termination that began in the midfirst century and lasted about 200 years. I interpret the dates from the Pyramid as reflecting ritual associated with cave termination and a concomitant redefinition of the Pyramid that involved architectural modifications and tunneling. Pyramid and cave dates are reconciled with each other, with ceramics, and with the ceramic chronology. The traditional timing of first century Pyramid construction is maintained, along with its social, political, and economic implications.

Resumen

Resumen

Los estudios tradicionales basados en la cerámica han determinado que la construcción de la Pirámide del Sol de Teotihuacán comenzó alrededor del siglo uno d.C. De la misma manera, losfechados radiocarbónicos de la cueva artificial ubicada debajo de la pirámide indican que dicha cueva fue construida contemporáneamente a la pirámide. Se considera que ambas jugaron un rol importante en la formación de la ciudad. Las excavaciones recientes dentro de la pirámide han arrojado fechados radiocarbónicos correspondientes a mediados del siglo tres. El Proyecto Pirámide de Sol interpretó estos fechados como el inicio de la construcción de la pirámide, modificando lo previamente establecido. El Proyecto Pirámide también reinterpretó los fechados obtenidos en la cueva y concluyó que estos son del mismo periodo que los nuevos resultadospreviamente mencionados. En este artículo se presenta un conjunto más completo de fechados radiocarbónicos obtenidos a partir de muestras adquiridas de la cueva y se analizan los datos utilizando una inferencia bayesiana.Los resultados de dicho análisis apoyan la interpretación original: los fechados indican que el ciclo de creación, uso y terminación de la cueva comenzó a mediados del siglo uno y duró aproximadamente 200 aňos. Los fechados obtenidos en la pirámide se interpretan como momentos que representan los rituales de terminación de la cueva y la contemporánea redefinición de la pirámide, la cual incluyó modificaciones arquitectónicas, así como la excavación de túneles. De esa forma, los fechados de la pirámide y de la cueva se concilian entre sá, con las cerámicas y con la cronología cerámica. El tiempo de inicio de construcción de la pirámide en el siglo uno se mantiene, junto con las implicaciones sociales, políticas y económicas.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , June 2015 , pp. 221 - 241
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Acosta, Jorge R. 1966 Proyecto Teotihuacan. Informe de los trabajos realizados en la zona arqueológica de Teotihuacan en 1966. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México.Google Scholar
Alfaro, R., Arrieta, E., Luis Barba, P., Becerril, A.D., Belmont, E., Carrillo, I., Cabrera M., J.I., Esquivel, O., Grabski, V., López R., J.M., Linda Manzanilla, N., Martínez D., A., Menchaca R., A., Moreno, M., Núñez C, R., Plascencia, J.C., Rangel, M., and Villoro, M. 2003 Searching for Chambers and Caves in Teotihuacan’s Sun Pyramid. In Particles and Fields: Tenth Mexican School on Particles and Fields, edited by U. Cotti, M. Mondragón, and G. Tavares-Velasco, pp. 493–49. American Institute of Physics, Melville, NY.Google Scholar
Almaraz, Ramón 1865 Apuntes sobre las pirámides de San Juán Teotihuacan. In Memoria y trabajos realizados por la Comisión Histórica de Pachuca, pp. 349–358, México.Google Scholar
Altschul, Jeffrey H. 1978a Original unpublished field notes from the 1978 TMP Field Season - TE28. Manuscript on file, Teotihuacan Archaeological Research Center, San Juan Teotihuacán, and Statistical Research, Inc., Tucson.Google Scholar
Altschul, Jeffrey H. 1978b TE28: Test Excavation in the Cave Underneath the Pyramid of the Sun. Unpublished manuscript on file, Statistical Research, Inc., Tucson.Google Scholar
Altschul, Jeffrey H. 1999 Statistical Explanation, Ideology, and the Cave underneath the Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan, Mexico. Paper presented at the 64th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Chicago.Google Scholar
Baker, George T. III, Harleston, Jr., Rangel, Alfonso, Wallrath, Matthew, Gaitán, Manuel, and Morales, Alfonso 1974 The Subterranean System of the Sun Pyramid at Teotihuacan: A Physical Description and Hypothetical Reconstruction. Paper presented at the XLI Congreso Internacional de Americanistas, Mexico, D.F. Copies available from Statistical Research, Inc., Tucson.Google Scholar
Barba Pingarrón, Luis Alberto 2009 Geological Environment and the Tunnel under the Pyramid of the Sun. Paper presented at the 74th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Atlanta.Google Scholar
Pingarrón, Barba, Alberto, Luis, and Luis Córdova Frunz, José 2010 Materiales y Energía en la arquitectura de Teotihuacan. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México y Institute Investigaciones Antropológicas, México, D.F. Google Scholar
Bastien, Rùmy 1967 The Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan: A New Interpretation. In The Civilizations of Ancient America, edited by Sol Tax, pp. 62–67. Cooper Square, New York.Google Scholar
Batres, Leopoldo 1995 [1906] Pirámide del Sol. In La pirámide del Sol Teotihuacan, edited by Eduardo Matos, pp. 100–117. Instituto Cultural Domecq, A.C, México.Google Scholar
Brady, James E. 1997 Settlement Configuration and Cosmology: The Role of Caves at Dos Pilas. American Anthropologist 99:602–618.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brady, James E. 2003a In My Hill, In My Valley: The Importance of Place in Ancient Maya Ritual. In Mesas & Cosmologies in Mesoamerica, edited by Douglas Sharon, pp. 83–91. Museum of Man, San Diego.Google Scholar
Brady, James E. 2003b La importancia de las cuevas artificiales para el entendimiento de los espacios sagrados en Mesoamérica. In Espacios Mayas: Usos, Representaciones, Creencias, edited by Alain Breton, Aurore Monod Becquelin, and Mario Humberto Ruz, pp. 143–160. Centro de Estudios Mayas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México/Centre D’Étudies Mexicaines et Centraméricaines.Google Scholar
Brady, James E. 2012 Under Ground in Ancient Mesoamerica. In Fanning the Sacred Flame: Mesoamerican Studies in Honor of H. B. Nicholson, edited by Matthew A. Boxt and Brian Dervin Dillon, pp. 269–290. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Brady, James E., and Ashmore, Wendy 1999 Mountains, Caves Water: Ideational Landscapes of the Ancient Maya. In Archaeologies of Landscape, edited by Wendy Ashmore and A. Bernard Knapp, pp. 124—145. Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Brady, James E., and Veni, George 1992 Man-Made and Pseudo-Karst Caves: The Implications of Subsurface Features within Maya Centers. Geoarchaeology: An International Journal 7:149–167.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, Christopher 1995 Radiocarbon Calibration and Analysis of Stratigraphy: The OxCal Program. Radiocarbon 37:425–430.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, Christopher 2009 Bayesian Analysis of Radiocarbon Dates. Radiocarbon 51:337–360.Google Scholar
Carballo, David M. 2011 Obsidian and the Teotihuacan State: Weaponry and Ritual Production at the Moon Pyramid. University of Pittsburgh Memoirs in Latin American Archaeology No.21, Center for Comparative Archaeology, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, and Instituto de Investigaciones Antropologicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, D.F. Google Scholar
Chávez, R. E., Cámara, M. E., Tejero, A., Barba, L., and Manzanilla, L. 2001 Site Characterization by Geophysical Methods in The Archaeological Zone of Teotihuacan, Mexico. Journal of Archaeological Science 28:1265–1276.Google Scholar
Cowgill, George L. 1983 Rulership and the Ciudadela: Political Inferences from Teotihuacan Architecture. In Civilization in the Ancient Americas, edited by Richard M. Leventhal and Alan L. Kolata, pp. 313–344. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, and Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Cowgill, George L. 1992 Toward a Political History of Teotihuacan. In Ideology and Pre-Columbian Civilizations, edited by Arthur Demarest and Geoffrey Conrad, pp. 87–114. School of American Research, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Cowgill, George L. 1997 State and Society at Teotihuacan, Mexico. Annual Review of Anthropology 26:129–161.Google Scholar
Cowgill, George L. 2000 The Central Mexican Highlands from the Rise of Teotihuacan to the Decline of Tula. In The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, Vol. 2, edited by Richard E. W. Adams and Murdo J. MacLeod, pp. 250–317. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Cowgill, George L. 2003 A Perspective from Outside the Maya Region. In The Maya and Teotihuacan, edited by Geoffrey Bras well, pp. 315–335. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Cowgill, George L. 2004 Origins and Development of Urbanism: Archaeological Perspectives. Annual Review of Anthropology 33:525–549.Google Scholar
Cowgill, George L. 2007 The Urban Organization of Teotihuacan, Mexico. In Settlement and Society: Essays Dedicated to Robert Mc-Cormick Adams, edited by Elizabaeth C. Stone, pp. 261–295. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles, and the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Cowgill, George L., and Cabrera Castro, Oralia 1991 Excavaciones en el Frente B y otros materiales del análisis de la cerámica. Arqueologia 6:41–52.Google Scholar
Drewitt, Bruce 1978 Original unpublished field notes TMP TE28, July 1978. Manuscript on file, Teotihuacan Archaeological Research Center, San Juan Teotihuacan.Google Scholar
Imparcial, El 1995 [1906] Visita del Sefior General Díaz. In La pirámide del Sol Teotihuacan, edited by Eduardo Matos, pp.118–125. Instituto Cultural Domecq, A.C, México.Google Scholar
Gamio, Manuel 1922 La Poblacíon del Valle de Teotihuacan, Vol. 1. Secretaria de Agricultura y Fomento, Directión de Antropología, Mexico.Google Scholar
Gazzola, Julie 2009 Caracteísticas arquitectónicas de algunas construcciones de fases tempranas en Teotihuacan. Arqueología 42:216–233.Google Scholar
Heyden, Doris 1973 ¿Un Chicomostoc en Teotihuacan? La Cueva bajo la Piramide del Sol. Boletiìn - Instituto Nacional de Antropologiìa e Historia, época II(6):3–18.Google Scholar
Heyden, Doris 1975 An Interpretation of the Cave Underneath the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, Mexico. American Antiquity 40:131–147.Google Scholar
Heyden, Doris 1981 Caves, Gods, and Myths: World-View and Planning in Teotihuacan. In Mesoamerican Sites and World-Views, edited by Elizabeth P. Benson, pp. 1–39. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Manzanilla, Linda 1994 Geografía sagrada e inframundo en Teotihuacan. Antropologicas Nueva Epoca 11:53–65.Google Scholar
Manzanilla, Linda, Barba, Luis, Chávez, René, Tejero, Andrés, Cifuentes, Gerardo, and Peralta, Nayeli 1994 Caves and Geophysics: An Approximation to the Underworld of Teotihuacan, Mexico. Archaeometry 36(1):141–157.Google Scholar
Manzanilla, Linda, López, Claudia, and Freter, Ann Corinne 1996 Dating Results from Excavations in Quarry Tunnels behind the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan. Ancient Mesoamerica 7:245–266.Google Scholar
Matos, Eduardo 1995 Excavaciones recientes en la Pirómide del Sol, 1993–1994. In La pirámide del Sol Teotihuacan, edited by Eduardo Matos, pp. 312–329. Instituto Cultural Domecq, A.C, México.Google Scholar
Millon, René 1970 Progress Report Won Teotihuacan Mapping Project. Submitted to Departmento de Monumentos Prehispánicos, Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia. By Department of Anthropology, University of Rochester. Manuscript on file, ASU-sponsored Teotihuacan Archaeological Research Center, San Juan Teotihuacan.Google Scholar
Millon, René 1981 Teotihuacan: City, State, and Civilization. In Archaeology, edited by Jeremy A. Sabloff, pp. 198–243. Handbook of Middle American Indians, Supplement 1, Victoria Reifler Bricker, general editor, University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Millon, René 1988 Where Do They All Come From? The Provenance of the Wagner Murals from Teotihuacan. In Feathered Serpents and Flowering Trees, edited by Kathleen Benin, pp. 78–113. Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Millon, René 1992 Teotihuacan Studies: From 1950 to 1990 and Beyond. In Art, Ideology, and the City of Teotihuacan, edited by Janet Catherine Berlo, pp. 339–419. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Millon, René 1993 The Place Where Time Began. In Teotihuacan: Art from the City of the Gods, edited by Kathleen Berrin and Esther Pasztory, pp. 17–43. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Millon, René, Drewitt, Bruce, and Bennyhoff, James A. 1965 The Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan: 1959 Investigations. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series Vol. 55, Part 6, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Moyes, Holley 2013 Introduction. In Sacred Darkness, edited by Holley Moyes, pp. 1–11. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Noguera, Eduardo 1935 Antecedentes y Relaciones de la Cultura Teotihuacana. El Mexico Antiguo III(5/8):3–90.Google Scholar
Pasztory, Esther 1993 Teotihuacan Unmasked. In Teotihuacan: Art from the City of the Gods, edited by Kathleen Berrin and Esther Pasztory, pp. 44–63. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Perez, José R. 1935 Exploración del tunel de la Pirámide del Sol. El Mexico Antiguo III(5/8):91–94.Google Scholar
Rattray, Evelyn Childs 2001 Teotihuacan: Ceramics, Chronology and Cultural Trends. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México, D.F., and University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Reimer, Paula J., Bard, Edouard, Bayliss, Alex, Warren Beck, J, Blackwell, Paul G., Bronk Ramsey, Christopher, Buck, Caitlin E., Cheng, Hai, Lawrence Edwards, R., Friedrich, Michael, Grootes, Pieter M., Guilderson, Thomas P., Haflidason, Haflidi, Hajdas, Irka, Christine Hatté, Timothy J. Heaton, Dirk L. Hoffmann, Hogg, Alan G., Hughen, Konrad A., Felix Kaiser, K., Kromer, Bernd, Manning, Sturt W., Niu, Mu, Reimer, Ron W., Richards, David A., Marian Scott, E., Southon, John R., Staff, Richard A., Turney, Christian S. M., and van der Plicht, Johannes 2013 IntCal 13 and Marine 13 Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curves 0-50,000 Years Cal BP. Radiocarbon 55:1869–1887.Google Scholar
Sahagun, Fray Bernardino de 1963 Florentine Codex. Book 11 - Earthly Things. Translated by Charles E. Dibble and Arthur J. O. Anderson. University of Utah and the School of American Research.Google Scholar
Sanders, William T., Parsons, Jeffrey R., and Santley, Robert S. 1979 The Basin of Mexico: Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Sarabia, Alejandro, and Sugiyama, Saburo 2011 Se localizan una máscara y diversas ofrendas en la Pirámide del Sol. Arqueología Mexicana 107:10–11.Google Scholar
Sload, Rebecca 1978 Original unpublished field notes and photograph log from the 1978 TMP Season – TE27 and TE28. Manuscript on file, Teotihuacan Archaeological Research Center, San Juan Teotihuacán.Google Scholar
Sload, Rebecca 2007 Radiocarbon Dating of Teotihuacán Mapping Project TE28 Material from Cave under the Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan, México. Final Report submitted to FAMS1. Electronic document, http://www.famsi.org/reports/06017/06017Sload01.pdf, accessed December 3, 2014.Google Scholar
Sload, Rebecca 2011 Activity Areas in the Cave under the Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan. Paper presented at the 76th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Sacramento.Google Scholar
Sload, Rebecca, and Cowgill, George L. 2009 Ceramics from the Cave under the Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan: Spatial and Statistical Analyses of Teotihuacan Mapping Project Data. Paper presented at the 74th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Atlanta.Google Scholar
Smith, Robert Eliot 1987 A Ceramic Sequence from the Pyramid of the Sun Teotihuacan, Mexico. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 75. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Steier, Peter, and Rom, Werner 2000 The Use of Bayesian Statistics for 14C Dates of Chronologically Ordered Samples: A Critical Analysis. Radiocarbon 42:183–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sugiyama, Nawa, Sugiyama, Saburo, and G., Alejandro Sarabia 2013 Inside the Sun Pyramid at Teotihuacan, Mexico: 2008–2011. Excavations and Preliminary Results. Latin American Antiquity 24:403–432.Google Scholar
Sugiyama, Saburo 1998 Termination Programs and Prehispanic Looting at the Feathered Serpent Pyramid in Teotihuacan, Mexico. In The Sowing and the Dawning, edited by Shirley Boteler Mock, pp. 146–164. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Sugiyama, Saburo 2005 Human Sacrifice, Militarism, and Rulership: Materialization of State Ideology at the Feathered Serpent Pyramid, Teotihuacan. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Sugiyama, Saburo 2010 Teotihuacan City Layout as a Cosmogram: Preliminary Results of the 2007 Measurement Unit Study. In The Archaeology Of Measurement, edited by Iain Morley and Colin Renfrew, pp. 130–149. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Sugiyama, Saburo 2011 Interactions between the Living and the Dead at Major Monuments in Teotihuacan. In Living with the Dead, edited by James L. Fitzsimmons and Izumi Shimada, pp. 161–202. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Sugiyama, Saburo, and Cabrera Castro, Rubén 2007 The Moon Pyramid Project and the Teotihuacan State Polity. Ancient Mesoamerica 18:109–125.Google Scholar
Sugiyama, Saburo, and Sarabia, Alejandro 2011 Teotihuacan: La ciudad con una cosmovisión mesoamericana. Arqueología Mexicana 107:39–45.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Sload Supplementary Material

Appendix

Download Sload Supplementary Material(PDF)
PDF 64.2 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Sload Supplementary Material

Figure S1

Download Sload Supplementary Material(PDF)
PDF 479.9 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Sload Supplementary Material

Figure S2

Download Sload Supplementary Material(PDF)
PDF 412.7 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Sload Supplementary Material

Figure S3

Download Sload Supplementary Material(PDF)
PDF 1.7 MB