It began as a new religious center in the Mexican Highland and a large population was drawn to the city over a few centuries. It may have lasted until sometime between the 7th and 8th centuries CE, but its major monuments were sacked and systematically burned around CE.
At its zenith, around the first half of the first millennium CE, Teotihuacan was the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas, with a population estimated at , or more. The city eventually included multi-floor apartment compounds built to accommodate this large population. The founders of this religious and populous city remain a mystery to scholars of the area. Some have speculated that the Xitle volcano, which is located southwest of modern-day Mexico City, may have prompted a mass emigration out of the central valley and into the Teotihuacan valley.
These displaced settlers may have founded, or at least helped grow, the city. An alternate explanation is that the Totonac people, who still remain today, founded Teotihuacan. There is also evidence that at least some of the people living in Teotihuacan immigrated from those areas influenced by the Teotihuacano civilization, including the Zapotec, Mixtec, and Maya peoples. Mural of the Great Goddess of Teotihuacan: This powerful goddess was associated with darkness, mystery, death, and creation.
She was often depicted with owls, jaguars, and spiders, all creatures of the earth, darkness and the underworld. This mural is from the Tetitla compound at Teotihuacan.
As a religious center, Teotihuacan displayed its most prominent gods and goddesses in murals and architecture. The Great Goddess of Teotihuacan appears to be the most prominent of these deities, and she likely represented the underworld, war, creation, water, and the earth. Evidence of human sacrifices to honor the completion of buildings or special times of year has also been uncovered by archeologists. Captives from wars were decapitated, had their hearts removed, were bludgeoned, or were buried alive to commemorate these momentous occasions.
Pyramid of the Sun: This giant pyramid dwarfs the smaller platforms surrounding it and was the largest building at Teotihuacan. Along the Avenue of the Dead are many smaller talud-tablero platforms. The Aztecs believed they were tombs, inspiring the Nahuatl name of the avenue. Pyramid of the Moon: This pyramid is the second largest in Teotihuacan. Further down the Avenue of the Dead is the area known as the Citadel, containing the ruined Temple of the Feathered Serpent. This area was a large plaza surrounded by temples that formed the religious and political center of the city.
Most of the common people lived in large apartment buildings spread across the city. Many of the buildings contained workshops where artisans produced pottery and other goods. The geographical layout of Teotihuacan is a good example of the Mesoamerican tradition of planning cities, settlements, and buildings as a reflection of the Universe. Its urban grid is aligned to precisely One theory says this is due to the fact that the sun rose at that same angle during the same summer day each year.
Settlers used the alignment to calibrate their sense of time or as a marker for planting crops or performing certain rituals.
Another theory is that there are numerous ancient sites in Mesoamerica that seem to be oriented with the tallest mountain in their given area. This appears to be the case at Teotihuacan, although the mountain to which it is oriented is not visible from within the Teotihuacan complex due to a closer mountain ridge. Pecked-cross circles throughout the city and in the surrounding regions indicate how the people managed to maintain the urban grid over long distances. It also enabled them to orient the Pyramids to the distant mountain that was out of sight.
There is an ongoing debate about why Teotihuacan collapsed and the population abandoned this city center. Evidence of climate changes, which caused severe droughts around CE, suggest there was a general population decline in the region. In fact, archeological digs have revealed juvenile skeletons with signs of malnutrition, which probably forced populations to move and caused internal social strife.
Further archeological evidence reveals that only the buildings associated with the elites along the Avenue of the Dead were sacked and burned. This type of activity suggests there might have been internal unrest and possibly a revolt against the elite power structure, which caused the collapse of the city.
Archaeological evidence from the period, such as burned temples and sacrificed captives, suggests that although the three societies shared linguistic, cultural, and religious traditions, they also competed against one another. This powerful city retained this status until approximately CE. As the population grew, so did the degree of social differentiation, the centralization of political power, and ceremonial activity.
These areas developed regional centers of power with distinct leaders and linguistic dialects. However, the Zapotec rulers retained control over vast swaths of the region.
The Zapotecs were ultimately destroyed by Spanish invaders. Having lost militarily to the Aztecs in battles from —, the Zapotecs tried to avoid confrontation with the Spaniards, and hopefully the tragic fate of the Aztecs. The Spaniards took advantage of this pacifist stance and ultimately defeated the Zapotecs after five years of campaigns ending in The arrival of new diseases and steel weapons also weakened any attempts at a revolt from the Zapotec population.
There were some subsequent uprisings against the new rulers, but for all intents and purposes, the Zapotecs were conquered.
However, the seven Zapotec languages, and hundreds of Zapotec dialects, still survive with populations that have spread throughout Mexico and also Los Angeles, California. The Zapotecs developed a calendar and a logosyllabic system of writing that used a separate glyph to represent each of the syllables of the language.
This writing system is thought to be one of the first writing systems of Mesoamerica and a predecessor of those developed by the Maya, Mixtec, and Aztec civilizations. Like most Mesoamerican religious systems, the Zapotec religion was polytheistic. Two principal deities included Cocijo, the rain god similar to the Aztec god Tlaloc , and Coquihani, the god of light. These deities, along with many others, centered around concepts of fertility and agriculture.
They also practiced dedication rituals, which cleansed a new space. Fine pieces of rare jade, pearl, and obsidian were found in a cache in Oaxaca, and were probably used to cleanse religious sites or temples upon the completion of construction. According to historic, as well as contemporary, Zapotec legends, their ancestors emerged from the earth or from caves, or turned into people from trees or jaguars. Their governing elite apparently believed that they descended from supernatural beings that lived among the clouds, and that upon death they would return to the same status.
In fact, the name by which Zapotecs are known today results from this belief. Height: 9. Evidence of the central role of religion in the Zapotec cultural hierarchy is pronounced at the religious city of Mitla. It is the second most important archeological site in the state of Oaxaca, and the most important of the Zapotec culture.
The site is located 44 kilometers from the city of Oaxaca. Fretwork on a building in the religious capital of Mitla: This complex fretwork illustrates the religious importance of this ancient city in the Zapotec culture. What makes Mitla unique among Mesoamerican sites is the elaborate and intricate mosaic fretwork and geometric designs that cover tombs, panels, friezes, and even entire walls.
These mosaics are made with small, finely cut and polished stone pieces, which have been fitted together without the use of mortar.
No other site in Mexico has this. Privacy Policy. Skip to main content. Civilizations in the Americas. Search for:. Early Civilizations of Mexico and Mesoamerica. Learning Objectives Give an account of the society, trade, art, and religion of the Olmec. Little is known about Olmec religion, though scholars believe there were eight main deities. People lived in small agricultural villages outside of urban centers, which were mainly for ceremonial use.
The decline of the Olmec population from — BCE may have been due to environmental changes. Mesoamerican ballgame : An ancient ritual sport that involved keeping a rubber ball in play in designated courts. It most likely originated in the Olmec culture. Olmec colossal heads : Basalt sculptures of human faces wearing large helmeted headdresses that stand up to 3.
These sculptures most likely represent important rulers. Learning Objectives Distinguish between the Mixtec people and the Mixtec language and identify when they were most prominent. The Mixtec language is a set of up to fifty languages, and is not to be confused with the Mixtec people. The Mixtec are well known in the anthropological world for their codices, or phonetic pictures in which they wrote their history and genealogies. Codices : Phonetic pictures painted on deerskin and folded into books, which recorded Mixtec history and genealogy.
Tututepec : A prominent city center during the height of the Mixtec state, situated along the coast of modern-day Oaxaca. Learning Objectives Discuss the diversity and notable archeological features of Teotihuacan. Teotihuacan was a multi-ethnic city, with distinct quarters occupied by Otomi, Zapotec, Mixtec, Maya and Nahua peoples. The geographical layout of Teotihuacan is a good example of the Mesoamerican tradition of planning cities, settlements, and buildings as a reflections of their view of the Universe.
She appears in painted murals with images associated with the underworld, birth, death, and creation. Teotihuacan : A large precolumbian Mesoamerican city known for its archeological significance. Pyramid of the Sun : The largest building in Teotihuacan, which measures feet high and feet wide.
Learning Objectives Explain the culture, religion, expansion, and demise of the Zapotec civilization. The first civilization in central and north America develops in about BC in the coastal regions of the southern part of the Gulf of Mexico.
Known as the Olmec civilization, its early site is at San Lorenzo. For the next years La Venta is the cultural centre of a large region, trading with much of central America. The Olmec traditions of sculpture and of temple architecture , developed over eight centuries, will influence all the subsequent civilizations of the region.
The most characteristic sculptures of San Lorenzo and La Venta are astonishing creations. They are massive stone heads, more than two metres in height, of square-jawed and fat-lipped warriors, usually wearing helmets with ear flaps.
The chunky and uncompromising quality of these images will remain typical of much of the religious art of Mesoamerica, particularly in the region around Mexico City. It can be seen in the rain-god masks of Teotihuacan about years ago , in the vast standing warriors at Tula about years ago and in the brutally severe monumental sculpture of the Aztecs years ago.
The first American monuments: from BC. In both the centres of Olmec civilization, at San Lorenzo and then La Venta, numerous large clay platforms are raised.
At their top there are believed to have been temples, or perhaps sometimes palaces, built of wood. The concept of climbing up to a place of religious significance becomes the central theme of pre-Columbian architecture. Its natural conclusion is the pyramid, with steps by which priests and pilgrims climb to the top unlike the smooth-sided tomb pyramids of Egypt. La Venta initiates this long American tradition too. One of its pyramids is more than 30 metres high. The Olmec temple complexes set the pattern for societies in America over the next years.
The pyramids, with their temples and palaces, dominate the surrounding dwellings as powerfully as the priestly rulers and their rituals dominate the local community.
It is also probable that the Olmecs engage in a custom which remains characteristic of all the early civilizations of America - the ritual of human sacrifice, reaching its grisly peak in the ceremonies of the Aztecs. The Zapotecs are among the first people to develop the Olmec culture in other regions.
From about BC at Monte Alban, to the west of the Olmec heartland, they establish a ceremonial centre with stone temple platforms. Monte Alban eventually becomes the main city of this part of southern Mexico.
Pyramids, an astronomical observatory and other cult buildings and monuments including America's earliest carved inscriptions are ranged in a temple district along the top of a ridge. In terraces on the slopes below there is a town of some 30, people. The Zapotecs thrive on this site for more than years, finally abandoning it in about AD Teotihuacan and Tikal: early centuries AD. Around the beginning of the Christian era two regions of central America begin to develop more advanced civilizations, still based on a priestly cult and on temple pyramids.
The dominant city in the northern highlands is Teotihuacan.
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