archives@tulane.edu / This dissertation investigates the site of El Tesoro, Hidalgo, Mexico during the Early Classic period Chingú phase (A.D. 200-500). Archaeological evidence, including material culture and burials, has previously indicated that this site was settled by a group of people with affiliations both to Teotihuacan, in the Basin of Mexico, and the Valley of Oaxaca, the Zapotec homeland in southern Mexico. I argue that the Chingú-phase occupation of El Tesoro is best understood as a creolized community of Zapo-Teotihuacanos that were likely related to members of the Oaxaca Barrio of Teotihuacan who migrated into southern Hidalgo during Teotihuacan’s expansion into that region. Evidence to support this argument comes from a variety of datasets presented herein, including: qualitative and quantitative analysis of ceramic attributes, artifact distribution and spatial patterning, ceramic compositional and provenance studies, and inter-site burial comparative analysis. Ceramic attribute analysis showed that El Tesoro’s potters recreated vessels from the Valley of Oaxaca, although with some divergence in style, and from Teotihuacan, but that they also created new, hybridized vessels that combined elements from both traditions. Artifact distribution maps indicated that Zapotec-style and Teotihuacan-style pottery overlapped throughout the site, suggesting that these vessels were used by the same people and in the same contexts, possibly side-by-side and interchangeably. X-ray diffraction and neutron activation analysis conducted on a sample of sherds recovered from surface collection at El Tesoro indicate that Zapotec-style and Teotihuacan-style pottery vessels were constructed on local clays, using similar past recipes. Finally, comparison between mortuary practices at El Tesoro and two locations in Teotihuacan, the Oaxaca Barrio and La Ventilla B, supported the results of the ceramic analysis, showing a hybridization of burial traditions at El Tesoro that replicated aspects of typical Teotihuacan and Zapotec burials, but in a novel way. Based on these datasets and analyses, I argue that the Chingú-phase population at El Tesoro should be considered a creolized group with affiliations both to Teotihuacan and the Valley of Oaxaca, and that they likely settled in southern Hidalgo during Teotihuacan’s expansion into that region and are an offshoot population of the Oaxaca Barrio of Teotihuacan. / 1 / Haley Holt Mehta

This dissertation seeks to explore the complex issue of ethnic identity in the context of Classic period Mesoamerica at the urban center of Teotihuacan. Teothihuacan, located in the central highlands region of Mexico, has revealed invaluable information regarding the nature of the formation and maintainence of ethnicity and ethnic identity during the Classic period. During its peak, Teotihuacan housed a number of foreign populations, including groups with ties to Oaxaca, the Gulf Coast, the Maya region, and Michoacán. While evidence for the first three is well documented, the Michoacán presence at Teotihuacan has been for less straightforward. The major goal of this research was to explore the complex nature of this presence at Teotihuacan with regards to the N1W5:19 structure which was identified as having housed a potentially ethnic Michoacán presence between 350-650 CE. Based on excavations from 1991, this analysis uses both the household and burial assemblages as points of evidence for the formation and maintenance of a Michoacán identity at Teotihuacan.

En l’absence de sources écrites teotihuacaines, la religion que pratiquaient les anciens Teotihuacains ne peut être appréhendée que par les traces archéologiques laissées par certains rites, par une analyse des sources écrites (mayas et aztèques) relatives à Teotihuacan, et surtout par une étude iconographique des principales figures divines de son panthéon. Après avoir détaillé les rites que pratiquaient les Teotihuacains et qui sont connus par ailleurs en Mésoamérique, la première partie de ma thèse propose une étude systématique des sources relatives à Teotihuacan (et notamment de la Relación de Teotihuacan). La seconde partie est consacrée à l’étude de l’iconographie et du symbolisme de Tlaloc, du Jaguar réticulé, de Xipe Totec, du Vieux dieu du feu, du Dieu papillon, et du Serpent à plumes.

This research examines the mortuary customs of the Oaxaca Barrio, one of the foreign settlements in the ancient city of Teotihuacan. The Oaxaca Barrio is associated with the Zapotec homeland in the state of Oaxaca, southern Mexico (roughly 290 miles); but many questions remain unanswered about its origins and development. The mortuary customs of the Oaxaca Barrio show how Zapotec migrants adapted to living in Teotihuacan over a considerable period of time, maintaining aspects of their homeland identity, but also generating a new cultural repertoire by which members of the enclave redefined themselves. The presence of Zapotec people in Teotihuacan has at least three distinct moments or contexts: its origins in a time of Zapotec expansion (200 B.C), the formal settlement of the Oaxaca Barrio (A.D 100), and much later in time, when the barrio shows a hybridization process with singular characteristics (A.D 300). I address in this research two important questions: Why did Zapotec migrants keep their mortuary traditions? How did migrant identity change over time? To answer these questions I present in five chapters general characteristics of the Oaxaca Barrio, theoretical concepts, and archaeological evidence that support the analysis and discussion developed about this foreign group, and finally its mortuary customs and the relationship with its ethnicity. The Zapotec migration to Teotihuacan is important because social, political, economic and ideological aspects are involved, and this topic is not only useful to archaeological studies (in one of the most important cities in Mesoamerica), also it is helpful to anthropological research about modern migrations, and studies of identity and ethnicity in the contemporary world. In Chapter I, I present a general view of the Oaxaca Barrio in Teotihuacan, the chronology and a brief review of the situation in the Zapotec area and Teotihuacan at the moment of the Oaxaca Barrio's foundation, and a general idea of the mortuary customs in each place; also in this chapter I mention the objectives of this investigation and its limits. Chapter II mentions the main theoretical concepts related with this investigation: ethnicity and hybridization, I also approach the main ideas and hypotheses about the political and social structure in the Oaxaca Barrio. Later in Chapter III, I describe the most important archaeological evidence found in each compound excavated until now in the Oaxaca Barrio, and Chapter IV shows the archaeological record of mortuary customs identified in this foreign settlement; in this section I describe four important and basic elements in the mortuary system: type of burial, offerings and practice of funerary rites, and urns. And finally in Chapter V, I present the discussion of each element, making a comparison with funerary practices and characteristics in the Zapotec area, mainly Monte Alban, and Teotihuacan culture; also in this last chapter I mention how could be the syncretism-hybridization process of this foreign settlement, mainly identified through its funerary customs.

Teotihuacan, Mexico, is an example of an early city that supported a substantial population in the absence of large, domesticated animals. This dissertation examines the diverse animal acquisition strategies employed by Teotihuacan’s inhabitants as part of the urban subsistence economy during its apogee (c. 200-550 CE). It integrates zooarchaeological methodologies with proteomic and isotopic techniques to analyze faunal material recovered from Tlajinga and Tlailotlacan, two neighborhoods on the urban periphery. The study has three components. The first component employs Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) to examine the archaeological remains of birds at Tlajinga. It presents the first major set of avian collagen peptide biomarkers and demonstrates the utility of ZooMS for identifying birds to family and sub-family levels. This technique provides the means to categorize archaeological bird remains, which demonstrates that the residents of Tlajinga had access to a diversity of aquatic birds, illustrating lake exploitation in Teotihuacan’s urban subsistence. The second component analyzes excavated animal remains in two adjacent apartment compounds in the Tlajinga district to understand urban subsistence. It documents how animal consumption varies over space, while controlling for factors that affect taxonomic composition, such as depositional context, excavation strategies, wealth, and cultural affiliations. It appears that the variability found among different faunal assemblages at Teotihuacan may be due to local hunting practices and the choice of which activity areas of the residential compounds were excavated, rather than wealth differences among households. The third component examines the role of animals in the urban economy of Tlailotlacan and Tlajinga using new isotopic data from turkeys, deer, rabbits, and hares. The residents of these two neighborhoods employed diversified strategies to acquire wild animals for urban consumption from multiple natural and anthropogenic niches around the city. Hunting and trapping wild animals was supplemented with lake resources from the extensive lacustrine system in the Basin of Mexico, and small-scale turkey husbandry. Overall, Teotihuacan’s animal economy is relevant to understanding diversity in global urban subsistence systems; it reflects a diversified system of animal production at the household level, distinct from the specialized, and often institutionalized, large-animal economies that supported preindustrial Afro-Eurasian cities. / 2024-10-03T00:00:00Z

Tesis para optar al grado de Doctor en Estudios Latinoamericanos / La Pirámide del Sol y especialmente el Palacio del Sol ofrecen un acceso privilegiado al núcleo del universo de Teotihuacan. Dicho núcleo se arma como un conjunto de oposiciones con dimensiones míticas, cúlticas y políticas. Su componente crucial es el mito teotihuacano que descubrimos en los murales del Palacio del Sol. Sus analogías con el Popol Vuh indican que posiblemente fue el mito de creación de Teotihuacan. Se narra el descenso del Dios Mariposa Pájaro solar al inframundo y su renacimiento. Somos testigos de su triunfo frente a la Serpiente Rayo, manifestación zoomorfa del Dios de la Lluvia, seguido por su resurgimiento desde el inframundo. El Dios Mariposa Pájaro y el Dios de la Lluvia fueron probablemente las dos deidades de la Pirámide del Sol, templo principal de Teotihuacan; en consecuencia, estos dos cultos debieron ser los más importantes de Teotihuacan. Los dos dioses formaban una oposición: eran respectivamente los representantes por excelencia de la mitad superior luminosa y la inferior oscura y húmeda del cosmos teotihuacano. Se trataría de una dualidad asimétrica: en Teotihuacan ninguna deidad parece haber podido competir con el Dios de la Lluvia. Hemos sido afortunados de poder indagar acerca del culto a estas dos deidades a través de las imágenes de tres ritos transcendentales, los cuales reviven diferentes momentos del mito. Ahora bien, la estructura dual del cosmos y el mito descubierto parecen definir a su vez el carácter de la organización del Estado teotihuacano, puesto que su cúpula podría haber estado compuesta por los señores de las dos deidades rivales y protagonistas del mito, los Señores con Gran Tocado de Borlas del Dios de la Lluvia y los Señores con Tocado de Mariposa del Dios Mariposa Pájaro. De nuevo nos enfrentamos a la misma asimetría que ya observáramos en el caso de las dos deidades: los Señores con Gran Tocado de Borlas son los gobernantes de la ciudad, siendo representados muchas veces en el arte, mientras tanto, encontramos pocas huellas de los Señores con Tocado de Mariposa.

Humans have always been fascinated by wild carnivores. This has led to a unique interaction with these beasts, one in which these key figures played an important role as main icons in state imperialism and domination. At the Classic period site of Teotihuacan, Mexico (A.D. 1-550) this was no exception as large carnivores (mainly eagles, felids, canids and rattlesnake) were sacrificed and deposited as associated offerings in large-scale dedicatory rituals. This study investigates the zooarchaeological remains of nearly two-hundred animals found in offertory chambers at the Moon Pyramid and the Sun Pyramid to question: 1) What were the dynamic ritual processes that took place during the dedication ritual? 2) What changes do we see in the types of human-animal interactions with wild carnivores? 3) How did the participation of animals in ritualized activities lead to the concretion of a stratified sociopolitical landscape? And, 4) what were some of the meanings and functions behind the dedicatory acts? This project applies a multi-methodological approach integrating zooarchaeological, isotopic, and iconographic analyses interpreted in light of existing ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and religious studies literature. The dataset resulting from this dissertation provides the most comprehensive evidence of the central role animals played in rituals linked to monumentalism and state domination. Ferocious carnivores not only participated as victims of sacrifice and ritual paraphernalia, but were also kept in confinement in anticipation to the ritual slaughter. A shift in human-animal interactions, now characterized by dominance and control of the most powerful beast on the landscape, was central to creating a new perception of the animal hierarchy. The fauna deposited at these offering caches were social agents that helped negotiate and maintain social hierarchies, even ascribe meaning into the monuments themselves, through their participation in ritualized performances. / Anthropology

Le Vieux Dieu serait une divinité du feu qui apparaît dès le IXe siècle avant notre ère et qui serait encore présente dans le panthéon des anciens Mexicains à l'arrivée des Espagnols, où elle adopterait alors les noms de Xiuhtecuhtli ou Huehueteotl. L'intérêt de cette thèse est d'entreprendre une étude diachronique, à travers l'ensemble des Hauts Plateaux mexicains, de ce ou de ces dieux et d'en comprendre les évolutions et les interactions afin de répondre à une question principale : sommes-nous en présence d'une seule et même divinité du feu depuis le Préclassique Moyen (-1200 – 500 av. J.-C.) jusqu'à l'arrivée des Espagnols en 1521 ? L'aspect diachronique et pluridisciplinaire de ce travail oriente notre approche et notre méthodologie puisque les données de la période Postclassique Récent seront analysées à la lumière des informations ethnohistoriques et ethnographiques. Le corpus des époques précédentes sera traité de façon systématique par une approche structurelle, technique, iconographique et, finalement, symbolique. / The Old God would probably be an igneous divinity, appeared since 9th century BC and which would have been already present in the Pantheon of the former Mexicans upon the arrival of the Spaniards. There, it would have adopted the names of Xiuhtecuhtli or Huehueteotl. The interest of this thesis is to undertake a diachronic study, through all the mexican Highlands, about this or these gods, to understand the evolutions and the interactions and finally to answer a main question : is there only one and the same divinity of fire since Middle Formative until the arrival of the Spaniards in 1521 ? The diachronic and multidisciplinary aspect of this work directs our approach and our methodology as the data of Late Postclassic will be analysed thanks to ethnohistorical and ethnographic information. The corpus of former times will be handled in a systematic way by a structural, technical, iconographical and finally symbolic approach.

Le site de Teotihuacan, situé dans le bassin de Mexico et datant de 100 ANE à 650 DNE, s'impose aujourd’hui grâce à son architecture, ses pyramides de la Lune et du Soleil, son avenue des Morts, mais également ses nombreux complexes d'appartements, qui auraient pu contenir une population d'environ 150 000 habitants à son apogée. Outre cette architecture, Teotihuacan nous a laissé d’autres indices sur son histoire par le biais de son art : des murales, des sculptures, des encensoirs, des figurines d’argile entre autres, mais également des figures hôtes (host figures). L’étude présentée ici se concentre sur les figures hôtes. Ces dernières sont une classe de figurines d’argile creuses contenant une ou plusieurs petites figurines humaines en bas-relief. Bien que de nombreuses figures n’aient pas de provenance, certaines ont été retrouvées non seulement à Teotihuacan, mais également au Guatemala, au Michoacán et au Yucatán, mettant en avant les possibilités d'échanges culturels mésoaméricains et/ou d’implantations de colonies teotihuacanaises en Mésoamérique. Qu’elle était la signification de ces figures hôtes? À l’aide d’une description minutieuse de chaque figure, et malgré une large variabilité, il semblerait que les figures hôtes se divisent en deux groupes distincts. D’un côté, nous aurions les figures hôtes de style teotihuacanais possédant une ouverture simple sur le torse et contenant une ou deux figurines. De l’autre côté, nous aurions les figures hôtes de style maya-teotihuacanais, possédant une ouverture sur toute la longueur du corps et contenant de nombreuses figurines. La comparaison des figures hôtes avec d’autres artéfacts de Teotihuacan, tel les masques et autres figurines, indique que ces figures sont intimement liées à l’expression iconographique et stylistique de Teotihuacan. Pour ce qui est des figures hôtes de style teotihuacanais, leur fonction pourrait être reliée au culte des ancêtres. En revanche, les figures hôtes de style maya-teotihuacanais trouvées en dehors de Teotihuacan pourraient être associées à des rituels politiques de fondation qui est au cœur du pouvoir de l’État Maya. / Teotihuacan, dated between 100 BCE and 650 CE, is situated in the Basin of Mexico. It is known for its imposing monumental architecture, the Pyramid of the Moon, Pyramid of the Sun, and the Avenue of the Dead, but also for its many apartment compounds that could have contained a population of about 150 000 inhabitants at its peak. In addition to its architecture, Teotihuacan’s history can be understood through its art: murals, sculptures, masks, and ceramic figurines. This study concentrates on the latter with an emphasis on a rare figurine type known as host figurines. Host figures are a class of hollow figurines containing one or several small human figurines in bas-relief within its hollow cavity. Although many of these figurines are without provenience, some have been discovered not only in Teotihuacan, but also in Guatemala, in Michoacán and in Yucatán, pointing to the possibilities of Mesoamerican cultural exchanges and/or Teotihuacan colonies in Mesoamerica. What was the significance of these host figures? Through a meticulous description of every figurine, I find that the host figurines can be divided into two major style groups. One group is considered as a Teotihuacan style and is characterized with a simple opening on the torso, which contain one or two figurines. The other group is a Maya-Teotihuacan style and identified with an opening along the length of the body that contains numerous figurines. A comparison of the host figures with other artefacts from Teotihuacan, such as the masks and other figurines, indicate that these figurines are well-rooted within Teotihuacan iconographic and stylistic visual expression. The function of the Teotihuacan style host figurines seems to be connected with the cult of ancestors. In contrast, the Maya-Teotihuacan style figurines found outside Teotihuacan were likely associated with political rites of foundation central to the power of the Maya state.

abstract: This dissertation investigates socio-economic strategies adopted by a small craftworking community situated on the edge of one of the earliest, largest and most complex cities in Mesoamerica. The focus of investigation is San Jose 520, a hamlet located on the southeastern margin of Teotihuacan and occupied primarily during the Tlamimilolpa and Xolalpan phases (ca. A.D. 200-500). Its inhabitants were potters of low socio-economic status living in small, architecturally simple residential structures. The investigation complements much more numerous studies of higher-status groups residing in Teotihuacan's famous apartment compounds, much larger and architecturally more formal structures clustered primarily within built-up parts of the city. The founding residents of San Jose 520 might have initially been immigrants, arriving at Teotihuacan after most of the city was already filled in and occupied, and therefore settling in a spatially marginal area with limited potential for farming. Archaeological field and lab investigations demonstrate that they adopted ceramic production as a strategy of economic survival in a competitive urban system. They specialized in the manufacture of the outcurving bowl--a vessel widely used at Teotihuacan for food service and certain ritual activities. At smaller scales of production, these potters also made other types of serving and ritual vessels and figurines. Evidence relating to mortuary and domestic rituals indicates participation in a number of the rituals typical of other sectors of Teotihuacan society, but not all. The most general goal of this investigation is to improve understanding of how socially and spatially marginal peoples possessing low economic status developed and exploited viable economic niches in pre-industrial urban systems. The San Jose 520 potters appear dynamic in their economic adjustment--in part by enhancing their production system over time through the adoption of various specialized pot-making tools (some as yet undocumented for Teotihuacan), and to some extent by modifying their product line, they survived for many generations. Nevertheless, they never succeeded in significantly raising their economic status; at the time of their apparent disappearance sometime in the Xolalpan phase, these potters and their households continued to constitute a case study of urban poverty in a massive pre-industrial city. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Anthropology 2011