Manzanilla 2000 Chapter 3. Houses and Ancestors, Altars and Relics: Mortuary Patterns at Teotihuacan, Central Mexico (original) (raw)
Chapter 3. Houses and Ancestors, Altars and Relics: Mortuary Patterns at Teotihuacan, Central Mexico
Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, 2008
This chapter reviews the mortuary program at Teotihuacan, one of the largest prehispanic cities in Mesoamerica during the Classic Period (ca. A.D. 150-750). Three different types of practices are identified: (1) domestic funerary rites and ancestors' care; (2) special individuals and relic care; and (3) human sacrifices. In terms of the first practice-which is the most common at Teotihuacan-the location, type of container, position, funerary goods, and funerary rites are examined. With respect to the second practice, mortuary bundles and human relics are considered. The problem of human sacrifice along its distinct parameters (sacrificial victims related to the main pyramidal structures; decapitation; defleshing and dismemberment; heart extraction) is treated in the third section.
Postclassic and Early Colonial mortuary practices in the Nejapa region of Oaxaca, Southern Mexico
2017
To date, we have documented or recovered the remains of over 15 individuals in the Nejapa region of Oaxaca. This paper summarizes these finds and takes a first step in comparing the mortuary practices of Nejapa to those in other regions of Oaxaca. Eight individuals were found buried nearby one another at the site of Majaltepec, an early Colonial period town in the mountains surrounding Nejapa. Morphoscopic dental analyses indicate the presence of at least 4 younger individuals between 15 and 21 years old, 3 infants, and 1 individual of undetermined age. Though poorly preserved, the burials provide us clear examples of Early Colonial indigenous mortuary practices. Notably, residents of Majaltepec buried their dead below floors of houses with grave offerings , similar to practices in Prehispanic Oaxaca. The persistence of these practices alongside the presence of Catholicism and Dominican clergy suggests that there were limits to Spanish oversight. Prehispanic burials in Nejapa, by comparison, are uncommon in spite of extensive excavation. The lack of sub-floor burial in Nejapa might signal a difference in identity between the Prehispanic residents of Nejapa and the residents of Majaltepec in the late sixteenth century.
Mortuary practices and the social order at La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico
Latin American Antiquity, 1992
Epiclassic occupants of the site of La Quemada left the disarticulated remains of 11-14 humans in an apparently sacred structure outside the monumental core of the site. Several lines of evidence are reviewed to generate propositions about the ritual meanings andfunctions of the bones. A comparative analysis reveals the complexity of mortuary practices in northern and western Mexico, and permits the suggestion that these particular remains were those of revered ancestors or community members. The sacred structure is seen as a charnel house, in which the more ancient tradition of ancestor worship expressed in shaft tombs was essentially perpetuated above ground. Hostile social relations are clearly suggested, however, by other categories of bone deposits. Recognition of the rich variability of mortuary displays leads to questions about their role in the maintenance of the social order.
HUMAN SACRIFICE DURING THE EPICLASSIC PERIOD IN THE NORTHERN BASIN OF MEXICO
2012
This article examines changes in ritual practices during the Epiclassic period in central Mexico. It presents data recovered from recent excavations of a shrine discovered in Lake Xaltocan in the northern Basin of Mexico. Pottery and AMS dates place the construction and use of the shrine in the Epiclassic period. The shrine was first built during or soon after the collapse of the Teotihuacan state. With the decline of Teotihuacan and the emergence of competing centers, ritual practitioners began human sacrifice: the remains of over 30 individuals were documented, including 13 complete severed crania. This practice suggests conflict as the political landscape became decentralized. Despite how broader processes may have affected behavior, the shrine, ritual practice was fundamentally local. We present archaeobotanical evidence of offerings of food, incense, and flowers that elucidates the microlevel nature of ritual at the shrine. Este artículo examina los cambios en las prácticas rituales durante el período Epiclásico en el centro de México. Presenta datos recuperados de excavaciones recientes de un lugar sagrado descubierto en el Lago de Xaltocan, situado al norte de la Cuenca de México. Las cerámicas y las fechas de radiocarbano 14 el santuario en el período Epiclásico. Este hallazgo consiste en una plataforma construida y utilizada cuando el estado de Teotihuacan se encontraba dominado por la tensión que conllevó al colapso. Con la caída de Teotihuacán y la aparición de otros centros políticos, la práctica del sacrificio humano se inició; en este caso se ejemplifica con la presencia de los restos de más de 30 individuos, incluyendo 13 cráneos decapitados completos, hallados en el contexto ceremonial. Esta costumbre sugiere la existencia de conflicto cuando el paisaje político se volvió más descentralizado. Aunque los procesos regionales afectaron las actividades en el sitio, el ritual era, sobre todo, un fenómeno local. Presentamos datos arqueobotánicos que indican que los practicantes del ritual realizaron ritos asociados con el agua y la fertilidad e hicieron ofrendas de comida, incienso, y flores.
THE STREET OF THE DEAD . . . IT REALLY WAS: Mortuary bundles at Teotihuacan
The name " Street of the Dead " used to designate Teotihuacan's main avenue originates from a Nahuatl notation on a sixteenth-century map. Though this " story " is often deemed apocryphal, I argue in this paper that oral tradition preserved conceptual information that may not be archaeologically recoverable. Support for this position comes from comparative cultural analysis of Mesoamerican mortuary bundles as they are expressed in ritual and iconography. Crucial to this argument are the well-known stone masks of Teotihuacan. A case is made that the masks originally served as the faces of oracular mortuary bundles. The likely existence of mortuary bundles at Teotihuacan generates organizational models for the city in which lineage emerges as a fundamental element and suggests new insight into status differentiation and the iconography of power at Teotihuacan. A debate on whether the much later Aztecs are a reliable source of information for Teotihuacan has always characterized research on the site (
Gender and Mortuary Ritual at Ancient Teotihuacan, Mexico: a Study of Intrasocietal Diversity
Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 2011
Archaeologists increasingly recognize a need to revise the scales at which we investigate identities such as gender, class and faction in ancient complex societies. In this article I present research on the expression of gender roles and ideologies in the performance of mortuary ritual in four distinctive residential areas of Classic Teotihuacan, including the urban compounds of La Ventilla 3, Tlajinga 33 and Tlailotlacan 6 and the hinterland settlement of Axotlan. Results indicate that gender was constructed and experienced differently across Teotihuacan society. This research demonstrates that multiscalar, comparative approaches to social identity make possible a fuller understanding of the significance of social heterogeneity in structuring early states.
Knowing the dead in the Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca: Yucuita phase burials at Etlatongo
2017
We explore burials from the first of a series of Mixtec households at Etlatongo, Oaxaca, Mexico, that appear to have been located in the same space for several generations, shifting both horizontally and vertically through time. These burials, dating from between 500 and 300 BCE (the later part of the Middle Formative period) represent a variety of positions, including extended and seated, as well as placements, from features dug below the house to features placed directly on the house floor. The health of these individuals was generally robust, with the exception of dental attrition and caries. The presence of corporeal modification, in the form of cranial manipulation , is also evinced from the Etlatongo sample. Exploring the placements of these burials, it is possible to reconstruct the sequence in which they were interred. We argue that parallel burials placed on the house floor belonged to the founders of this household. Upon their death and interment, the house was terminated and occupation shifted. Prior to this space being filled in, however, a shaft was built that provided access, both physical and spiritual, to one of the burials. Successive generations lived on their ancestors, who played an important foundational role in establishing this lineage or House.
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. ii 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;
Ancient Mesoamerica , 2016
This article reports on the discovery of an unusual type of secondary burial found at two Middle Formative sites in the Mascota valley of Jalisco, West Mexico. We examine these burials within a Middle and Late Formative period context as well as a broader temporal context of funerary customs and mortuary programs involving secondary-type burials. Tightly wrapped, elaborately processed bundled burials were recovered at the cemeteries of El Embocadero II and Los Tanques. We report on the human remains from both sites and examine burial context and biological identity to seek explanations. The individuals selected for this burial treatment are not associated with any markers of high status. These burials may represent a different ethnic, familial, community or ancestral identity, and we consider the broader secondary burial phenomenon as the possible expression of a ritual of seasonal interment associated with the use of a mortuary hut to curate and process the bodies.
THE TEMPLE OF QUETZALCOATL, TEOTIHUACAN: NEW DATA ON THE ORIGINS OF THE SACRIFICIAL VICTIMS
mesoamerican Archaeology, 2020
Continuing isotopic investigation of the sacrificial burials and trophies beneath the Feathered Serpent Pyramid (Temple of Quetzalcoatl) in ancient Teotihuacan, Mexico, has produced new results. Isotopic proveniencing using bioapatite strontium and structural carbonate oxygen isotopes in tooth enamel was applied to 39 samples, 24 from the sacrificial victims and 15 from the trophy jaws. Both the strontium and oxygen isotope ratios suggest that most or all of the sacrificial victims came from the central highlands of Mexico, which includes the area of Teotihuacan. In this sense, we find somewhat less multiethnicity represented among the military at Teotihuacan than previously thought. Analysis of carbon isotope ratios in enamel structural carbonate indicated a childhood diet dominated by maize, relatively homogeneous among the victims at the pyramid, and typical for much of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica.
Differences in the classic period mortuary treatment of adults and children in the Valley of Oaxaca
2017
In size and architectural monumentality, Monte Albán dominated the Valley of Oaxaca during the Classic period (ca. 50–850 CE). The magnificent mortuary offerings, including painted tomb murals, of this period have been the focus of research into Zapotec mortuary practices across the Valley of Oaxaca, although burial contexts from this period also have been studied at other settlements. Despite this research, the remains of human children and their burial contexts have been largely ignored. Our main goal is to characterize, compare, and contrast the Classic period mortuary practices for Zapotec children with those for adults. A previous hypothesis based on evidence from Teotihuacán and Monte Albán asserted that children in Mesoamerica were buried differently than adults. Although such differences may have been practiced at large urban centers, we endeavor to examine whether similar distinctions are evidenced at Classic period secondary sites in the Valley of Oaxaca. Our research tests this question in respect to mortuary practices through the analysis of 175 individuals, excavated in 15 different households from five archaeological sites, Atzompa, Lambityeco, the Mitla Fortress, El Palmillo, and Ejutla, all large, secondary settlements during the Classic period.
RESIDENTIAL HISTORIES OF THE HUMAN SACRIFICES AT THE MOON PYRAMID, TEOTIHUACAN
Ancient Mesoamerica, 2007
To investigate geographic origins of the sacrificial Burials 2-5 from the Moon Pyramid at Teotihuacan and to reconstruct changes in residence since their childhoods, we analyzed tooth enamel for oxygen-and strontium-isotope ratios and bone just for oxygen-isotope ratios. The combination of these analytical techniques involves both climatic and geological variables, therefore enhancing resolution of geographic identification. Most of the sacrificed individuals appear to have been born in a foreign location. These regions probably include other areas within the Basin of Mexico and the central highlands, as well as the Gulf Coast and the Sierra Madre del Sur. Other possible regions of origin are the southern highlands, the Motagua Valley, and the Maya Lowlands. There is considerable overlap in the oxygenisotope ratios between the Moon Pyramid and Feathered Serpent Pyramid victims, but each structure contains a group of isotopically distinct individuals. The Moon Pyramid sacrifices include some individuals with high oxygen-isotope ratios, possibly indicating the Gulf Coast or Maya Lowlands, whereas the Feathered Serpent Pyramid contains a distinct group with very low oxygen-isotope ratios, possibly indicating Oaxaca, Michoacan, or the coastal plain and piedmont of Guatemala. The sacrifices in the two pyramids also differ in their patterns of movement. Most of the Moon Pyramid victims appear to have arrived in the city recently, but the majority of those from the Feathered Serpent Pyramid had lived in Teotihuacan for a long time before their death.
Ancient Mesoamerica
This article presents the results of a preliminary bioarchaeological study of 10 funerary urns containing human burned remains from the Los Tamarindos urn-field cemetery dated to the Postclassic period. I was able to determine the basic biological profile data. In addition, I determined the fragmentation rate as well as the thermal alternation of bones from funerary urns from Los Tamarindos, which allowed me to propose the first observations about the Pretarascan cremation burial practices in this region. The low weight of bones indicates that burials should be determined as partial burials; however, they contain fragments of bones from each anatomical region. The structure of the bones and the chromatic discoloration caused by the thermal alternation indicate that temperature during the cremation did not exceed 900°C, given that the cremains did not exhibit the recrystallization structure, which is interpreted as a characteristic feature of the high maximum temperature of a funerar...
RITUAL DIVERSITY AND SOCIAL IDENTITIES: A STUDY OF MORTUARY BEHAVIORS AT TEOTIHUACAN
2009
The research presented here confronts the issue of ritual variation and its role in structuring the social dynamics of ancient Teotihuacan, a state that dominated central Mexico during the first half-millennium A.D. Most of Teotihuacan's urban population lived in apartment compounds located across the city, but the nature of these co-residing groups is not well understood. Even less is known about how subordinate settlements beyond the city limits were organized and to what degree they identified socially with urban Teotihuacan. Because ritual practices are salient in the negotiation of social identities related to gender, age, ethnicity, social status, and religious affiliation, they are an important focus of archaeological research.
Mixtec nobles are depicted in codices and other proto-historic documentation taking part in funerary rites involving cremation. The time depth for this practice was unknown, but excavations at the early village site of Tayata, in the southern state of Oaxaca, Mexico, recovered undisturbed cremation burials in contexts dating from the eleventh century B.C. These are the earliest examples of a burial practice that in later times was reserved for Mixtec kings and Aztec emperors. This article describes the burial contexts and human remains, linking Formative period archaeology with ethnohistorical descriptions of Mixtec mortuary practices. The use of cremation to mark elevated social status among the Mixtec was established by 3,000 years ago, when hereditary differences in rank were first emerging across Mesoamerica.