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Ancient Tollan: the Sacred Precinct

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Ancient Tollan: the Sacred Precinct 100 RES 38 AUTUMN 2000 Figure 12. Upper section of Pillar 3: Personage with attributes of Tezcatlipoca. Photograph: Humberto Hiera. Ancient Toi Ian The sacred precinct ALBAGUADALUPE MASTACHE and ROBERTH. COBEAN Tula, along with Teotihuacan and Tenochtitlan, was to level the area for the plaza and to construct platforms one most of the important cities inMexico's Central that functioned as bases for buildings. Highlands. During Tula's apogee between a.d. 900-1150, It is evident that at Tula the placement of the area the city covered nearly 16 square kilometers. Its of monumental center is strategic, not only because it over an influence extended much of Central Mexico along occupies easily defended place but also because of its with other regions of Mesoamerica, including areas of central setting at a dominant point that had great visual the Baj?o, the Huasteca, the Gulf Coast, the Yucatan impact, being visible to inhabitants in every part of the city peninsula, and such distant places as the Soconusco, on and within view of many rural sites. Lefebvre observes that the Pacific Coast of Chiapas and Guatemala, and El a city's habitational zone ismade on a human scale, a Salvador. From cultural and ethnic perspective, Tula whereas the monumental zone has a superhuman scale, a constituted synthesis of principally two different which goes beyond human beings?overwhelming them, traditions: the preceding urban culture from Teotihuacan dazzling them. The monumental buildings' scale is the in the Basin of Mexico, and another tradition from the scale of divinity, of a divine ruler, of abstract institutions northern Mesoamerican periphery, especially the Baj?o that dominate human society (Lefebvre 1982:84). and the Zacatecas-Jalisco border area (Mastache and The volume of the two pyramids of the precinct is not Cobean 1989; Hers and Braniff 1998). very large if compared to that of the Pyramids of the Sun In as Mesoamerican cities, in urban sites of many and Moon at Teotihuacan or to that of the principal other cultures, the monumental precinct was the heart of pyramid at Cholula, but the location of the precinct the city, constituting its religious, political, and compensates for this, because Tula's monumental center seat a administrative center, the of divinity and of the constitutes in its totality huge pyramidal structure, with government, the place where the order and the spatial the original elevation of the hill increased by the of cosmos was configuration the materialized and extensive system of terraces and platforms on which the reproduced. At Tula, the importance of the monumental plaza was built. Therefore, the apparent dimensions of as were precinct the symbolic axis and architectonic center of the pyramids increased by the great architectonic the is city manifested by its central position. The complex on which they were built, with the whole principal plaza is located essentially at the physical complex forming a great pyramidal structure crowned center at of the city, the midpoint of Tula's hypothetical by the two pyramids (fig. 2). This situation is different north-south axis, which is approximately six kilometers from that of Teotihuacan or Tenochtitlan, where all of the long (fig. 1). The precinct's hierarchical position is given ancient city including the monumental center was also by its elevation in being placed at the highest and distributed over a uniform elevation. most of the thus prominent part city, physically We know that Tula experienced several changes and dominating the urban space. Building this vast transformations during its long life, but it is evident that an architectural complex constituted enormous public the city's conception and urban structure were defined works project, which entailed the modification of the according to a master plan when the monumental mesa original surface with artificial terracing systems, precinct was built. At the place where the sacred man-made fills of to seven to meters using up eight deep precinct was constructed, there very probably was a Coyotlatelco center corresponding to the city's initial development stage, that is, an occupation coeval with We thank the Instituto Nacional de e Historia for Antropolog?a allowing Tula Chico first ceremonial over us (the city's center), to reproduce illustrations from the reports of R. Acosta and Jorge which theTollan monumental center was built Elizabeth Jim?nez. "Reproducci?n Autorizada por el Instituto Nacional de phase e and Antropolog?a Historia"-Conaculta-INAH- M?xico. We thank Arq. Jesus (Mastache Crespo 1982, Diehl 1983, Cobean Acevedo of the INAH for his sharing computer programming knowledge. 1994). This last center is the topic of this paper. 102 RES 38 AUTUMN 2000 not the corners in O I 2Km. completely joined, leaving open corners were diagonals. These open the principal entrances to the plaza (figs. 3-4). The largest right angle on a is measuring approximately 140 meters side N structures formed by Pyramids C and B and by adjacent with columned halls. The lesser right angle (of about 120 meters on a side) is constituted by Building K and Ballcourt 2. In a sense, we can say that the sacred precinct is D divided in two zones of distinct hierarchy and differing character. The northeast complex is the most important, because of its greater dimensions and, above all else, because of the nature of the buildings that comprise it? especially the two pyramids, which together with the are most D Zona monumental adjacent buildings without doubt the important architectural elements in the entire precinct. Thus this C~ L?mites: antigua ciudad de Tula section can be considered the most essentially sacred part of the monumental center. The lesser symbolic and ==^ Rios Tula y Rosas architectonic hierarchy of the southwest section is and in expressed in its smaller volume and dimensions, a different level of internal articulation. While Pyramids B and C are articulated with other structures (vestibules Figure 1. Tula: city limits during its apogee (a.D. 900-1150) of the monumental center. and columned K and Ballcourt 2 can be showing the location Drawing: halls), Building Fernando Getino. considered separate units, which are integrated only in on same the sense that they were built the platform. Thus the plaza was surrounded by several types of not well As is common inMesoamerican cities, the pyramidal buildings, the functions of which still have been cases. structures and other buildings in Tula's monumental defined in all of the precinct contain various construction stages and A noteworthy aspect in the planning center is the of both in enlargements. In his excavations, Acosta found several monumental placement pyramids substructures and additions in the majority of the relation to the structure of the total precinct. The to to one side instead of buildings. The monumental precinct and its buildings pyramids appear be displaced in a if are generally have between three and four construction being central position, especially they a if stages corresponding to theTollan phase (a.D. 900-1150) observed from point inside the plaza. Nevertheless, into that was Tula's apogee (Acosta 1942-1944, 1945, 1956; the general plan of the precinct is analyzed, taking is Cobean 1994; Getino and Figueroa n.d.). account its external limits, it is clear that Pyramid C on not There is evidence that the principal buildings the the fundamental architectural element, only because at also because of ceremonial precinct were intentionally burned the end it is the largest structure in the city, but some in the of the Tollan phase (circa a.D. 1150) and that its location and relationship with other buildings is structures were looted and partially reoccupied during plaza. When the entire monumental compound the Late Postclassic (a.D. 1200-1520). The reoccupations considered in its totality as an architectonic unit, the are in and of the two during this period evident principally the so-called impression of asymmetry displacement it is Palacio Quemado, Building K, the central altar, and pyramids in the precinct disappears, and evident the Ballcourt 2 among other buildings (Acosta 1942-1944, that Pyramid C is clearly the principal structure, on the 1945, 1956, 1956-1957,1961 a; Cobean 1994) (fig. 4). probable axis mundi, the predominant element rest of the The monumental precinct is a huge quadrangle, basis of which all the plaza and possibly the on a which is open on its northwest and southeast corners. It city was planned. Pyramid B, the other hand, has its size and less is composed of two complexes that have the form of secondary position because of smaller or are two opposing right angles of two capital Ls that prominent setting within the precinct. Mastache and Cobean: Ancient Tollan 103 2. Precinct. Alba Mastache. Figure A view of Tula's Sacred Courtesy of Guadalupe were are Both pyramids are placed adjacent to each other, concepts that shared by both cultures and also to forming a 90 degree angle, with their main facades evident in iconography and other elements be facing the plaza: Pyramid C toward the west and discussed later. are Pyramid B toward the south. There notable On the other hand, many other aspects of planning are similarities with the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon at and urbanism in the two cities different. The Teotihuacan, not only because of the existence of two planning of Teotihuacan's monumental center has most pyramids, with one larger than the other, but because in fundamental differences with that of Tula, the a Teotihuacan as in Tula, the largest pyramid faces west evident being that it is not structured around central and the smallest faces south, and above all because they plaza, but instead along the great axis of the Street of Moon possess the same spatial setting with regard to each the Dead, where the Pyramids of the Sun and the are even are not to other (as can be seen in figure 5).
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