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Robert Rock ANTH 281 12/13/17 Final Paper Introduction​: After Opening Robert Rock ANTH 281 12/13/17 Final Paper Introduction: ​ After opening the tomb of the Egyptian King Tutankhamun and removing the pharaoh’s sarcophagus after three-millennia of undisturbed rest, the members of the exploratory team were gripped by a sudden wave of mortality. Rumors of a “curse of the pharaohs” ignited the public imagination and spread like wildfire. Though the myth of the “curse of the pharaohs” has been debunked by the normal lifespans of most team-members, the idea that a long-dead king could wield deadly spiritual powers against the living both captivated and alarmed audiences across the world. These electrifying concepts find a less sensationalized, more “serious” mirror in the spiritual traditions of pre- and post-Hispanic Mesoamericans. To these people, death was and is not a permanent severance from the world of the living. All life force is intimately connected in one multilayered universe in which the souls of the living can leave their typical homes in the underworld and interact with the living. All spirits are innately mobile and can freely breach the physical boundaries of the “self” to travel through the air or become embodied in objects. The souls of deities and ancestors can even animate the living flesh of a ritually-prepared subject. Though long-forgotten in the steady progress of time, the souls of Teotihuacan, once the premier polity in Central Mexico, are far from “dead.” They can be brought yet again to the world of the living to share their unique stories. By examining four objects that may have held such spirits, I hope to bring the souls of a long “dead” civilization back to life to share their stories. Through an analysis of the properties and likely function of a Teotihuacan stone mask (WCMA Accession No. 1957.144), two Teotihuacan figurine heads (WCMA Accession No. 50.10.A and WCMA Accession No. 50.10.B), and a Teotihuacan standing female figurine (1974.36.8), I hope to bring to light the stories of the spirits that once inhabited these objects and thereby shed much-needed light on the mysterious people and polity of Teotihuacan. Teotihuacan: The Setting: Nestled in the Valley of Teotihuacán, a sub-valley within the larger Valley of Mexico, the ancient city of Teotihuacán lies a mere 30 miles (48 km) from Mexico City in the State of Mexico (maps in Figure I). The valley itself has a semi-dry, mild climate (Arnold, 2014:12) and a minimum elevation of 7,200 feet (2.2km) above sea level (National Research Council Staff, 1995) and encompasses an area of roughly 500 sq. km. that contains highly fertile land, obsidian sources, and a rich lake network. These lakes, (Figure II), served as natural sources of water-life and fed a vast system of irrigation agriculture (Kurtz, et. al. 1987, 329). Among the various crops grown during the Teotihuacan state’s lifetime were maize, beans, squash, tomatoes, and amaranth (Arnold, 2014). In the adjoining zones lie deposits of limestone and clay (Sanders, 1965: 22; Millon, 1981: 217-8). Mountains dominate the landscape and form the physical boundaries of the valley, with many of these peaks reaching elevations of over 16,000 ft (5 km) above sea level (National Research Council Staff, 1995). Figure I: Map of Central America (Cowgill, 2015) Legend: 1) Teotihuacan; 2) Tula; 3) Monte Alban; 4) Xochicalco; 5) Cholula; 6) Matacapan; 7) Cerro ́Bernal; 8) Copan; 9) Kaminaljuy’u; 10) Tikal. Figure II: Map of the Valley of Mexico in Aztec Times (University of California, San Diego) The City and the State: The city itself formed around 100 BCE and developed into a powerful state with a wide range of political, economic, and probably military influence (Millon, 1981: 225) that experienced its golden age in the Xolalpan phase between 350 CE and 550 CE (Moctezuma, 2008; 67), and persisted until roughly 650 CE when the state rapidly declined (Millon, 1981: 236) that was preceded by a period of economic decline evident from ca. 600 CE onward (Cowgill, 2015: 71). Given the apparent absence of economic or social degradation proceeding the collapse and the selective destruction of ritual centers (Millon, 1973: 39-40, 59, 63), Millon (1981: 236) posits “internal crisis” as a potential explanation though its exact cause remains unknown. Prior to its collapse, the state exercised a substantial level of power. This is evidenced by the city’s monumental architecture (Millon, 1981: 232), the highly standardized content of household murals (Cowgill, 2015), and the dramatic architectural reconstruction of the city around 200 CE that established large apartment compounds as the dominant dwelling unit and structured the city around a general cruciform layout (Millon, 1981: 209-10). These apartments likely served as both a basis for social organization and economic specialization and often formed larger “barrios” with coordinated economic functions (Manzanilla, 1996; 234). Also around 200 CE, a massive expansion project on the Temple of the Moon (for a picture of the Temple of the Moon, see Figure III) suggests a vast expansion of state power. According to Sugiyama and Cabrera Castro (2007): “...the erection during the third century A.D. of Building 4, which is nine times larger than its immediate predecessor, seems to imply a substantial growth in manageable resources and political centralization.” Figure III: Temple of the Moon at the end of the Avenue of the Dead (Rogers, Elizabeth Barlow) Despite the conspicuous visibility of state power, the leaders of the Teotihuacán state, unlike those of most other Mesoamerican polities, left few traces of their individual authority (Cowgill, 1992: 212). This absence makes itself felt through a distinct lack of royal tombs and artistic depictions that portray specific rulers (Masson, 2007). The topic of rulership is further complicated by the dearth of translatable written evidence from the polity. The very existence of writing in Teotihuacan has been a matter of long debate with scholars such as Cabrera Castro (1996d), Millon (1973), and Taube (2000) arguing in favor of its existence and others such as Marcus (1992: 17) identifying a lack of evidence for “true writing” in Teotihuacan (Colas, 2011: 13). Recently, Cowgill (2015 : 214) suggests that the size and evident complexity of the Teotihuacan state could not have functioned without written records and identifies the repetition of “standardized signs” throughout Teotihuacano artwork that may serve this purpose (Figure IV). The meaning of these signs, however, remains “mysterious.” Further, if Teotihuacan had a system of writing, it is likely that many records were kept in perishable forms on media similar to the Maya bark-cloth huun (Von Hagen, 1999:9) or the Aztec gum-coated maguey, cotton, and ​ ​ palm leaf papers (Von Hagen, 1999:49; Cowgill, 2015:214). Most of these records, if they existed, would have been destroyed by the ravages of nearly two millennia of weathering and natural decay. This overall lack of written records further obscures the identification of power by denying scholars a clear record of Teotihuacan’s history and possible dynastic legends. Further, as many artistic depictions of Mesoamerican rulers are identified by the presence of name-bearing descriptions, the lack of legible glyphs in Teotihuacan renders such modes of identification impossible. Figure IV: “Standardized signs” from the Plaza de Los Glifos (Cabrerra Castro, 1996b:33) For the same reasons, the means through which the state’s power was established and exercised remain unknown. A possible explanation is that the polity dominated an extremely powerful state religion that, through its resonance and ability to establish the city as a prominent pilgrimage site, gave the ruling class a profound spiritual source of authority (Millon, 1981: 230). This theory is grounded largely on the cosmology of Teotihuacan and the city elite’s apparent links with foreign nobles. Evidence for the cosmological importance of the city is derived largely from an Aztec myth circulating at the time of the Spanish conquests that may have its origins in Teotihuacan’s ascendency (Millon, 1981: 230). According to various tellings of this myth, both the sun and the moon are either brought into creation or set in motion by the sacrifice of two deities on Teotihuacan’s Pyramid of the Sun and Temple of the Moon, respectively (Brundage, 1983: 42, 162). If believed during Teotihuacan's existence, this would give the city tremendous ritual importance as the place where the sun, moon, and even time itself began (Millon, 1981: 231). Control over the rituals at this uniquely sacred place and the commerce brought by pilgrimage could have allowed Teotihuacan’s rulers to consolidate significant power. According to Millon (1981): “...it is not difficult to envisage some in the hierarchy [of the city’s elite] who would come to realize the political and economic potential of the spread of the cult, who would begin to exploit it, to use it instrumentally, to manipulate it, to transform it into a state cult, so as to consolidate the position of the hierarchy and to facilitate the expansion of the Teotihuacan state… Belief and statecraft would reinforce each other” (231). Millon (1981) cites evidence of a relationship between the Maya elite and those of Teotihuacan to support his identification of Teotihuacan as a major pilgrimage center of extreme importance. Within the city, the signs of this communication take the form of foreign burials. A prominent example of these burials is that of the Burial 5 complex underneath the Pyramid of the Moon. Sugiyama and Lopez Lujan (2007) identify three individuals in this burial. Two of them, referred to by Sugiyama and Lopez Lujan as individuals 5A and 5B are associated with objects that causes Sugiyama and Lopez Lujan (2007) to posit the following preliminary interpretation of their identity: “...we believe that the three individuals were foreigners of extremely high status (rulers, ambassadors, warriors, or merchants) who had direct connections with contemporaneous Maya dynasties or were members of the Maya elite who visited or were brought to Teotihuacan to be buried, willingly or unwillingly, at the Moon Pyramid for reasons that are yet unknown” (134).
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