In semi-arid mountain basin that is an extension of the Valley of Mexico is located the ruins of one of the greatest indigenous cities of the Western Hemisphere. At its peak size, it covered over 11 ½ square miles and contained at least 150,000 residents; perhaps as many as 250,000 people! Today, it is known by the Spanish spelling of its Nahuatl (Aztec) name, te-o-ti-waka:n, which has been interpreted by ethnologist, Thelma Sullivan, to mean “place of those who have the roadway of the gods.”
On Maya maps, the city was named, Am Puh (Place of the Reeds) but the name of the city used by its inhabitants is unknown. The site is now semi-arid, but crossed by small streams. This suggests that in earlier times, the water table was higher, or perhaps the Teotihuacan Basin was once a marshy extension of the five large lakes in the Valley of Mexico. This original terrain would explain the Maya reference to reeds.The ethnicity of the founders of Teotihuacan is not currently known for certain by anthropologists. The Totonacs have always claimed to be the founders of the city. In 2001 anthropologist Terrence Kaufman identified linguistic evidence that the Totonacs and people of Mixtec-Zoque heritage were important ethnic groups in the city. Other anthropologists feel that the Otomi were the predominant ethnic group, since the Otomi language was known to have been spoken in the region around Teotihuacan, both before and after its lifespan. Perhaps Teotihuacan was a multi-ethnic city domain
As early as 400 BC there was a religious shrine and small village on the site of Teotihuacan’s Pyramid of the Sun. A manmade cavern underneath the pyramid seems to have been dedicated to an invisible sun goddess. This was in a period of time when Cuicuilco, a town about 40 miles away, was thriving.
Around 250 BC, the village began to grow rapidly. Approximately, in the year 150 BC a grand plan had been created for a new city and construction began on several large structures along a linear plaza or avenue aligned with mountains to the south and the north. Construction was completed on the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon around 100 AD. Simultaneously, construction began on many other public structures and a neighborhood of large, aristocratic houses that contained courtyards adorned with fountains and fresco paintings.
The population of the city expanded explosively after the eruption of the Xitle volcano, which destroyed the large town of Cuicuilco. It is probable that survivors of the eruption were forced to flee the nearby Valley of Mexico because volcanic ash and lava had made much of the landscape unsuitable for agriculture.
Teotihuacan reached its peak size around 450 AD. By then it was composed of many neighborhoods, occupied by distinct ethnic groups or specialized artisans. Ceramics and obsidian tools/weapons seem to have been two of its most important exported products. Archaeologists have found direct evidence of the cultural impact of Teotihuacan over 1000 miles away in Central America. Teotihuacan’s leaders sent ambassadors and traders (pohtekas) to the extremes of their known world. There is some evidence that Teotihuacan also sent armies to place their own aristocrats as rulers of distant lands. Maya inscriptions record the 60 year reign in Teotihuacan of a ruler named, “Spearthrower Owl” who forcibly installed his relatives as rulers of Tikal and Uaxactun in what is now Guatemala.
Teotihuacan’s decline began in the 6th century. There was a sudden change in the climate around 535 AD, followed by extended droughts. Archaeologists have found that there was a rise in skeletons showing evidence of juvenile malnutrition during this period. There is also evidence of general environmental decline, which includes the accumulation of salt in some irrigation canals.
Archaeologists now believe that there was a revolt among the commoners in Teotihuacan around 600 AD. The nature of this revolt is not quite clear. Since the city contained many ethnic neighborhoods, it may have originated as a feud between ethnic groups. There may have been open warfare between Teotihuacan and other cities that were occupied by other ethnic groups. Whatever the cause, the end result was that the public buildings and houses of the elite were simultaneously burned. Some statues along the main avenue of the city were methodically destroyed and their fragments dispersed.
The neighborhoods of the artisans and commoners were still occupied until around 750 AD, but the population declined steadily. Some farm hamlets continued to be located on the ruins in the centuries that followed. By the time that the Aztecs came to power around 1250 AD, Teotihuacan was in complete ruins, but considered sacred. The nations of Mexico believed that civilization had begun at Teotihuacan after the location had been visited by the gods. This tradition has led some modern thinkers to postulate that extraterrestrials regularly landed on the main avenue in Teotihuacan. The theory is always a possibility, but to date, archaeologists have not found any evidence of direct contact between the people of Teotihuacan and advanced civilizations from other galaxies.
Possible evidence of contact between Teotihuacan and the indigenous peoples of North America
- Mexican maize and squash became a food staple in the Southwestern United States during the Late Basketmaker II Period (100-500 AD) the time when Teotihuacan was at its zenith of power and influence.
- The ceramic figurines and copper art of contemporary indigenous cultures in the Southeast often show stylistic similarity to the manner in which mortals were portrayed at Teotihuacan.
- The platform mounds built in the Southeast between 200 BC and 600 AD are very similar in form to those built at the same time in Mexico.
- The lifespan of Teotihuacan corresponds directly to the life span of an advanced, mound-building cultures centered in what is now the state of Georgia and the Gulf coastal plains of Florida and Alabama.The Swift Creek Culture appeared while the Pyramid of the Sun was nearing completion. All of the large Swift Creek towns and most villages in the portion of Georgia between the Fall Line and the ocean were simultaneously abandoned around 600 AD. This may reflect climatic changes, or invasion from the sea by raiders fleeing droughts elsewhere. Most of the other Swift Creek communities were abandoned by 750 AD, except for around the headwaters of the Savannah River, where the Swift Creek tradition lasted until around 1000 AD.
- The use of the bow & arrow in the Southeast began after the abandonment of Teotihuacan and the Swift Creek-Weeden Island communities.
- The towns in the Lake Okeechobee Region of southern Florida experienced accelerated population and cultural growth immediately after the burning of the public buildings in Teotihuacan and the abandonment of Swift Creek communities to the north.
- The word Waka (roadway or cross roads) appears as a town name among the Mayas in Guatemala, the people of Lake Okeechobee and the Creeks in Georgia.