- What was the Teotihuacan culture?
- Geographic location
- Characteristics of the Teotihuacan culture
- Religion and gods of the Teotihuacan culture
- Most important cities
- Teotihuacan economy
- Contributions of the Teotihuacan culture
We explain everything about the Teotihuacan culture. Location, economy, religion and other characteristics. In addition, his main contributions.
What was the Teotihuacan culture?
We speak of Teotihuacán culture or Teotihuacán culture, to refer to the unknown original inhabitants of the ancient city of Teotihuacán, one of the largest cities in the Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica. This city was founded sometime around 1,000 BC. C.
Little is known about the ethnic character of this pre-Columbian culture, although research they target the Totonacs, Nahuas, and the Otomi. It could even be some cosmopolitan combination of remote Mesoamerican peoples.
The Teotihuacan culture is one of the most mysterious of the pre-Columbian American era, whose origins and disappearance are the subject of debate among specialists. Its existence is known only from the ruins and remains of its town, Teotihuacán, equivalent of the ancient and enormous imperial Rome.
Its influence is observed in the clearly Teotihuacan motifs found in the ruins of other ceremonial centers such as Tikal or Chichen Itzá. The Teotihuacan city is an important area of archaeological monuments today, with a high tourist and anthropological interest, famous for its great pyramids.
It is known that the Teotihuacanos were an important influence on the developing from other Mesoamerican cultures. For example, Teotihuacán was an important pilgrimage center of the Aztec culture, much later, who saw in this already abandoned city a propitious place for religious revelations.
In fact, the name we give it comes from Nahuatl (means "City of the Sun"), the language of the Mexica, since it is unknown how the Teotihuacanos called themselves or their city.
Other cultures:
| Aztec culture | Toltec culture |
| Mayan culture | Greek culture |
| Olmec culture | Totonac culture |
| Zapotec culture | Mixtec culture |
Geographic location
The city of Teotihuacán is located in the northwest of the Valley of Mexico, in the State of Mexico, municipalities of Teotihuacán and San Martín de las Pirámides, about 78 kilometers away from Mexico City, in the Mexican highlands. This area was declared world Heritage of humanity by UNESCO in 1987.
Therefore, the Teotihuacan culture must have developed in the geographic vicinity of the city. Its heyday took place during the Classic Period, between the 2nd and 7th centuries AD. C., when its decline occurred, as part of the collapse of Mesoamerica in the 7th century AD. C., produced by a combination of political instability and climate change.
Characteristics of the Teotihuacan culture
Judging from the remains of Teotihuacán, its founders were expert builders with a monumental sense of the architecture. Its pyramids of the Sun and of the Moon, his temple to Quetzalcóatl and other similar constructions, whose walls painted with allegorical motifs to his religion, his worldview, as well as a fine and beautiful ritual pottery.
The surroundings of the city were used for agricultural development and the exploitation of obsidian. For this reason, this city was also an important commercial center in the region.
It is probable that Teotihuacan society was made up, like other Mesoamericans, of priests, warriors, merchants, and farmers. It is known that the Teotihuacan culture had a strong imperial imprint, and conquered other neighboring Mayan cities.
Religion and gods of the Teotihuacan culture
The Teotihuacanos cultivated a polytheistic and complex religion.It has many points of contact with those of other Mesoamerican cultures, both before and after, surely through inheritance and cultural contagion dynamics.
The cult of the feathered serpent, Quetzalcóatl, for example, is frequent in the ruins of other cultures region of. In Teotihuacán, Quetzalcóatl is venerated in an impressive temple, in addition to being present in the form of statuettes and murals.
Other important gods of his pantheon were Tlaloc, god of sowing; Huehuetéotl, god of fire; Tezcatlipoca, god of heaven and earth. They also possessed a set of mythical or sacred animals: the owl, the puma, the eagle and the serpent.
It is very likely that their rites involved human sacrifice, a common thing in the region. The sacrifices were carried out by a closed elite of priests or shamans.
Most important cities
The great Teotihuacan city and the only one that survives to this day is Teotihuacán. So much so, that the city gives its name to the culture, despite the fact that its name comes from the Aztec language.
The history of this city was the subject of interest and curiosity not only for us, but also at the time the Toltecs and Mexica made their ruins a pilgrimage site. At present, Teotihuacán is, together with Chichén-Itzá, El Tajín and Monte Albán, some of the places of tourist interest and anthropological most important in the region.
Teotihuacán covered, at its peak, an area of about 21 square kilometers. It is estimated that it housed a population of between 100,000 and 200,000 inhabitants.
Its causeway of the Dead is famous, on the north-south axis, crossed at the time by the San Juan River, which was diverted from its bed. Also for the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon, the temple to the Mythological Animals, the Palace of Quetzalpapálotl, the temple of Quetzalcóatl, or the housing complexes of Yayahuala, Tetitla, Xala and Zacuala.
Teotihuacan economy
The Teotihuacan economy, like that of many other Mesoamerican cultures, was based on three axes:
- farming. Maize, beans, peppers and cereals were especially cultivated, all using irrigation techniques and arranged in terraces.
- Commerce. It was facilitated by the enormous dimensions of the city and its important influence in the region.
- Wars. It is known of the epic deeds of Teotihuacan conquest of the cities mayan from Tikal, Copán and Quiriguá, during the heyday of Teotihuacán between the 2nd and 4th centuries.
Contributions of the Teotihuacan culture
To this day, more than 2 million people visit Teotihuacán each year.Although much is unknown about the original inhabitants of Teotihuacán, their imprint was felt in the region. His legacy remains to this day, mostly in the ruins of what was his great metropolis.
Part of its mythological tales. Many of their beliefs are shared totally or partially with other Mesoamerican cultures, in a melting pot cultural of great historical importance.
Its ceramics and masonry, its impressive vision of the architecture and engineering, or the colorful ceremonial masks with which they undertook their rites.