The Arts of a Mesoamerican Metropolis, Here at the Met

James Doyle
November 19, 2014

«Sergio Gomez and a team of investigators under the Feathered Serpent Pyramid at the site of Teotihuacan—one of the largest and most elaborate pyramids of the ancient world—are exploring a recently discovered man-made tunnel that passes under the east-west axis of the building, and have already uncovered rich dedicatory offerings using unmanned vehicles and controlled excavations (fig. 1). Teotihuacan is remarkable for the scale and elaboration of its architecture, the well-organized grid on which the city was planned, and an artistic tradition that included stone sculpture, mural painting, and pottery. The city's residents lived in complex apartment compounds from the late first millennium b.c. to the mid-seventh century a.d., suggesting a relatively stable social structure unlike that of other cities in the ancient New World. There were even neighborhoods of foreigners who continued their local traditions in distinct "barrios" of the city. A truly cosmopolitan place, Teotihuacan was the Manhattan of its time—a hub of activity and a destination for those from far away.»

Assistant Curator James Doyle at Teotihuacan, November 2014
The author at Teotihuacan, November 2014. View to the south of the Avenue of the Dead and Pyramid of the Sun from the Pyramid of the Moon

The recent explorations build upon more than a century of archaeological investigations at Teotihuacan. Investigations at the Pyramid of the Sun, the largest building at the site, and the Pyramid of the Moon, the second largest building in the downtown precinct, have yielded extraordinary dedicatory deposits with sumptuary goods, sacrifices of animals such as jaguars, pumas, eagles, and rattlesnakes, and multiple human sacrifices. Prior investigations under the Feathered Serpent Pyramid unearthed dense burials of sacrificed warriors, some with their hands bound behind their back and others wearing necklaces composed of human maxillae. The pervasive militarism and violence at Teotihuacan was clear; however, one major question remains about the great city: Who was in charge? The current excavations under the Feathered Serpent Pyramid complex may reveal the identities of the Teotihuacan rulers.

Two objects from the Metropolitan Museum's collection hail from Teotihuacan, both likely from dedicatory offerings such as those announced in October (fig. 2).

Left: Standing Figure, 3rd–7th century | Teotihuacan, Mexico, Mesoamerica | 1979.206.585 | Right: Storm God Vessel, 3rd–7th century | Teotihuacan, Mexico, Mesoamerica | 2012.530.1
Fig. 2. Left: Standing Figure, 3rd–7th century. Teotihuacan, Mexico, Mesoamerica. Green schist; H. 16 1/8 x W. 8 1/8 x D. 6 1/8 in. (41 x 20.6 x 15.5 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979 (1979.206.585). Right: Storm God Vessel, 3rd–7th century. Teotihuacan, Mexico, Mesoamerica. Steatite; H. 6 3/8 × W. 4 1/8 × D. 4 3/8 in. (16.19 × 10.48 × 11.11 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of the Austen-Stokes Ancient Americas Foundation, 2012 (2012.530.1)

The standing figure is made of green actinolite schist, a metamorphic rock, as determined by X-ray diffraction analysis. Although broken at the upper legs, it stands at 41 cm (16 1/8 in.) tall. The head is disproportionally large and bears resemblance to the numerous stone masks known to be from Teotihuacan (fig. 3). The expressionless faces, stoic posture, and slightly open mouths of Teotihuacan stone figures have long fascinated archaeologists and art historians because these objects do not appear to portray individuals. Rather, they seem to symbolize a general ideal—possibly having been adorned and personalized by shell or pyrite inlays in the eye sockets, and ear ornaments hanging from holes drilled into the earlobes.

Left: Mask, 4th–8th century | Teotihuacan, Mexico, Mesoamerica | 00.5.1437 | Center: Mask, 3rd–7th century | Teotihuacan, Mexico, Mesoamerica | 1979.206.527 | Right: Mask, 3rd–7th century. Teotihuacan, Mexico, Mesoamerica | 1978.412.198
Fig. 3. Left: Mask, 4th–8th century. Teotihuacan, Mexico, Mesoamerica. Onyx marble; 5 1/4 x 4 3/4 in. (13.34 x 12.07 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Museum Purchase, 1900 (00.5.1437). Center: Mask, 3rd–7th century. Teotihuacan, Mexico, Mesoamerica. Greenstone; H. 9 5/16 x W. 9 3/4 x D. 4 1/4 in. (23.7 x 24.8 x 10.8cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979 (1979.206.527). Right: Mask, 3rd–7th century. Teotihuacan, Mexico, Mesoamerica. Onyx marble; H. 7 1/2 x W. 6 1/2 x D. 3 3/8 in. (19.1 x 16.5 x 8.6 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Purchase, Nelson A. Rockefeller Gift, 1969 (1978.412.198)

On a recent visit to Mexico, Andrall E. Pearson Curator Joanne Pillsbury and I saw two standing figures produced at the same scale as that of the Met's figure (fig. 4). The first, located in the Teotihuacan site museum, differs in that it has a distinctive headdress and several drilled holes where inlays of stone or shell presumably would have been. The second, in the Museo Nacional de Antropología, is compelling in that the artist seems to have clearly marked the sculpture's gender as male. One pattern to explore in future research of this class of sculptures is the patterns of breakage on the figures' arms and legs: perhaps at the time of their offering, the Teotihuacanos purposely removed the limbs on specific pieces in an act of decommission or mutilation of the body.

Left: Standing figure at the Teotihuacan Site Museum. Photo by James Doyle. Right: Standing figure, Museo Nacional de Antropología Photo courtesy of  MNA/INAH
Fig. 4. Left: Standing figure at the Teotihuacan Site Museum. Photo by the author. Right: Standing figure, Museo Nacional de Antropología. Photo courtesy of MNA/INAH 

The Metropolitan Museum's vessel is unique in that it is carved entirely from steatite, or soapstone. The artist invested a considerable amount of labor in this depiction of what is likely the Teotihuacan storm god, known to the later Aztecs as Tlaloc. The head of the god lies on the neck of the vessel and is marked by a prominent upper lip and four fangs, accentuated by a drilled hole beneath the teeth. The deity is shown squatting on the vessel; his legs and sandaled feet are shown on the side of the vessel's body. His left hand grasps a bundle of darts, while his right holds what is likely a spear thrower with which he could hurl the darts. In ancient Mesoamerica, gods of rain and storms were often depicted with weapons, symbolizing their power to wield damaging lighting and thunder. A similar vessel found in the tunnel excavations under the Feathered Serpent Pyramid depict the same deity in modeled ceramic (fig. 5).

The corpus of art at Teotihuacan contains a significant amount of imagery that eludes easy interpretation. Notably, many of the high-status apartment compounds were covered with floor-to-ceiling frescoed murals with elaborate scenes and enigmatic iconography. An example in the Met's collection (fig. 6), probably from the compound in the northeast of the city known as Techinantitla, shows a highly abstract depiction of what may be a deity, or perhaps even an elaborate, undeciphered hieroglyphic logogram (a sign representing a word).

Wall painting, 7th–8th century | Teotihuacan, Mexico, Mesoamerica | 2012.517.1
Fig. 6. Wall painting, 7th–8th century. Teotihuacan, Mexico, Mesoamerica. Lime plaster, paint; H. 25 3/4 × W. 30 3/4 in. (65.41 × 78.11 cm); Weight: 69 lbs. (31.298 kg). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of John and Marisol Stokes, 2012 (2012.517.1)

The symmetry of the figure and the location of a toothed mouth and clawed hands suggest a stylized anthropomorphic being. From the mouth emerges scrolls covered in images of flowers, perhaps a visual representation of "flowery speech" or benevolent oration. The figure is covered in circular and ovular shapes painted green—mostly likely images of jade beads—and fringed with green feathers; both greenstone and green feathers were luxurious imported materials. The green color evokes water, maize plants, and agricultural fertility. A fragment of the same mural series in the Ethnological Museum in Berlin includes a border that repeats the jade and feathered motifs, as does a fragment in the collection of the Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts. Not all aspects of the mural's central character are flowery and green, however: the fearsome claws at the center of the image hint at the threat of potential violence by natural forces, divine power, or the mysterious military regime of Teotihuacan.

Resources and Additional Reading
Berlo, Janet C., ed. Art, Ideology, and the City of Teotihuacan. Washington: Dumbarton Oaks, 1992.

Cowgill, George. "State and Society at Teotihuacan, Mexico." Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 26 (October 1997): 129–161.

Headrick, Annabeth. The Teotihuacan Trinity: The Sociopolitical Structure of an Ancient Mesoamerican City. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010.

López Luján, Leonardo, Laura Filloy Nadal, Barbara Fash, William L. Fash, and Pilar Hernández. "The Destruction of Images in Teotihuacan: Anthropomorphic Sculpture, Elite Cults, and the End of a Civilization." RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics, 49/50 (Spring/Autumn 2006): 13–39.

———. "La destrucción del cuerpo: El cautivo de mármol de Teotihuacan." Arqueología Mexicana, Vol. 9, No. 65 (2004): 54–59.

Millon, Rene F. Urbanization at Teotihuacan, Mexico. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1975.

Solis, Felipe. Teotihuacan: Cite des Dieux. Paris: Musée du Quai Branly, 2009.

Sugiyama, Nawa, Saburo Sugiyama, and Alejandro Sarabia G. "Inside the Sun Pyramid at Teotihuacan, Mexico: 2008–2011 Excavations and Preliminary Results." Latin American Antiquity, Vol. 24, No. 4 (December 2013): 403–432.

Sugiyama, Saburo. Human Sacrifice, Militarism, and Rulership: Materialization of State Ideology at the Feathered Serpent Pyramid, Teotihuacan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Sugiyama, Saburo, and Leonardo López Luján. "Dedicatory Burial/Offering Complexes at the Moon Pyramid, Teotihuacan." Ancient Mesoamerica, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Spring 2007): 127–146.

Taube, Karl A. The Writing System of Ancient Teotihuacan. Barnardsville, NC: Center for Ancient American Studies, 2000.

James Doyle

James Doyle is an assistant curator in the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.

Follow James on Twitter: @JamesDoyleMet