Teotihuacan: The Mayan city that has mysterious origins

[Skywizard]

The Pyramid of the Sun (top) is the largest structure in the ancient
city of Teotihuacan, Mexico, and one of the largest buildings of its
kind on the Western Hemisphere.

It was massive, one of the first great cities of the Western Hemisphere. And its origins are a mystery.

It was built by hand more than a thousand years before the swooping arrival of the Nahuatl-speaking Aztec in central Mexico. But it was the Aztec, descending on the abandoned site, no doubt falling awestruck by what they saw, who gave its current name: Teotihuacan.

A famed archaeological site located fewer than 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Mexico City, Teotihuacan reached its zenith between 100 B.C. and A.D. 650. It covered 8 square miles (21 square kilometers) and supported a population of a hundred thousand.

It was the largest city anywhere in the Western Hemisphere before the 1400s. It had thousands of residential compounds and scores of pyramid-temples ... comparable to the largest pyramids of Egypt."

Oddly, Teotihuacan, which contains a massive central road (the Street of the Dead) and buildings including the Temple of the Sun and the Temple of the Moon, has no military structures—though experts say the military and cultural wake of Teotihuacan was heavily felt throughout the region.

WHO BUILT IT?

The site's visible surface remains have all been mapped in detail. But only some portions have been excavated.

Scholars once pointed to the Toltec culture. Others note that the Toltec peaked far later than Teotihuacan's zenith, undermining that theory. Some scholars say the Totonac culture was responsible.

No matter its principal builders, evidence shows that Teotihuacan hosted a patchwork of cultures including the Maya, Mixtec, and Zapotec. One theory says an erupting volcano forced a wave of immigrants into the Teotihuacan valley and that those refugees either built or bolstered the city.

The main excavations have been at the Pyramid of the Moon. It was there, beneath layers of dirt and stone, that researchers realized the awe-inspiring craftsmanship of Teotihuacan's architects was matched by a cultural penchant for brutality and human and animal sacrifice.

Inside the temple, researchers found buried animals and bodies, with heads that had been lobbed off, all thought to be offerings to gods or sanctification for successive layers of the pyramid as it was built.

Since 2003 archaeologist has only recently reached the end of a tunnel that could hold a king's tomb.

It's unclear why Teotihuacan collapsed; one theory is that poorer classes carried out an internal uprising against the elite.

More studies are needed to understand the lives of the poorer classes that inhabited Teotihuacan, the mystery lies not as much in who built the city or in why it fell.




Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/a...y/teotihuacan/


peace...

[Justplain]

If we do a bit of internet digging, we find that Teotihuacan is a very important archeological site, that was oriented towards an ancient north pole. Its age gives us a glimpse that civilizations have been around much longer than our naive archeology understands:

'Teotihuacan Was Oriented to a Former Geo North Pole

'Teotihuacan was once aligned to its geo North pole, when it was at another location. This was more than 110,000 years ago. The distance between Giza and the North pole = distance Teotihuacan to its former pole. That's WHY they are closely related
Fig. 6: Teotihuacan was once aligned to its “own” geographic North pole, Pole III, when this was at another location. This was more than 200,000 years ago, which is the TRUE age of Teotihuacan. The distance from Giza to the North pole = distance Teotihuacan to its former pole. That’s WHY they are closely related' | © 2016 by Buildreps.

https://mariobuildreps.com/teotihuac...terious-giant/

[Foxie Loxie]

I remember seeing this complex for the first time in Jan. of 1965; we had camped for the night not realizing where we were. Imagine our amazement when waking in the morning to see this immense structure!

[Sunny-side-up]

The main excavations have been at the Pyramid of the Moon. It was there, beneath layers of dirt and stone, that researchers realized the awe-inspiring craftsmanship of Teotihuacan's architects was matched by a cultural penchant for brutality and human and animal sacrifice.

Is the above statement confused?

The original unknown builders, did they actually carve into the temple depictions of brutality and human and animal sacrifice
I know the statement says that

researchers found buried animals and bodies, with heads that had been lobbed off, all thought to be offerings to gods or sanctification for successive layers of the pyramid as it was built.

, now was that all done by those who came along and found the temple?

I would really hate to think and be very upset if the distant unknown builders had such practices

[Justplain]

I believe Carmen Boulter said the ancient dynastic kingdoms of Egypt simply took over the pre-existing Giza pyramids and gave them a 'paint job'. The true builders of Giza, and Teotihuacan were from ancient prehistory. Remains of sacrifices where likely from later occupants of the sites. Who knows what the originals were up to, but they had a very good understanding of the Earth, geography and astronomy.

[shaberon]

Posted by Justplain (here)

'Teotihuacan was once aligned to its geo North pole, when it was at another location. This was more than 110,000 years ago. The distance between Giza and the North pole = distance Teotihuacan to its former pole. That's WHY they are closely related

The north pole changes with the "precession of the equinoxes", completing a cycle in around 24,000 years. So without a "cycle count", if we just say "the pole star was Thuban", we don't know how long ago that was. "Geographical north pole" is a fixed spot on the earth which points in different directions as the rotational axis sweeps an arc. Pole stars are used to mark the epochs, and, if I am not mistaken, the Dendera Zodiac of Egypt includes cycle counts. At 110,000 years, there would need to be something explaining five entire cycles having passed.

[Ewan]

Posted by Sunny-side-up (here)

The main excavations have been at the Pyramid of the Moon. It was there, beneath layers of dirt and stone, that researchers realized the awe-inspiring craftsmanship of Teotihuacan's architects was matched by a cultural penchant for brutality and human and animal sacrifice.

Is the above statement confused?

The original unknown builders, did they actually carve into the temple depictions of brutality and human and animal sacrifice
I know the statement says that

researchers found buried animals and bodies, with heads that had been lobbed off, all thought to be offerings to gods or sanctification for successive layers of the pyramid as it was built.

, now was that all done by those who came along and found the temple?

I would really hate to think and be very upset if the distant unknown builders had such practices

That article is written from the text book (college level) understanding of common knowledge. They love the idea that they were all savages practicing sacrifice, sadly.

I can't recommend enough the book '1491 - New revelations of the Americas before Columbus' by Charles C. Mann for a more up to date and in depth perspective.

[shaberon]

Yes, the "primitive man" stereotype seems to be mostly invented by what I call "The Carnivorous Alcoholic Savages of the Royal Society Period".

At the very least, these structures are intended to last more than a human lifetime, and there is no telling how many times they may have become occupied by someone else. We might call them "older than anything in it". Forms of civilization must sprawl back unknown thousands of years, and any kind of assumption that they were all mindless and violent seems unnecessary. It might be reasonable to guess the ratio was about the same as it is today.

At Teotihuacan, if I remember rightly, Wal-mart successfully bribed a local official so they could turn the end of the ancient grounds into a parking lot.

Within it, in recent years I believe they have discovered a large column of mercury, which brings to mind an antenna, or it could produce voltage from the temperature difference. Pretty sure it came from the 2003 end of the tunnel.