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The Pyramid of the Moon and Pyramid of the Sun are massive architectural constructions that tell us a lot about Teotihuacan culture.
The Pyramid of the Moon and the Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan, c. 1st century C.E., Mexico. Speakers: Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank and Dr. Beth Harris
[0:00] [music]
Dr. Beth Harris: [0:06] We’re in the archaeological area of the site of Teotihuacan. We’re overlooking the Pyramid of the Moon, which is the pyramid at the end of this very long axis, of this road that is named the Avenue of the Dead. Both of these names, Pyramid of the Moon and Avenue of the Dead, are Aztec names.
Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank: [0:25] The Teotihuacanos, it’s unclear what language they spoke or how they called themselves, but we can learn a lot about them through their architecture or city planning.
[0:33] What we do know about Teotihuacan is that there seems to have been two major deities here that we now call the Storm God and the Great Goddess. They seem to have been related to rain and agricultural fertility. The two major structures that we see on this end of the Avenue of the Dead are the Pyramid of the Moon and the Pyramid of the Sun.
Dr. Harris: [0:51] The Pyramid of the Sun is the second-largest pyramid built by the cultures of Mesoamerica. It’s really big. The Pyramid of the Moon that we’re facing now is archaeologically more accurate [from] when it was somewhat reconstructed.
[1:05] We see these steep steps, these platforms reaching a summit at the top that likely had a temple at the very top that was probably made of wood or something that obviously hasn’t survived.
Dr. Kilroy-Ewbank: [1:16] If we’re looking at the Pyramid of the Moon, there’s this structure called an adosada, like an appendage to the pyramid, that’s just in front of it. That’s where you clearly see this architectural profile that’s called the talud-tablero. That is this vertical table-like structure with a horizontal called the talud.
Dr. Harris: [1:34] This was actually built later, added on, and so set off the pyramid more.
Dr. Kilroy-Ewbank: [1:39] We think it functioned as a ritual platform. It also serves to restrict access to the central staircase that would have reached the peak or the summit of this pyramid.
Dr. Harris: [1:50] It’s so clear that this was built to recall the mountain that’s behind it.
Dr. Kilroy-Ewbank: [1:55] This is an attempt by the Teotihuacanos to make their city a part of this sacred landscape, because it is analogous to the mountain behind it, and these pyramids were actually built very early on in the history of Teotihuacan.
Dr. Harris: [2:07] Archaeology is going on here as we speak, and new things are being found quite regularly. We know, for instance, now, that there were actually several building campaigns for the Pyramid of the Moon, and we’ve discovered burials with offerings in them.
Dr. Kilroy-Ewbank: [2:24] At different building phases of the Pyramid of the Moon, archaeologists have been finding carefully placed caches or burials along important access points. For instance, one that was found contained a bound male, somewhere between 40 and 50 years of age, who seems to have been someone who’s not local to Teotihuacan. There were other types of objects in this burial, including obsidian blades, figurines with inlaid eyes and teeth that have this leering quality to them.
[2:55] Another one of these offerings that was found along the central axis during a different building campaign had 12 individuals, 10 of whom were decapitated and bound, and then skeletons of birds and canines and felines that were similarly bound. All of these burials had clear organizations, suggesting that they were important offerings being made during these different building phases.
Dr. Harris: [3:18] We have a joining together of sacrifice, of monumental building, of gods related to natural forces, city planning. These are things that we see in so many Mesoamerican cultures during these periods. There was another discovery in the [Pyramid] of the Sun that’s very interesting that tells us more about this.
Dr. Kilroy-Ewbank: [3:38] Found underneath the pyramid was actually a tunnel. It begins almost directly in the center base of the pyramid, where you would ascend the staircases. The tunnel winds its way to almost reach directly under the center of the pyramid in this quatrefoil lobe or four-lobed, cave-like structure.
Dr. Harris: [3:58] We know that caves do make regular appearances in Mesoamerican religion. They’re considered often places of origin, of beginnings. We can maybe read back some meaning into them.
Dr. Kilroy-Ewbank: [4:10] That’s exactly what happens, is we know a lot about how caves were viewed from other Mesoamerican cultures, and so we tend to use that information to help us understand what’s happening here at Teotihuacan, and so this idea of caves as places of emergence where the ancestors leave or places of fertility.
[4:27] Caves have this very clear connection to fertile agricultural means, places of water, places of origins. People found this natural cave structure, and then were also manipulating it to serve their needs; [it] indicates to us that it would have been important. We do know that they left offerings in this passageway.
[4:47] We think that it relates probably to some of these deities affiliated here with rain and agriculture. Similar to, say, how the Pyramid of the Moon echoes the mountain behind it. Mountains were thought to be places where you would find these caves. They’re considered fertile places. It’s where it was thought that rain comes from because rain clouds cluster around mountains.
Dr. Harris: [5:08] And water comes down from the mountains and springs and helps to water the crops grown by the city.
Dr. Kilroy-Ewbank: [5:13] It’s clear that the human labor that went into constructing Teotihuacan was incredibly vast and complex, because you not only had to have the masons, the people who are physically constructing and planning this city on this very well-designed grid plan, but also people who had to specialize in painting and the planning of all of this painting that would have adorned these structures.
[5:33] We have to imagine what it would have been like; these would have all been faced with stucco and brightly painted. There would have been mural paintings around it. Unfortunately, we don’t know much about the ruling body. It’s unclear whether it was a single ruler or maybe a ruling group, because we don’t have portraits, we don’t have writing that we understand yet.
Dr. Harris: [5:52] It’s amazing that this architecture is here. We can walk among it, we can climb the pyramids, and yet still know so little about the amazing people who built these and about their belief structure.
[6:04] [music]
| Title | Pyramid of the Moon | Pyramid of the Sun |
| Artist(s) | Unrecorded artist | Unrecorded artist |
| Dates | c. 1st century C.E. | c. 1st century C.E. |
| Places | North America / Mexico | North America / Mexico |
| Period, Culture, Style | Mesoamerican / Teotihuacan | Mesoamerican / Teotihuacan |
| Artwork Type | Architecture / Temple | Architecture / Temple |
| Material | Stone | Stone |
| Technique | Polychromy | Polychromy |
Read a glossary for Pre-Columbian art
Matthew Robb, editor, Teotihuacan: City of Water, City of Fire (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2017).
Annabeth Headrick, The Teotihuacan Trinity (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2013).
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