56 UNIT 1 PREHISPANIC MESOAMERICA
Figure 1.8 Temple-pyramid with stucco god masks at the Late Formative Period Mayan town
of Cerros, Belize. Courtesy of David A. Freidel.developments. Such features signal the growing link between political power and re-
ligion as Mesoamerican rulers took control over ritual and belief systems. The cul-
mination of this trend came with the powerful states of the succeeding Classic
period.THE CLASSIC CIVILIZATIONS.
Beginning around A.D. 200, an era traditionally called the Classic period began (see
Figure 1.2). This was a time of Mesoamerican cultural florescence (Figure 1.9). It should
be pointed out that the use of the term “Classic” is not an altogether satisfactory term,
given what we now know about cultural complexity of state societies in both the For-
mative and Postclassic periods. Despite some attempts to introduce more neutral ter-
minology that might better reflect the historical stages in Mesoamerican prehistory,
the current period names—Formative (or Preclassic), Classic, and Postclassic—are so
embedded in the literature that archaeologists continue to use them extensively. These
terms now refer to time periods rather than to developmental stages.Teotihuacan.
The destruction of Teotihuacan’s main rival, Cuicuilco, in the first century A.D. led
to a period of explosive urban growth at Teotihuacan. The huge Pyramid of the Sun
and Pyramid of the Moon were constructed, and the city’s rulers laid out an entire
city of 20 square kilometers following a regular grid pattern around the north-south
axis of the “Street of the Dead.” By A.D. 500, the city had grown to over 150,000 peo-
ple and was the largest city in the world outside of China.