A History of Latin America

ENVIRONMENT AND CULTURE IN ANCIENT AMERICA 15

imposing temples and other buildings. The stone
sculpture used to decorate the temples and the
marvelous grace and fi nish of the cement work
and the fresco painting are testaments to the high
development of the arts among the Teotihuacáns.
The ancient water god, later known to the Aztecs
as Tlaloc, seems to have been Teotihuacán’s chief
deity, but the feathered serpent with jaguar fangs,
later known as Quetzalcóatl, is also identifi ed with
water and fertility and appears prominently in the
greatest temple. War and human sacrifi ce did not
appear until a relatively late phase. Priests in be-
nign poses and wearing the symbols of their gods
dominate the mural paintings.
This great ceremonial center at Teotihuacán
was sacred ground and most likely inhabited by
only the priestly nobility and their servants. Far-
ther out were the residential quarters where offi -

cials, artisans, and merchants lived. Teotihuacán

is estimated to have had a population of at least

125,000. On the outskirts of the city, which cov-

ered an area of seven square miles, lived a large ru-

ral population that supplied the metropolis with its

food. It is likely that an intensive agriculture using

canal irrigation and terracing on hillslopes formed

the economic foundation of the Teotihuacán civili-

zation. Despite the predominantly peaceful aspect

of its religion and art, Teotihuacán seems to have

been not only a major trading center but also a

military state that directly controlled regions as re-

mote as highland Guatemala.

Other centers of Classic culture in Mesoamer-

ica were contemporary with, but overshadowed

by, Teotihuacán. To the southwest, at Monte Al-

bán in the rugged mountains of Oaxaca, the Za-

potecs erected a great ceremonial center that was

In the ceremonial center of the great city-state of Teotihuacán, the Avenue of the Dead
linked the “Citadel”—the royal palace compound—to the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon.
With a population estimated between 125,000 and 200,000, it was the world’s sixth-
largest city in 600 CE. [Corbis/Richard A. Cooke]