WEST MEXICOFar to the west of the tropical heartland of the
Olmec are the Preclassic sites along Mexico’s Pacific coast. Scholars
long thought the ancient peoples of the modern West Mexican states
of Nayarit, Jalisco, and Colima existed at Mesoamerica’s geographic
and cultural fringes. Recent archaeological discoveries, however,
have revealed that although the West Mexicans did not produce
large-scale stone sculpture, they did build permanent structures.
These included tiered platforms and ball courts (see “The Meso-
american Ball Game,” page 372), architectural features found in
nearly all Mesoamerican cultures. Yet West Mexico is best known for
its rich tradition of clay sculpture. The sculptures come from tombs
consisting of shafts as deep as 50 feet with chambers at their base.
Because scientific excavations began only 20–30 years ago, much of
what is known about West Mexican tomb contents derives primarily
from the artifacts grave robbers found and sold. Researchers believe,
however, that the West Mexicans built most of these tombs and filled
them with elaborate offerings during the late Preclassic period, the
half millennium before 300 CE.
The large ceramic figures found in the Colima tombs are consis-
tently a highly burnished red-orange, instead of the distinctive poly-
chrome surfaces of the majority of other West Mexican ceramics. The
area also is noted for small-scale clay narrative scenes that include
modeled houses and temples and numerous solid figurines shown ina variety of lively activities. These sculptures, which may provide
informal glimpses of daily life, are not found in any other ancient
Mesoamerican culture. Although archaeologists often describe the
subjects of the sculptures as anecdotal and secular rather than reli-
gious, the Mesoamerican belief system did not recognize such a divi-
sion. Consequently, scholars are unsure whether the figure illustrated
here (FIG. 14-4) is a religious practitioner with a horn on his fore-
head (a common indigenous symbol of special powers) or a political
leader wearing a shell ornament (often a Mesoamerican emblem of
rulership)—or a person serving both roles.Teotihuacan
At Olmec sites, the characteristic later Mesoamerican temple-pyramid-
plaza layout appeared in embryonic form. At Teotihuacan (FIG. 14-5),
northeast of modern Mexico City, the Preclassic scheme underwent
a monumental expansion into a genuine city. Teotihuacan was a
large, densely populated metropolis that fulfilled a central civic, eco-
nomic, and religious role for the region and indeed for much of
Mesoamerica. Built up between about 100 BCEand 600 CE, when fire
ravaged the city, the site’s major monuments were constructed
between 50 and 250 CE, during the late Preclassic period. Teotihua-
can covers nine square miles, laid out in a grid pattern with the axes
oriented by sophisticated surveying. Astronomical phenomena ap-
parently dictated not only the city’s orientation but also the place-
ment of some of its key pyramids.
At its peak, around 600 CE, Teotihuacan may have had as many
as 125,000–200,000 residents, which would have made it the sixth-
largest city in the world at that time. Divided into numerous ward-
like sectors, this metropolis must have had a uniquely cosmopolitan
character, with Zapotec peoples located in the city’s western wards,
and merchants from Veracruz living in the eastern wards, importing
their own pottery and building their houses and tombs in the style
of their homelands. The city’s urbanization did nothing to detract
from its sacred nature. In fact, it vastly augmented Teotihuacan’s
importance as a religious center. The Aztecs, who visited Teotihua-
can regularly and reverently long after it had been abandoned, gave
it its current name, which means “the place of the gods.” Because the
city’s inhabitants left only a handful of undeciphered hieroglyphs,
and linguists do not know what language they spoke, the names of
many major features of the site are unknown. The Avenue of the
Dead and the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon are later Aztec desig-
nations that do not necessarily reflect the original names of these
entities.
North-south and east-west axes, each four miles in length, di-
vide the grid plan into quarters. The rational scheme recalls Hel-
lenistic and Roman urban planning (FIGS. 5-76and 10-42) and is an
unusual feature in Mesoamerica before the Aztecs. The main north-
south axis, the Avenue of the Dead (FIG. 14-5), is 130 feet wide and
connects the Pyramid of the Moon complex with the Citadel and its
Temple of Quetzalcoatl. This two-mile stretch is not a continuously
flat street but is broken by sets of stairs, giving pedestrians a con-
stantly changing view of the surrounding buildings and landscape.
PYRAMIDS The Pyramid of the Sun (FIG. 14-5,top left), facing
west on the east side of the Avenue of the Dead, dates to the first
century CEduring the late Preclassic period. It is the city’s center-
piece and its largest structure, rising to a height of more than 200
feet in its restored state, which may not accurately reflect the pyra-
mid’s original appearance. The Pyramid of the Moon (FIG. 14-5,368 Chapter 14 NATIVE ARTS OF THE AMERICAS BEFORE 130014-4Drinker (seated figure with raised arms), from Colima, Mexico,
ca. 200 BCE–500 CE. Clay with orange and red slip, 1 1 high. Los Angeles
County Museum of Art (Proctor Stafford Collection, purchased with
funds provided by Mr. and Mrs. Allan C. Balch).
Preclassic West Mexico is famous for its ceramic sculptures. This one may
depict a religious practitioner with a horn on his forehead or a political
leader wearing a shell ornament—or someone serving both roles.1 in.