EL TAJÍNThe major Classic Veracruz site is El Tajín, which was
discovered in the dense rain forest of the Gulf of Mexico coast in
- At its peak, El Tajín was a thriving city of hundreds of acres
and tens of thousands of inhabitants. Its excavated portion has al-
ready revealed 17 ball courts. The building that dominates the cere-
monial center of El Tajín is the so-called Pyramid of the Niches (FIG.
14-13), a sixth-century CEstructure of unusual form. In spite of its
small size (only 66 feet tall), the Pyramid of the Niches encases an
earlier smaller pyramid. The later structure has a steep staircase on
its east side and six stories, each one incorporating a row of niches
on each of the four sides, 365 in all. The number of niches, which
corresponds to the number of days in a solar year, is unlikely to be
coincidental. The Pyramid of the Niches is one of many examples of
the close connection between the form of Mesoamerican monu-
ments and astronomical observations and the measurement of time.
Postclassic Mexico
Throughout Mesoamerica, the Classic period ended at different
times with the disintegration of the great civilizations. Teotihuacan’s
political and cultural empire, for example, was disrupted around
600, and its influence waned. About 600, fire destroyed the center of
the great city, but the cause is still unknown. Within a century, how-
ever, Teotihuacan was deserted. Around 900, many of the great Maya
sites were abandoned to the jungle, leaving a few northern Maya
cities to flourish for another century or two before they, too, became
depopulated. The Classic culture of the Zapotecs, centered at Monte
Albán in the state of Oaxaca, came to an end around 700, and the
neighboring Mixtec peoples assumed supremacy in this area during
the Postclassic period. Classic El Tajín survived the general crisis that
afflicted the others but burned sometime in the 12th century. The
war and confusion that followed the collapse of the Classic civiliza-
tions fractured the great states into small, local political entities iso-
lated in fortified sites. The collapse encouraged even more warlike
regimes and chronic aggression. The militant city-state of Chichén
Itzá dominated Yucatán, while in central Mexico the Toltec and the
later Aztec peoples, both ambitious migrants from the north, forged
empires by force of arms.
CHICHÉN ITZÁYucatán, a flat, low, limestone peninsula cov-
ered with scrub vegetation, lies north of the rolling and densely
forested region of the Guatemalan Petén. During the Classic period,
Mayan-speaking peoples sparsely inhabited this northern region. For
reasons scholars still debate, when the southern Classic Maya sites
were abandoned after 900, the northern Maya continued to build
many new temples in this area. They also experimented with building
construction and materials to a much greater extent than their
cousins farther south. Piers and columns appeared in doorways, and
stone mosaics enlivened outer facades. The northern groups also in-
vented a new type of construction, a solid core of coarse rubble faced
on both sides with a veneer of square limestone plates.
Dominating the main plaza of Chichén Itzá today is the 98-
foot-high pyramid (FIG. 14-14) that the Spaniards nicknamed the
Castillo (Castle). As at Tikal (FIG. 14-10), this pyramid has nine lev-
els. Atop the structure is a temple dedicated to Kukulkan, the Maya
equivalent of Quetzalcoatl, and, as at El Tajín (FIG. 14-13), the design
of the Castillo is tied to the solar year. The north side has 92 steps
and the other three sides 91 steps each for a total of 365. At the win-
ter and summer equinoxes, the sun casts a shadow along the north-
376 Chapter 14 NATIVE ARTS OF THE AMERICAS BEFORE 1300
14-13Pyramid of the Niches, Classic Veracruz, El Tajín, Mexico, sixth century CE.
The Pyramid of the Niches, although only 66 feet tall, has 365 niches on its four sides, one for each day of the solar year. It is one of many
Mesoamerican monuments connected with astronomy and the calendar.
