Located a few miles north of modern Mexico City, it awes visitors in its size and magnificence even after being in ruins for some 1300 years. Organized along the three-mile-long Avenue of the Dead that ends at the massive Pyramid of the Moon, dozens of smaller temples line the route, as does the massive Pyramid of the Sun. Heavily studied by modern archaeologists as well as by successor groups like the Aztecs, the precise nature of its political and religious organization remains unclear. A number of key elements of Mesoamerican cultures are missing, like royal tombs, ball courts, and hieroglyphs.
In this groundbreaking volume, art historian Annabeth Headrick of the University of Denver analyzes Teotihucån’s art and architecture and proposes a new model for the city’s political organization. She presents powerful, if circumstantial, evidence that the great city was ruled by great kings. They were faced with competing spheres of influence—kin-based groups with powerful leaders and military orders named after animals that provided their insignia. In advancing this “trinity” model, Headrick is departing from traditional Teotihucån studies. Until now, the city’s disparate groups were thought to have been peacefully organized. Headrick emphasizes the importance of warfare in society and in maintaining internal order. The military orders were closely allied with the kings, and together they kept the kin groups in check, while wars of conquest brought in tribute and sacrificial victims. But in the end, each needed the other to keep the city stable.
This study is the first scholarly work to put the great city in the context of its powerful neighbors to the south, including the Maya and the Mixtecs. Clearly trade and contact among these groups was critical to the development of all. Well written for laypeople and illustrated with 131 black and white images, The Teotihuacån Trinity is an outstanding contribution to Mesoamerican scholarship.
