Earlier Structures within the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacán

Abstract

Abstract A major problem in Mesoamerican prehistory is whether the gigantic Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacán in the Valley of Mexico was constructed in a single building operation as has long been assumed by many Mesoamerican specialists. Because the Pyramid appears to be the earliest monumental structure at Teotihuacán and because it is so immense, some archaeologists have suggested that a foreign elite was responsible for its construction. With this and other problems in mind the tunnels in the interior of the Pyramid were re-examined in 1959 for evidence of earlier structures. A modest stone-faced structure was found within it, but it is so small as not to alter significantly the conclusions of earlier investigators concerning the building of the Pyramid in one operation. However, an obsidian figurine offering found in the northwest corner of the small structure, together with other evidence, suggests that the Teotihuacán “great tradition” was coming into being early in the Tzacualli (Teotihuacán I) phase under the leadership of an incipient elite which seems to have been developing indigenously at Teotihuacán. While the problem of the enormous size of the Pyramid remains, evidence suggests that its solution lies at Teotihuacán rather than elsewhere.

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