Michael W. Spence

Geographic Identities of the Sacrificial Victims from the Feathered Serpent Pyramid, Teotihuacan: Implications for the Nature of State Power

This study addresses the political and military structure of early Teotihuacan through the analysis of oxygen-isotope ratios in skeletal phosphate from 41 victims of a sacrifice associated with the Feathered Serpent Pyramid. Oxygen-isotope ratios are markers of geographic identity. A comparison of bone and enamel values, which provides a contrast between environments experienced during growth and those of adulthood, illustrates that at least four different regions are represented in this sample. Those identified as soldiers had either lived locally since childhood or had moved to Teotihuacan from several foreign locations. Most had lived in Teotihuacan for a prolonged period before their death. This pattern suggests foreign “recruitment” or mercenary behavior. The women had either lived all their lives in Teotihuacan or had moved from there to a foreign location. Most of the individuals in the center of the pyramid (burial 14) did not come from Teotihuacan, nor had they lived in the city long before their deaths. We suggest that the choice of victims was meant to demonstrate Teotihuacans powerful ideology to the rest of the Mesoamerican world. Notably, this isotopic evidence of physical interaction between Teotihuacan and foreign regions considerably predates the currently existing archaeological evidence.

The isotopic composition and diagenesis of human bone from Teotihuacan and Oaxaca, Mexico

We analyzed archaeological human bone from Teotihuacan and Oaxaca, dating from about 300 BC to 750 AD to distinguish ethnic groups within Teotihuacan using oxygen isotopes. Sixty-eight analyses of bone phosphate 6180 were made of 64 individuals. In addition to oxygen isotopic analysis, the bones were examined using FTIR spectra, with some additional DNAA and ICP-MS analyses. Little change occurs in the bone apatite until the amount of collagen (as combustible organics) has been reduced considerably, when the bone becomes softer and FTIR crystallinity increases. The 6180 of the phosphate (~p) appears to be unaltered even after extensive diagenesis and, probably, solution. On FTIR plots the relative area of the carbonate peak to the main phosphate peak decreases with diagenetic level. The bones absorb some metals rapidly after burial, for example uranium, which then leach out as diagenesis of the bone apatite progresses. Other metallic elements increase irregularly in concentration as alteration proceeds.

Immigration, Assimilation, and Status in the Ancient City of Teotihuacan: Stable Isotopic Evidence from Tlajinga 33

Stable carbon isotope ratios in bone collagen and oxygen isotope ratios in bone and enamel phosphate from 25 individuals from the residential compound of Tlajinga 33 were used to examine the possibility that the inhabitants, who were craft producers, may have accepted immigrants to maintain either their ability to reproduce themselves as a social group or their level of economic productivity. Bone 8680 and 13C values provide a long-term picture of geographic identity and diet, and enamel 6180 values provide a snapshot of geographic location during particular tooth development. A considerable proportion (29 percent) of the Tlajinga 33 inhabitants grew up elsewhere, but the majority of these immigrants had dwelt in Teotihuacan for many years before their death. Neither geographical relocation nor dietary differences are significantly associated with gender. The social position offoreigners appears to have been generally high. For example, the occupants of Tomb 50 appear to have come from elsewhere, possibly West Mexico, but foreigners were also found in lower status contexts such as middens. The stable isotope ratios reflecting long-term dwelling at Teotihuacan suggest that social status was achieved, which supports current archaeological evidence. Furthermore, the lack of dietary differences between immigrants and native Teotihuacanos may also imply political and/or ethnic assimilation.

Commodity or Gift: Teotihuacan Obsidian in the Maya Region

Archaeologists have long noted the presence of green obsidian artifacts in a number of Maya sites and have recognized that they were manufactured from the obsidian of the Pachuca source in central Mexico. Viewed as evidence of Teotihuacan influence, these finds were initially explained in economic terms as commodities in an exchange of goods that had a substantial impact on the economies of the Maya and on the development of the obsidian industry in Teotihuacan. However, when the contexts of the finds are examined it becomes clear that the significance of the artifacts was more symbolic than economic. The forms include prismatic blades, bifacially worked points and knives, needles, sequins, and some eccentrics. These are often recovered from ritual contexts, in association with other evidence of Teotihuacan influence. They apparently served to express a variety of relationships with Teotihuacan, ranging from actual Teotihuacanos proclaiming their identity to the attempts of Maya elite to forge some social affiliation with the city. Although most of the finds of green obsidian consist of only one or a few pieces, some contexts, such as the tombs of mounds A and B at Kaminaljuyu, produced more substantial amounts. Nevertheless, despite these occasional impressive finds, green obsidian does not seem to have been a major import, and it is clear that the Teotihuacan obsidian industry had largely attained its Classic-period structure before the Maya demand developed. Although the flow of central Mexican obsidian to the Maya region was not negligible, it could not in itself have had a major effect on either economic system.

VICTIMS OF THE VICTIMS: Human trophies worn by sacrificed soldiers from the Feathered Serpent Pyramid, Teotihuacan

The large series of sacrificial victims excavated from the Feathered Serpent Pyramid (ca. a.d. 200) includes 72 males identified as soldiers. Although most of these wore pendants of imitation human maxillae, four soldiers each had between seven and eleven real human maxillae. Dental dimensions indicate that most, and perhaps all, of these trophies were from males. Dental attrition levels suggest a broader and flatter age profile for the pendants than for the soldiers, with a significantly higher mean age. The oxygen-isotope ratios in the dental phosphate of the pendant teeth, which indicate the geographic origins of those individuals, point to their derivation from three different regions, one of them probably in or near the Basin of Mexico itself. Apparently the soldiers had fought in more than one campaign, and the early interactions of Teotihuacan with more distant societies had sometimes involved an element of violence.

Watering the Fields of Teotihuacan: Early Irrigation at the Ancient City

Recent excavations in Tlailotlacan, the “Oaxaca barrio,” near the western periphery of the ancient city of Teotihuacan, revealed remains of irrigation features associated with the early history of the city. Small floodwater irrigation canals were found underneath a residential structure that had been occupied by Zapotec immigrants from Oaxaca. Radiocarbon dating, corroborated by ceramic evidence, places the earliest architecture in the Early Tlamimilolpa phase (ca. a.d. 200–300), thus providing a concrete terminal date for the hydraulic system, an advantage not enjoyed by previous canal explorations in the region. The hydraulic features consist of segments of two superimposed canal networks that, based on associated pottery, date to the Terminal Formative period (Tzacualli and Miccoatli phases), which represents the earliest well-documented date for the use of irrigation at Teotihuacan. Shortly after the canals were abandoned, control over this land passed from the original inhabitants to Zapotec immigrants. We suggest that this change in ownership and land use directly involved the Teotihuacan state and was part of a policy of maintaining control over the location of economically important “resources,” including foreign immigrants like the Zapotec, who had important trade connections.

Craniocervical injuries in judicial hangings: an anthropologic analysis of six cases.

Restoration projects and archaeologic excavations in two Canadian prisons resulted in the recovery of the skeletons of six felons executed by judicial hanging. Damage inflicted by hanging on various skeletal elements was observed. Among the injuries seen were fractures of the hyoid cornua, styloid processes, occipital bones, and cervical vertebral bodies (C2) and transverse processes (C1, C2, C3, and C5). Despite the general uniformity of the hanging technique, which involved a subaural knot, the trauma to the skeletal elements and the cause of death varied among individuals. Although some of this variation was probably due to minor differences in hanging practices, individual anatomic peculiarities of the victims likely also contributed.

THE HUMAN SKELETAL REMAINS OF THE MOON PYRAMID, TEOTIHUACAN

Abstract Beginning with Building 4, each new version of the Moon Pyramid in Teotihuacan was initiated with a major sacrificial event. These events invariably included human victims, males ranging in age from about 14 to 60 or more years (Minimum Number of Individuals (MNI) = 37). Many display cranial modification and dental decoration. In the earliest offering, Burial 2, the lone human was merely one element in a complex tableau. In subsequent sacrifices, the human victims increased in number and became a major focus of the event. There was also a growing dichotomy among them, with numbers of decapitated victims being included in the sacrifices. Skeletal elements from the pyramid fill suggest still other rituals involving human crania (MNI = 11), but the context of these is not yet clear. RESUMEN Desde la cuarta etapa constructiva de la Pirámide de la Luna, cada ampliación de este monumento mayor de Teotihuacan dio lugar a la realización de ofrendas mayores. En estos depósitos, contamos con los restos de varios individuos de sexo masculino cuya edad variaba entre 14 y 60 años. Las características bio-culturales de estos personajes sugieren que muchos de ellos eran extranjeros a la ciudad. Fueron, en su mayoría, víctimas sacrificiales. En dos casos (Entierros 4 y 6), las víctimas fueron claramente decapitadas. En otros (Entierros 2, 3, y 6), no se pudo determinar con certeza la forma que tomó el sacrificio. Sin embargo, el carácter simultáneo del depósito y el hecho que sus integrantes tuvieron las manos juntadas en la espalda apunta hacia un ámbito sacrificial. En cuanto al Entierro 5, si los datos contextuales no son incompatibles con un tratamiento de este tipo, el carácter atípico del depósito no permite descartar otras explicaciones. Otros aspectos indican ciertas diferencias. En el depósito más temprano, el Entierro 2, el único humano formaba parte de un dispositivo complejo en que los animales ocupaban un lugar importante. En los entierros subsecuentes, los humanos parecen ocupar un papel más importante. Notamos igualmente que varios depósitos revelan una diferenciación más o menos marcada entre los integrantes. Finalmente, el análisis de los materiales incluidos en los rellenos de la pirámide muestra la existencia de otros rituales relacionados con cráneos humanos cuyo contexto es poco claro.

The study of residential practices among prehistoric hunters and gatherers

Abstract The post‐nuptial residential practices of hunting and gathering peoples have recently been the subject of some controversy. While some have maintained that prehistoric hunters and gatherers were probably virilocal for the most part, other investigators believe that a more flexible approach to residence would have been adaptively favourable. Because of the contact period disruption of these societies, the answers to such questions will depend largely on the work of prehistorians. A variety of techniques developed by archaeologists and physical anthropologists for the study of residential patterns in prehistoric hunting and gathering societies are briefly reviewed, and an approach focusing on craniometric variability is described and illustrated.

MESOAMERICAN BIOARCHAEOLOGY: PAST AND FUTURE

Abstract Despite a long history of contributions by physical anthropologists to our understanding of the Mesoamerican past, it has only been over the past few decades that a closer relationship has developed between bioarchaeology and archaeology in the region. The next step should be the integration of bioarchaeologists in the planning as well as the execution of projects. In this review of the present status of bioarchaeology in Mesoamerica we examine its contributions to several broad topics, emphasizing its growing theoretical component and the development of new methods like isotopic analysis, and suggest some lines of inquiry for future investigations.