Painted Houses

About thirty miles to the north of Mexico City are the ruins of Teotihuacan, one of Mexico's greatest archaeological sites.  Fifteen hundred years ago, long before the Aztecs came upon the scene, this city with an estimated population of 125,000 people dominated Mesoamerica.  It pyramids rival those of ancient Egypt.

I have visited Teotihuacan numerous times, and in October when my friends Nancy and Fred come to visit, it will definitely be on the itinerary.  But last Saturday, Alejandro and I visited a part of Teotihuacan that most visitors do not see.  The archaeological zone which tourists visit is only a small portion... downtown Teotihuacan, you might say... of this once great city.  If the present-day villages surrounding the site were to be torn down and the entire area excavated, much more would certainly be discovered.  As it is, four residences, have been uncovered to the west of the main archaeological site.  Alejandro and I visited two of those so-called palaces.

The first that we visited is called the Palace of Tetitla.

   

An artist's depiction of how the Palace of Tetitla might have appeared when Teotihuacan was at its height.

The palace consists of many small rooms grouped around open courtyards.  It would have been occupied by several elite families connected by kinship.

All of the interior walls would have been brightly painted with murals.  Amazingly, fragments of these paintings remain to this day.

One of the rooms has pictures of birds.  Some archaeologists have identified them as owls,

but the consensus is that they are eagles, a creature sacred in most of the pre-Hispanic civilizations.

The red coming from the eagles' mouths could represent blood.

On either side of the eagle images are paintings of dogs.  Dogs were frequently sacrificed and buried with the dead, because it was thought that they would served as guides to the underworld.

Another painting shows a diver with a net gathering shellfish.

A feline figure wears a headdress and is seated on a throne.  Falling from his mouth are bleeding hearts.

In the main courtyard of the complex there is an altar where religious ceremonies would probably have been performed.

In one of the rooms facing the courtyard there are paintings of a goddess, sometimes referred to as the Jade Goddess, and thought to have been the principal deity of Teotihuacan. 

A short distance from the Palace of Tetitla is the Palace of Atetelco.  Some theorize that this palace was the residence of military officers or a military academy.  Like Tetitla, Atetelco consists of numerous rooms surrounding courtyards.  One of the courtyards contains a small structure that might have been an altar or shrine.

Another courtyard is surrounded by rooms partially covered with curtains to protect the remains of murals inside.

Many of these paintings are very fragmentary, and archaeologists have drawn in what they believe the entire mural looked like.

A feline animal, perhaps a jaguar, appears to be consuming a human heart.

A guide who was at Tetitla with a couple of tourists insisted that human sacrifice was not performed at Teotihuacan.  However, material I have seen at the Anthropology Museum and articles that I have read would contradict his claim.  Even these murals seem to place an emphasis on blood and hearts as a part of their religious rites.

The gates to two of the other nearby palaces were closed, but our visit to Tetitla and Atetelco gave us an idea of what the homes of the upper classes of Teotihuacan were like.