Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x5gtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-17T00:46:14.864Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An Interpretation of the Cave underneath the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Doris Heyden
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The cave recently discovered underneath the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, Mexico, is analyzed both according to historical written sources and reports of cults to cave deities, prominent in Mexico for millennia. Different cave rites are discussed in an effort to determine the function of the grotto. The Teotihuacan cave is compared with the mythical Chicomoztoc, Seven Caves, place of creation in ancient Mexican mythology. The author suggests that the cavern may have determined the site for the building of the Pyramid of the Sun and that later Aztec accounts of rulers being buried underneath the pyramid may have been based upon fact.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 40 , Issue 2Part1 , April 1975 , pp. 131 - 147
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1975

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alva Ixtlilxochitl, Fernando de 1952 Obras historicas, edited by Alfredo, Chavero. 2 vols. Editora Nacional, Mexico.Google Scholar
Armillas, Pedro 1964 Condiciones ambientales y movimientos de pueblos en la frontera Septentrional de Mesoamerica. In Homenaje a Fernando Mdfquez Miranda, Publicaciones del Seminario de Estudios Americanistas y el Seminario de Antropologfa Americana, Madrid.Google Scholar
Batres, Leopoldo 1906 Teotihuacan, ciudad sagrada de los dioses. Mexico.Google Scholar
Burgoa, Fray Francisco de 1934 Geografia description de la parte septentrional del polo artico de America. 2 vols. Archivo General de la Nation, Mexico.Google Scholar
Cobean, Robert H., Michael, D. Coe, Edward, A. Perry Jr., Karl K., Turekian, and Dinkar P., Kharkar 1971 Obsidian Trade at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan, Mexico. Science 174:666-671.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Codex, Boturini or Tira de, la Peregrination 1967 Antigiiedades de Mexico, basados en la recopilacion de Lord Kingsborough. Vol. IV, edited by Jose, Corona Nunez. Secretan’a de Hacienda y Credito Publico, Mexico.Google Scholar
Codex, Laud 1967 Antigiiedades de Mexico, basadas en la recopilacion de Lord Kingsborough. Vol. III, edited by JoseCorona, Nunez. Secretan’a de Hacienda y Credito Publico, Mexico.Google Scholar
Codex Selden, I 1967 Antigiiedades de Mexico, basadas en la recopilacion de Lord Kingsborough. Vol. II, edited by Jose, Corona Nunez. Secretan’a de Hacienda y Credito Publico, Mexico.Google Scholar
Codex Tlotzin, y Quinatzin 1885 Memoires sur la peinture didactique et I’ecriture figurative des anciens mexicains. Joseph Marius Alexis Aubin. Imprimerie Nationale, Paris.Google Scholar
Costumbres, Enterramientos y Diversas Formas de Proceder de los Indios de Nueva Espana 1945 Edited by Federico, Gomez de Orozco. Tlalocan II: 1. Mexico.Google Scholar
Dahlgren, Barbro 1954 La Mixteca, su cultura e historia prehispdnicas. Imprenta Universitaria, Mexico.Google Scholar
Dibble, Charles E. 1951 Cddice Xolotl. Instituto de Historia, Primera Serie, Pub. No. 22, UNAM, Mexico.Google Scholar
Duran, FrayDiego 1963 Atlas de la historia de las Indias de Nueva Espana y Islas de Tierra Firme. Libren’a Anticuaria, Mexico.Google Scholar
Duran, FrayDiego 1967 Historia de las Indias de Nueva Espana e Islas de la Tierra Firme, edited by Angel Maria, Garibay K. 2 vols. Porrua, Mexico.Google Scholar
Duran, FrayDiego 1971 Book of the gods and rites and the ancient calendar. Trans, and notes by Horcasitas, F. and Heyden, D.. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Florentine Codex. See Sahagun Google Scholar
Gamio, Manuel 1922 La poblacidn del Valle de Teotihuacan. 3 vols. Secretan’a de Fomento, Mexico.Google Scholar
Garibay, K., Angel, Ma. 1953-54 Historia de la literatura Nahuatl. 2 vols. Porrua, Mexico.Google Scholar
Grove, David C. 1970 Los murales de la cueva de Oxtotitlan, Acatlan, Guerrero. INAH, Mexico.Google Scholar
Guzman, Eulalia 1938 Tratado del principado y nobleza del pueblo de San Juan Teotihuacan como se contiene en los antiguos papeles de nobleza, que por mandato de su magestad confirmo la real audiencia siendo Virrey de esta Nueva Espana el Sefior Marques del Valle. Ethnos. 4-5. Stockholm.Google Scholar
Hermitte, M. Esther 1970 Poder sobrenatural y control social en un pueblo Maya contemporaneo. Instituto Indigenista Interamericano, Ediciones Especiales 57. Mexico.Google Scholar
Herrera, Antoniode 1945 Historia general de los hechos de los Castellanos, en las islas, y tierra-firme de el mar oceano. Vol. I. Editorial Guaram’a, Asuncion de Paraguay.Google Scholar
Historia, Tolteca-Chichimeca. Anales de Quauhtinchan 1947 Fuentes para la Historia de Mexico 1. Annotated by Heinrich Berlin and Silvia Rendon. Prologue by Paul Kirchhoff. Antigua Libren’a Robredo, Jose Porrua e Hijos, Mexico.Google Scholar
Kelly, Isabel 1966 World view of a Highland-Totonac pueblo. In Summa Anthropologica en homenaje a Roberto J. Weitlaner, pp. 395-411. INAH, Mexico.Google Scholar
Kluckhohn, Clyde 1958 Myths and rituals: a general theory. In Reader in comparative religion. An anthropological approach, edited by William, A. Lessa and Evon Z. Vogt. Row, Peterson, Evanston, IL.Google Scholar
Leyenda de, los Soles 1945 Cddice Chimalpopoca: anales de Cuauhtitlan y leyenda de los Soles. Trans, from Nahuatl by Primo Feliciano Velasquez. Imprenta Universitaria, Mexico.Google Scholar
Linne, Sigvald 1942 Mexican highland cultures. The Ethnographical Museum of Sweden, Stockholm.Google Scholar
Litvak, Jaime 1972 La problematica de la arqueologia en el estado de Morelos. Lecture at the Sociedad Mexicana de Antropologi’a, Mexico, Nov. 11.Google Scholar
Mendieta, FrayGeronimo de n.d. Historia Eclesiatica Indiana, 4 vols. ed. Chavez Hayhoe, Mexico.Google Scholar
Madsen, William 1957 Christo-paganism. A study of Mexican religious syncretism. Middle American Research Institute, Publication 19. Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Martell, Apolinar 1922 Los tecihueros.. Er/wosII(8-12):246-248. Stockholm.Google Scholar
Millon, Rene 1960 The beginnings of Teotihuacan. American Antiquity 26:1-10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Millon, Rene 1967 Teotihuacan. Scientific American 211:37-42.Google Scholar
Millon, Rene 1970 Teotihuacan. Completion of Map of Giant Ancient City in the Valley of Mexico. Science 170:1077-1082CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Millon, Rene 1965 The Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan: 1959 Investigations. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, (n.s.) 55 (pt. 6).Google Scholar
Motolom’a, Fray Toribio de Benavente 1941 Historia de loslndios de la Nueva Espafia, edited by Chavez, Hayhoe. Mexico.Google Scholar
Muiioz Camargo, Diego 1966 Historia de Tlaxcala. Annotated by A. Chavero 1872. Facsimile edition E. Avina Levy. Guadalajara. Official Reports on the Towns of Tequisistlan, Tepechpan, Acolman, and San Juan Teotihuacan, sent by Francisco de CastaHeda to His Majesty, PhUip II, and the Council of the Indies, in 1580. Google Scholar
Muiioz Camargo, Diego 1926 Trans, by Zelia Nuttall. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, XI(2).Google Scholar
Pane, FrayRamon 1963 La Relation de la antigiiedad de los Indios de la Espafiola. In Cronistas de las culturas Precolombinas, by Luis Nicolau D’Olwer, pp. 47-56. Fondo de Cultura Economica, Mexico-Buenos Aires.Google Scholar
Papeles de Nueva Espafia 1905 Edited by Francisco del, Paso y Troncoso. Vol. VI. Madrid.Google Scholar
Parmenter, Ross 1961 20th century adventures of a 16th century sheet: the literature on the Mixtec Lienzo in the Royal Ontario Museum. In Boletin de Estudios Oaxaquefios 20. Mitla, Oaxaca.Google Scholar
Paso y, Troncoso, Francisco del. See Papeles de Nueva Espafia. Google Scholar
Pasztory, Esther 1972 The iconography of the Teotihuacan Tlaloc. Paper presented at the College Art Association of America, Annual Meeting, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Pasztory, Esther 1972a The gods of Teotihuacan: a synthetic approach in Teotihuacan iconography. Attidel XL Congresso Internazionale Degli Americanisti, Vol. I, pp. 147-159. Rome-Genova.Google Scholar
Pina Chan, Roman 1972 Historia, arqueologia y arte prehispdnico. Fondo de Cultura Economica, Mexico.Google Scholar
Sahagun, FrayBernardino de 1938 Historia general de las cosas de Nueva Espafia. Notes by Seler, E., Introduction by Jimenez Moreno, W.. 5 vols. Ed. Robredo, Mexico.Google Scholar
Sahagun, Fray Bernardino de 1950-69 Florentine Codex, general history of the things of New Spain. Trans, from the Nahuatl by Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble. 11 vols. School of American Research and University of Utah, Santa Fe, NM.Google Scholar
Sahagun, FrayBernardino de 1969 Historia general de las cosas de Nueva Espafia. Annotated by Angel Maria Garibay K. 4 vols. Ed. Porrua, Mexico.Google Scholar
Sanders, William T. 1965 The cultural ecology of the Teotihuacan valley. A preliminary report of the results of the Teotihuacan Valley Project. Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Pennsylvania State University.Google Scholar
Schondube, Otto 1971 Teotihuacan, ciudad de los dioses. In Imogen de Mexico 3. Mexico.Google Scholar
Seler, Eduard 1963 Comentarios al Cddice Borgia. Trans, by Mariana, Frenk. 3 vols. Fondo de Cultura Economica, Mexico.Google Scholar
Sepulveda, Maria Teresa 1973 Petition de lluvias en Ostotempa. In Boletin INAH, Epoca II(4):9-20. INAH, Mexico.Google Scholar
Simeon, Remi 1965 Dicionnaire de la langue Nahuatl ou Mexicaine. Akademische Druck-U. Verlaganstalt, Graz, Austria Google Scholar
Spence, Michael D. 1966 Los talleres de obsidiana de Teotihuacan. In Teotihuacan, onceava mesa redonda. Sociedad Mexicana de Antropologi’a, Mexico.Google Scholar
Sullivan, Thelma D. 1972 Tlaloc: a new etymological interpretation of the god’s name and what it reveals of his essence and nature. Paper presented at the XL International Congress of Americanists, Rome.Google Scholar
Tobriner, Stephen 1972 The fertile mountain; an investigation of Cerro Gordo’s importance to the town plan and iconography of Teotihuacan. In Teotihuacan, onceava mesa redonda. Sociedad Mexicana de Antropologi’a, Mexico.Google Scholar
Vogt, Evon Z. 1969 Zinacantan. A Maya community in the highlands of Chiapas. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar