Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wzw2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-14T13:45:53.841Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Transition from Preclassic to Classic at Teotihuacán

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Michael West
Michael West*
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles, California
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Four years of intensive archaeological survey, supplemented by excavations in the Teotihuacán Valley, Mexico, have greatly clarified our picture of the transition from Preclassic to Classic. The definition of two new phases of culture history, Tezoyuca and Patlachique, that belong to the Terminal Preclassic (post Late Ticoman) strongly suggests a local development of the great Classic city of Teotihuacán. This runs counter to the hypothesis that a great migration, possibly from the Gulf Coast region, was responsible for the fully developed Classic Teotihuacán culture. Present evidence indicates that the Patlachique phase is intrusive and appears in the Teotihuacán Valley possibly as the result of migrations from the southern Valley of Mexico, perhaps precipitated by the eruption of the volcano Xitli. When peoples carrying this culture entered the Teotihuacán Valley, they encountered the Tezoyuca culture and gradually absorbed it. The fusion of these two groups eventually produced Tzacualli, which is the first recognizable phase of the Teotihuacán culture.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 31 , Issue 2Part1 , October 1965 , pp. 193 - 202
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1965

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

References Cited

Armillas, Pedro 1950 Teotihuacan, Tula, y los Toltecas: Las Culturas post-arcaicas y pre-aztecas del centro de México, Excavaciones y estudios, 1922–1950. Runa, Vol. 3, Pts. 1–2, pp. 37–70. Buenos Aires.Google Scholar
Barba De Piña Chan, Beatriz 1956 Tlapacoya: Un Sitio Preclásico de Transicion. Acta Antropologica, Epoca 2, Vol. 1, No. 1. Mexico.Google Scholar
Brainerd, George 1954 Maya Civilization. Southwest Museum. Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Dixon, Keith 1963 Progress Report on Archaeological Excavations at Temesco, Edo de Mexico, Summer 1963. Manuscript, Long Beach State College, Long Beach.Google Scholar
Fletcher, Charles 1962 Cuanalan: An Archaeological Excavation and Study of a Ticoman Period Site in the Valley of of Teotihuacan, Estado de Mexico, Mexico. Unpublished Master’s thesis, Pennsylvania State University, University Park.Google Scholar
Kidder, A. V., Jennings, J. D., and Shook, E. M. 1946 Excavations at Kaminaljuyú, Guatemala. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication 561. Washington.Google Scholar
Linné, Sigvald 1942 Mexican Highland Cultures. Ethnographic Museum of Sweden, Stockholm.Google Scholar
Millon, René 1960 The Beginnings of Teotihuacán, American An tiquity, Vol. 26. No. 1, pp. 1–10. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Millon, René 1961 Final Report, N. S. F. Research Grant on the Urbanization of Teotihuacán (Grant No. G-10937). Manuscript, University of Rochester, River Campus Station.Google Scholar
Millon, René 1964 Teotihuacán Mapping Project. American Antiquity, Vol. 29. No. 3, pp. 345–52. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Noguera, Eduardo 1935 Antecedentes y Relaciones de la Cultura Teotihuacán. EI Máxico Antiguo, Tomo 3, Nums. 5–8, pp. 3–90. Mexico.Google Scholar
Noguera, Eduardo 1943 Excavaciones en El Tepalcate, Chimalhuacán, Máxico. American Antiquity, Vol. 9. No. 1, pp. 35–43. Menasha.Google Scholar
Palerm, Angel 1961 Sistemas de Regadio en Teotihuacán y en El Pedregal. In “La agricultura y el desarrollo de la civilizacion en mesoamerica,” by Angel Palerm. Revista Interamericana de Ciencias Sociales, Epoca 2, Vol. 1. No. 2, pp. 297–302. Union Panamericana, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Porter, Muriel Noe 1956 Excavations at Chupicuaro, Guanajuato, México. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, Vol. 46, Pt. 5. Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Sanders, William T. 1963 Teotihuacán Valley Project, Preliminary Report, 1960–1963 Fields Seasons. Manuscript, Pennsylvania State University, University Park.Google Scholar
Sanders, William T. 1964 Teotihuacán Valley Project, Final Progress Report. Manuscript, Pennsylvania State University, University Park.Google Scholar
Sears, Paul 1951 Pollen Profiles and Culture Horizons in the basin of Mexico. In The Civilizations of Ancient America, edited by Sol Tax, pp. 57–62. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Vaillant, George C. 1931 Excavations at Ticoman. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. 32, Pt. 2. New York.Google Scholar
Vaillant, George C. 1938 A Correlation of Archaeological and Historical Sequences in the Valley of Mexico. American Anthropologist, Vol. 40. No. 4, pp. 535–73. Menasha.Google Scholar
Vaillant, George C. 1944 The Aztecs of Mexico. Doubleday and Company, New York.Google Scholar
Warren, Bruce 1962 A Hypothetical Construction of Maya Origins. Congreso Internacional de Americanistas, Actus y Memorias, I, pp. 289–307. Mexico.Google Scholar
West, Michael 1963 Tezoyuca, An Archaeological Excavation of a Terminal Pre-classic Site and Its Role in the Culture History of the Teotihuacan Valley. Unpublished Master's thesis, Pennsylvania State University, University Park.Google Scholar
Wolf, Eric 1959 Sons of the Shaking Earth. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar