INTRODUCTION TO ARCHAEOLOGY Nancy White - Touro Institute

where Mexico City is located today was the home of an early great city-state called Teotihuacan.
Reasons for its importance may have been irrigated farmland, abundant obsidian sources,
religious prominence, and abundant temples. Neighborhoods of foreigners such as Zapotec and
Maya have been identified within the huge city. Lasting for nearly 1,000 years, the city was
abandoned after A.D. 750, to become a vacant sacred
place by the time the Aztecs came along.
Who were the Aztecs? The last great civilization in
Mesoamerica. They came to the Valley of Mexico and
established their capital in A.D. 1325 at Tenochtitlán,
under modern Mexico City, on a swampy island. They
constructed chinampas (raised farm plots), causeways,
and an impressive capital, and through conquest and
alliance created a large empire by the time the Spanish
arrived in the early sixteenth century. Then Cortez and
his conquistadors from Europe defeated the native
rulers, mostly with their germs, and built their own
city on top of the site. But recently excavations
downtown have uncovered a great deal of this native history in Mexico, which can be compared
with both Indian and Spanish written documents to learn more of the precolonial and colonial
past. The photo on p. 358 showing downtown Mexico City with the Aztec principal temple
superimposed on its original location is wonderful to show how one invading culture used
sacredness of place to defeat the other, and the Spanish
built their cathedral in the same spot.
Discuss archaeo-tourism. In Mexico and elsewhere in
Central America, visiting archaeological sites is the
principal component of tourism. It is also economical
travel for people from the U.S., who are incredibly rich
compared with the average citizen of these poorer
countries. If you plan your vacation with efficiency
and also respect for the values of other cultures, you
can see a lot of archaeology. You can also buy
Do not confuse the words Tehuacan (the valley where
early maize was found in dry caves), Teotihuacan (the
ancient city in the Valley of Mexico), and Tenochtitlán
(the Aztec capital).
Are there any Maya, Zapotec, or other Mesoamerican
native peoples left today? Yes, millions. Though some
of these civilizations declined or disappeared before or
at the time of Spanish conquest, the people are very
much alive and speaking several native languages. They also have enormous pride in their native
heritage. Mexico’s national archaeology program investigates, reconstructs, and interprets sites
and monuments.