(upbeat music)
- [Voiceover] We're in the archeological area
of the site of Teotihuacan.
And we're overlooking the Pyramid of the Moon,
which is the pyramid at the end of this very long axis
of this road that is named the Avenue of the Dead.
Both of these names, Pyramid of the Moon
and Avenue of the Dead, are Aztec names.
The Teotihuacanos it's unclear what language they spoke
or how they call it themselves,
but we can learn a lot about them
through their architecture or city planning.
What we do know about Teotihuacan is there seems
to have been two major duties here
that we now call the Storm God and the Great Goddess.
They seem to have been related to rain
and agricultural fertility.
The two major structures that we see on this end
of the Avenue of the Dead, are the Pyramid of the Moon
and the Pyramid of the Sun.
- [Voiceover] And the Pyramid of the Sun
is the second largest pyramid
built by the cultures of Mesoamerica.
So it's really big.
The Pyramid of the Moon that we're facing now
is archeologically more accurate
when it was somewhat reconstructed.
And so we see these steep steps, these platforms,
reaching a summit at the top that likely had a temple
at the very top that was probably made of wood
or something that obviously hasn't survived.
- [Voiceover] For looking at the Pyramid of the Moon,
there's this structure called an Adosada,
like an appendage to the pyramid.
That's just in front of it.
And that's where you clearly see
this architectural profile that's called
the Talud-tablero.
That is this vertical table like structure
with a horizontal called the Talud.
- [Voiceover] And this was actually built later added on,
and so set off the pyramid more.
- [Voiceover] We think it functioned as a ritual platform.
It also serves to restrict access to the central staircase
that would have reached the peak
with the summit of this pyramid.
- [Voiceover] And it's so clear that this was built
to recall the mountain that's behind it.
- [Voiceover] This is attempt by the Teotihuacanos,
to make their city a part of this sacred landscape.
Because it is analogous to the mountain behind it,
and these pyramids were actually built very early on
in the history of Teotihuacan.
- [Voiceover] Archeology is going on here as we speak,
and new things are being found quite regularly.
We know for instance now, that there were actually
several building campaigns for the Pyramid of the Moon,
and we've discovered burials with offerings in them.
- [Voiceover] At different building
phases of the Pyramid of the Moon,
archeologists have been finding carefully placed
caches or burials along important access points.
For instance, one that was found contained
a bound male, somewhere between 40 and 50 years of age,
who seems to have been someone
who's not local to Teotihuacan.
There were other types of objects in this burial,
including obsidian blades,
figurines with inlaid eyes and teeth,
it had this leering quality to them.
Another one of these offerings that was found
along the central axis during a different building campaign
had 12 individuals, 10 of whom were decapitated and bound,
and then skeletons of birds, and canines, and felines
that were similarly bound.
All of these burials had clear organizations
suggesting that they were important offerings being made
during these different building phases.
- [Voiceover] We have a joining together of sacrifice
of monumental building, of gods related to natural forces,
city planning, these are things that we see
in so many Mesoamerican cultures during these periods.
- [Voiceover] There was another discovery
in the temple of the sun that's very interesting
that tells us more about this.
- [Voiceover] Found underneath the pyramid
was actually a tunnel, and it begins almost directly
in the center base of the pyramid,
where you would ascend the staircases
and the tunnel winds its way to almost reach
directly under the center of the pyramid
in this quatrefoil lober four lobe cave-like structure.
- [Voiceover] And we know that caves
do make regular appearances in Mesoamerican religion.
They're considered often places of origin of beginnings.
We can maybe read back some meaning into them.
- [Voiceover] And that's exactly what happens,
is we know a lot about how caves were viewed
from other Mesoamerican cultures,
and so we tend to use that information
to help us understand what's happening here at Teotihuacan.
And so this idea of caves as places of emergence
where the ancestors live, or places of fertility
and caves have this very clear connection
to fertile agricultural means, places of water,
places of origins.
People found this natural cave structure
and then we're also manipulating it to serve their needs
indicates to us that it would have been important.
And we do know that they left offerings in this passage way.
And so we think that it relates probably to
some of these DDS affiliated here with rain and agriculture.
- [Voiceover] Right.
- [Voiceover] Similar to say how the Pyramid of the Moon
echoes the mountain behind it.
Mountains were thought to be places where
you would find these caves they're
considered fertile places.
It's where it was thought that rain comes from
because rain clouds cluster around mountains
- [Voiceover] And water comes down from the mountains
and springs and helps to water the crops
grown by the city.
- [Voiceover] It's clear that the human labor
that went into constructing Teotihuacan
was incredibly vast and complex
because you not only had to have the masons
that people who are physically constructing
and planning this city on this very well-designed grid plan,
but also people who had to specialize in painting,
and the planning of all of this painting
that would have adorned these structures.
We have to imagine what it would have been like
if these would have all been faced with stucco,
and brightly painted,
there would have been mural paintings around it.
And unfortunately we don't know much about the ruling body.
It's unclear whether it was a single ruler,
or maybe a ruling group, because we don't have portraits,
we don't have writing that we understand yet.
- [Voiceover] It's amazing that this architecture is here.
We can walk among it.
We can the pyramids and yet still know
so little about the amazing people who built these,
and about their belief structure.
(upbeat music)