With National Science Foundation support Dr. George Cowgill and his colleagues will analyze the physical remains and associated burial goods of individuals buried beneath the Feathered Serpent Pyramid at Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico. Occupied during the first millennium AD, Teotihuacan had more than 100,000 occupants and was one of the major urban centers of Mesoamerica. Near its center was a compound, 400 meters on a side, of great religious and political significance with palatial room complexes, platforms and 16 stepped pyramids. The Feathered Serpent is the largest of these. Recent excavation has uncovered over 130 sacrificial victims and exceptionally rich associated offerings. Evidence indicates that these were all associated with the construction of the temple. Dr. Cowgill and his collaborators will analyze these materials to determine how these individuals fit into the larger society and what status they held. To accomplish this they will study patterns of dental filing and inlay, evidence of provenance through stable isotope signatures of bone and tooth, paleodiet and DNA. Analysis of these as well as non-metric skeletal and dental traits can furnish evidence about the genetic relatedness of the victims to other Teotihuacan and non-Teotihuacan groups and studies of skeletal and dental stress markers provide evidence for social status. The goal of this research is to understand the political organization of this large precolumbian city. Archaeologists have generally believed that sacrificial victims are war captives but analysis to date of associated materials suggests that these individuals were part of Teotihuacan society. While prehistoric Middle American peoples had a form of writing and this has revealed much about the political organization of adjacent Mayan groups, very few inscriptions have been recovered at Teotihuacan and archaeologists wish to understand how much power rulers and ruling elites actually held. Preliminary evidence indicates that the victims were from upper classes and if this is so it implies that these groups functioned within considerable constraints. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide new insight into how state level societies arise and are maintained. It will yield data of interest to many archaeologists and help to write a poorly understood chapter of New World prehistory.
