archaeography

A ‘map’ complimentary to the Mazapan was published two decades later in 1580 as part of the Relación geográfica de San Juan Teotihuacán. This map, rather than landholdings, emphasizes imperial infrastructure: that of the Spanish grafted over that of the Aztec. The road network emanates from the Aztec (and later Spanish) administrative center (Tenochtítlan) to the regions on the north of the Valley of Mexico. Like the Mazapan map, it too orients north to the left for the map-reader. Tenochtítlan can be seen at the crossroads (center right). The ruins of Teotihuacan are shown (highlighted in box) near the center, approximating the correct geographical relationship to the administrative capital, with the distinctive layout of the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon and the avenida de los muertos outlined by smaller structures. The ciudadela is not apparent in this depiction.

Rather than Nahuatl glyphs, the map’s labels are presented entirely in Spanish; a testament to the rapid changes in the intervening twenty years of Spanish domination of the region. The ruins of Teotihuacan are labeled Moctezuma’s oracle, which the accompanying text of the relación explains is where the Aztec ruler and his priests would pilgrimage every twenty days (a significant number for the calendric system of Mesoamerica) to offer sacrifices. The Aztec oracle is mentioned in other post-Conquest texts, and this map suggests that Teotihuacan was the place of the imperial prognosticator.

Largely abandoned 800 years before the ascendancy of the Aztecs, the monumental ruins of Teotihuacan were already being used for 'new age' rituals. Indeed, Teotihuacan explodes proprietary notions of ‘cultural heritage’; an abstract concept based upon Euro-American models of ownership and conservation. Archaeology and spirituality are just two of multiple, interconnected associations anchored at the site in a ‘heritage ecology’.