Teotihuacan: City of Water, City of Fire

Founded in the first century BCE near a set of natural springs in an otherwise dry northeastern corner of the Valley of Mexico, the ancient metropolis of Teotihuacan was on a symbolic level a city of elements. With a multiethnic population of perhaps one hundred thousand, at its peak in 400 CE, it was the cultural, political, economic, and religious center of ancient Mesoameric...

Founded in the first century BCE near a set of natural springs in an otherwise dry northeastern corner of the Valley of Mexico, the ancient metropolis of Teotihuacan was on a symbolic level a city of elements. With a multiethnic population of perhaps one hundred thousand, at its peak in 400 CE, it was the cultural, political, economic, and religious center of ancient Mesoamerica. A devastating fire in the city center led to a rapid decline after the middle of the sixth century, but Teotihuacan was never completely abandoned or forgotten; the Aztecs revered the city and its monuments, giving many of them the names we still use today.

Teotihuacan: City of Water, City of Fire examines new discoveries from the three main pyramids at the site—the Sun Pyramid, the Moon Pyramid, and, at the center of the Ciudadela complex, the Feathered Serpent Pyramid—which have fundamentally changed our understanding of the city’s history. With illustrations of the major objects from Mexico City’s Museo Nacional de Antropología and from the museums and storage facilities of the Zona de Monumentos Arqueológicos de Teotihuacan, along with selected works from US and European collections, the catalogue examines these cultural artifacts to understand the roles that offerings of objects and programs of monumental sculpture and murals throughout the city played in the lives of Teotihuacan’s citizens.

Matthew H. Robb is chief curator of the Fowler Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Rubén Cabrera Castro is professor emeritus, director of the Proyecto La Ventilla, and an investigator at the Zona de Monumentos Arqueológicos de Teotihuacan for the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.

David M. Carballo is associate professor in the Department of Archae...

Matthew H. Robb is chief curator of the Fowler Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Rubén Cabrera Castro is professor emeritus, director of the Proyecto La Ventilla, and an investigator at the Zona de Monumentos Arqueológicos de Teotihuacan for the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.

David M. Carballo is associate professor in the Department of Archaeology at Boston University.

Erika Carrillo is an archaeologist at the Zona de Monumentos Arqueológicos de Teotihuacan for the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.

George L. Cowgill is professor emeritus in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University.

Laura Filloy Nadal is senior conservator at the Museo Nacional de Antropología for the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.

Julie Gazzola is director of the Proyecto Primeras Ocupaciones en Teotihuacan Dirección de Estudios Arqueológicos for the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.

Sergio Gómez Chávez is an archaeologist, investigator, and director of the Proyecto Tlalocan of the Zona de Monumentos Arqueológicos de Teotihuacan for the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.

Nikolai Grube is professor in the Department for the Anthropology of the Americas at the University of Bonn.

Christophe Helmke is associate professor in the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies at the University of Copenhagen.

Leonardo López Luján is senior researcher in archaeology at the Museo del Templo Mayor and director of the Proyecto Templo Mayor for the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.

Diana Magaloni is director of the Program for Art of the Ancient Americas at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Linda R. Manzanilla is an archaeologist in the Institute of Anthropological Research at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and a member of El Colegio Nacional.

Jesper Nielsen is associate professor in the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies at the University of Copenhagen.

Nelly Zoé Núñez Rendon is an archaeologist at the Zona de Monumentos Arqueológicos de Teotihuacan for the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.

Hillary Olcott is assistant curator in the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Megan E. O’Neil is associate curator in the Program for Art of the Ancient Americas at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Jorge Pérez de Lara Elías is an independent photographer based in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

Alejandro Sarabia González is an archaeologist, director of the Proyecto Pirámide del Sol, and director of the Zona de Monumentos Arqueológicos de Teotihuacan for the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.

Nawa Sugiyama is assistant professor in the Sociology and Anthropology Department at George Mason University.

Saburo Sugiyama is research professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University and professor of the Graduate School of International Cultural Studies at Aichi Prefectural University.