Blood and Water: A Mesoamerican Social Cement

A curious attribute of Teotihuacan studies is that until excavations transpired at the Moon Pyramid in the late 1990s and early 2000s, this prominent temple at Teotihuacan received comparatively little attention. Indeed, there are reasonable grounds behind scholars’ preoccupation with the other two major pyramids at the site. The Sun Pyramid astounds visitors with its sheer massive size. Appearing more mountain than pyramid, even at its reduced height of 61 m, the temple clearly announces its importance in Teotihuacan religious practices. Likewise, the Feathered Serpent Pyramid (FSP) warrants attention for its lavishly sculpted facades and the sheer number of sacrificial victims dispatched at its dedication (Sugiyama 2005). The recent excavations within the Ciudadela further reveal that the Feathered Serpent Pyramid, like the Sun Pyramid, also concealed a cavernous tunnel beneath the monument, and the extravagant offerings placed in the subterranean chamber express a Teotihuacan vision of the watery underworld, and the position Teotihuacan’s leaders held within that cosmologically-defined space (Gómez Chávez 2017; Gómez and Lina 2010; Heyden 1981; Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia 2014; Reuters and Mark Prigg 2014).