Tlalancaleca was one of the largest settlements in Central Mexico before the rise of Teotihuacan and likely acted as a center for the development of Central Mexican urban traditions whose influence would persist through the Classic and Postclassic periods. Tlalancaleca survived the environmental and social turmoil caused by the Plinian eruption of Popocatepetl around AD 50, and the city continued to expand until it was abandoned around AD 250. Our research at Tlalancaleca has revealed that a new ritual complex, consisting of pecked crosses, canals, and pocitos (holes carved into boulders) and associated with water and fertility, appeared by the Terminal Formative period (100 BC-AD 250). Some of the elements were present at earlier Formative sites, but they coalesce together for the first time at Tlalancaleca. We suggest that this ritual complex was shared with early Teotihuacan and spread further to the west during the Classic period.
---
Lunch Talks invite guest speakers to host seminars at MARI on a wide variety of topics related to the archaeology, history, and ethnography of Mesoamerica and other world areas.
