Urban studies researchers emphasize the importance of neighborhoods to the vitality and resiliency of cities and the critical role played by social infrastructure, meaning those spaces where people can gather to interact collectively (e.g., Klinenberg Reference Klinenberg2018; Latham and Layton Reference Latham and Layton2019). Neighborhoods are key mediators of urban life, and their intermediate-scale gathering spaces can generate social capital between neighbors through repeat interactions that foster common interests, trust, and reciprocity. Among a range of interactions within contemporary urban built environments, Low (Reference Low2002:273) proposes that these spaces might be termed semiprivate or semipublic, along a spectrum bookended by the privacy of individual dwellings to the publicness of central plazas, markets, and thoroughfares (see also Peterson Reference Peterson2017). Similar relations also characterized early cities and including them in a wider discourse on urbanism expands the universe of cases temporally, geographically, and culturally (e.g., Carballo et al. Reference Carballo, Feinman and López Corral2025).
Individual dwellings within Teotihuacan’s 2,300 or so apartment compounds were generally private spaces, while more open patios and more enclosed courtyards within compounds served as semiprivate spaces, capable of accommodating small groups and used for rituals to honor ancestors and patron deities (Manzanilla Reference Manzanilla1996, Reference Manzanilla and Plunket2002). Common residential patterns include subfloor burials and evidence of household-level food production, especially grinding tools, cooking vessels, and chemical compounds embedded in floors (Manzanilla Reference Manzanilla and Robb2017; Ortiz et al. Reference Ortiz Butrón, Pecci, Barba and Manzanilla2018; Pecci et al. Reference Pecci, Barba and Ortiz2017). The city’s apartment compounds were organized into neighborhoods and districts featuring their own public and semipublic spaces termed neighborhood centers. They include temples, plazas, buildings with presumed civic-administrative functions, and residences for district elites. Only a few neighborhood centers have seen extended investigations, particularly La Ventilla, overseen by Rubén Cabrera Castro and Sergio Gómez Chávez (Reference Cabrera Castro and Chávez2022), and Teopancazco, overseen by Manzanilla (Reference Manzanilla, Manzanilla and Chapdelaine2009, Reference Manzanilla2018; Manzanilla, ed. Reference Manzanilla2017). Uncertainties remain concerning other complexes in the city that served these functions, the activities undertaken within them, and what they tell us about governance at the intermediate scale of districts and neighborhoods. In this report we combine evidence from excavation and analyses with interpretations of architectural complexes and past uses of space through geophysical prospection and floor-chemistry studies at Teotihuacan’s Tlajinga district.
The Tlajinga District and Its Neighborhood Center
Located in the Teotihuacan’s southern periphery, Tlajinga provides a comparative case to the districts of La Ventilla and Teopancazco, both located near the city center (Figure 1). It is one of the more spatially coherent examples of a district at Teotihuacan, separated from the rest of the city by the San Lorenzo River and likely former agricultural fields just north of the river (Widmer and Storey Reference Widmer, Storey, Santley and Hirth1993, Reference Widmer, Storey, Arnauld, Manzanilla and Smith2012). Tlajinga’s inhabitants were primarily of lower socioeconomic status compared to La Ventilla’s and Teopancazco’s, and the district became densely settled later, transforming from more dispersed occupation with nonapartment residences into a densely urbanized zone sometime in the mid-third century (Carballo et al. Reference Carballo, Hirth, Hernández Sariñana, Buckley, Mejía Ramón and Kennett2019). Urban expansion coincided with tethering the district by extending the city’s central artery, the Street of the Dead, as a major excavation of tepetate running through Tlajinga and extending at least another 1 km south. Our excavations have centered on architectural complexes abutting the Street of the Dead on both sides, while geophysical prospection has covered additional areas.
Map of Teotihuacan and Tlajinga district based on Teotihuacan Mapping Project (Millon et al. Reference Millon, Drewitt and Cowgill1973) with modifications from more recent fieldwork of the PATT and earlier excavations by Widmer and Storey (Reference Widmer, Storey, Santley and Hirth1993).
Figure 1 Long description
The map displays Teotihuacan and the Tlajinga district, highlighting various structures and features. In Teotihuacan, key areas are labeled: 1) Outlying Civic-Ceremonial, 2) Main Pyramid, 3) Avenue of the Dead, 4) Central Compound, 5) Feathered Serpent Pyramid, 6) Street of the Dead, 7) Teopancazco, 8) Tlajinga, 9) La Ventilla, 10) San Lorenzo, 11) Oztoyahualco, 12) Incensario Mantepec. The map includes a scale of 1 km for Teotihuacan. The Tlajinga district is shown with a scale of 200 m, featuring plazas and architectural complexes. The map uses a north arrow for orientation and outlines the spatial distribution of structures, indicating a dense urban layout in Teotihuacan and a more dispersed arrangement in Tlajinga.
A long, elevated platform along the western edge of the Street of the Dead served as a neighborhood center for Tlajinga, including four prominent structures to the south that, while mapping the site, Millon (Reference Millon1973:18) noted to differ from the typical surface topography of apartment compounds. They are larger than the room groups designated by Cowgill and colleagues (Reference Cowgill, Altschul, Sload and Hietala1984) and not arranged triadically, so we refer to them as a platform group. Thus far, much greater attention has been given to Teotihuacan’s abundant apartments than to its platform groups, and deservedly so since apartments being the overwhelming majority of residences was unique in the premodern world for a city of Teotihuacan’s size. Nevertheless, platform groups, which tend to be clustered along the Street of the Dead, offer important clues to the sociopolitical organization of the city. Some were likely ceremonial spaces, especially triadic groups (Cowgill et al. Reference Cowgill, Altschul, Sload and Hietala1984; Froese et al. Reference Froese, Gershenson and Manzanilla2014), but others have been proposed as “civic” compounds with presumed community or administrative functions and “temple” housing for priests or other religious specialists (see Smith et al. Reference Smith, Chatterjee, Huster, Stewart and Forest2019).
In the case of Tlajinga, Widmer and Storey (Reference Widmer, Storey, Arnauld, Manzanilla and Smith2012:112) proposed the district’s platforms may have been constructed by craft-producing collectives, especially those involved in the manufacture of San Martín Orange pottery (see also Sullivan Reference Sullivan2006). More recent PATT excavations at Compounds 17 and 18:S3E1 also show that producers of obsidian and lapidary goods resided across the Street of the Dead from the neighborhood center (Hirth et al. Reference Hirth, Carballo, Dennison, Carr, Imfeld and Dyrdahl2019; Widmer Reference Widmer2019). Based on patterns known from the more extensive excavations at La Ventilla and Teopancazco, certain forms of production and long-distance exchange would have been overseen by the intermediate elites who resided in neighborhood centers, while others were organized independently by the inhabitants of apartment compounds (Hirth Reference Hirth, Hirth, Carballo and Arroyo2020; Manzanilla Reference Manzanilla, Manzanilla and Chapdelaine2009, Reference Manzanilla and Robb2017). Tlajinga’s platform group appears to have been important to organizing urban life within the district, which our investigations have aimed to better understand.
Complexes 2 and 4 (S4W1)
Complexes 1–4:S4W1 of the southern platform group in Tlajinga’s neighborhood center differ from apartment compounds in the district in the following ways: (1) being significantly elevated (1–2 m) from ground level, (2) having floors and walls made from concrete covered by lime plaster, and (3) featuring adornment with murals and/or sculpture that would not be out of place in the city’s urban core. They are similar to temple and civic compounds at the neighborhood centers of La Ventilla and Teopancazco with regard to their architectural elaboration but differ in being elevated platforms rather than low compounds with enclosing walls.
We have previously reported on Complex 4 (Carballo et al. Reference Carballo, Barba, Ortiz, Blancas, Hernández Sariñana, Codlin, Saucedo and Rodríguez2021) and only summarize here. Excavations exposed an area of 104 m2 and encountered a patio group with fragmented murals whose iconography relates to themes of sacred warfare and a flowery afterlife. We estimate the area of the patio as 64–80 m2 and believe that it was a secondary one, since it is situated on the northern edge of the platform and a larger one would be more centrally located. Evidence of ritual activities includes the recovery of an Old God of Fire brazier and partial composite censer from the patio, and an axial cache containing imported iron-ore and spondylus shell beads. A bone sample from that deposit, not reported previously, dates 1790 ± 20 BP (UCIAMS 288865, OxCal cal AD 220–330 2σ); the deposit corresponds to the filling of a substructure to raise the level of the floor for the final construction. No subfloor burials were encountered. Chemical analysis of floor samples did not recover signatures that would be consistent with cooking activities in the substructure (Carballo et al. Reference Carballo, Barba, Ortiz, Blancas, Hernández Sariñana, Codlin, Saucedo and Rodríguez2021:Figure 8).
A small excavation was opened in Complex 2 in 2019, but this platform received all of our attention for excavation in 2023, along with additional geophysical work and floor-chemistry. Magnetic gradiometry and GPR were used to locate the limits of the platform and to further define structures exposed by excavations (Structures 2B and 2C), the central patio between them, and other structures on the platform that remain unexcavated (Figure 2). They succeeded in defining the northern, western, and southern delimiting walls of Complex 2 and the southeast corner of Complex 3. The extension of Structure 2C registers high magnetization of the underlying rock walls. To the west and south of Structure 2C are alignments of what appear to be wall and room blocks, with a likely central staircase to the platform to the south and a possible second one on the northern wall offset to the west.
Magnetic gradient map of parts of platform complexes in Tlajinga’s southern neighborhood center showing topography of mounds in inset and close up of Complex 2:S4W1 with excavated areas and hypothetical reconstructions of architecture. (Color online)
Figure 2 Long description
Magnetic gradient raster map of two platform complexes labeled Complex 3:S4W1 and Complex 2:S4W1. The map displays a continuous gridded heatmap where magnetic gradient values are represented across the surveyed area. Positive anomaly zones and negative anomaly zones are distributed across both complexes, with concentrated high-amplitude anomaly clusters visible along the outlines of labeled structures. Within Complex 2:S4W1, a dense cluster of high-amplitude anomalies is aligned with the area labeled Structure 2C. Adjacent to Structure 2C, further anomaly patterns extend toward areas labeled as patio and altar. Structure 2B is labeled separately and corresponds to a distinct anomaly region within the same complex. The northern portion of the map covers Complex 3:S4W1, where anomaly patterns delineate rectangular enclosure-like boundaries visible as dashed outlines. A scale bar labeled 2 m and a north arrow are present for spatial reference. A topographic inset positioned at the upper right displays aerial or satellite imagery with overlaid block outlines and numeric tick labels along its axes, with values visible including 2274500, 2274600, 5179280, 5179300, 5179320, 5179340 and 5179360, indicating a projected coordinate grid. A second inset at the right side shows a schematic plan with labeled elements including Structure 2B, patio, altar and Structure 2A, providing architectural layout reference for the excavated area within Complex 2:S4W1. The two insets are linked to the main magnetic gradient map by a connecting line indicating their spatial correspondence. No legend with explicit gradient unit range values is visible in the image.
Excavations of the 2023 PATT season focused primarily on a 20 × 4–6 m exposure running from the patio documented in 2019 to the northern limit of the platform. They uncovered Structure 2B, dating to the final Classic occupation, earlier substructures, and a Mazapan phase reoccupation. A smaller (4 × 6 m) exposure was opened to the west, uncovering a portion of Structure 2C. Together with the 2019 excavations, the total excavated area for Complex 2 is 156 m2. The fact that the floor of Structure 2B had eroded away—buried only some 20 cm below the modern plowed surface—provided the opportunity to investigate a depositional sequence for Complex 2 without destroying later architecture. This stratigraphic cut extended over 2.5 m deep, providing valuable information on the evolution of one of Teotihuacan’s platform complexes (Figure 3). The two best-preserved early structures sit on the dark clayey San Pablo Paleosol, representing the original soil layer occupied by Teotihuacanos (Sánchez-Pérez et al. Reference Sánchez‐Pérez, Solleiro‐Rebolledo, Sedov, de Tapia, Golyeva, Prado and Ibarra‐Morales2013). We exposed the portico and room of a stucco-covered structure in conventional Teotihuacan style (Structure 2B-Sub 1) and an unconventional structure with an exposed stone wall and staircase made of adobes (Structure 2B-Sub 2). The second extends underneath the later patio, and we encountered its southern façade by extending into a post-collapse looter’s pit. This façade, in contrast to the northern one, is covered in stucco with a band of mural decoration abutting a staircase. It represents an earlier version of the patio with other structures to the west and east.
Schematic profile cut of Complex 2:S4W1 showing substructures overlying San Pablo Paleosol and later structures around patio, with selected associated finds. (Color online)
Figure 3 Long description
A stepped profile line runs across the upper part of the figure and drops down into a long horizontal cut, with multiple labeled architectural blocks drawn along the cut and several artifact photographs placed around it. Along the main cut, the label San Pablo Paleosol appears on the lower left portion of the profile line. Above the cut line, a long rectangular mass is labeled Patio near the center and a smaller rectangular block on the patio is labeled Altar. To the left of the patio area, a dashed rectangular outline is labeled Structure 2B and within the cut below it the labels Str. 2B-Sub1 and Portico appear on the left side of the profile. Farther right along the same cut, the label Str. 2B-Sub2 appears beneath the patio area. A second dashed rectangular outline to the right is labeled Structure 2A. Around the schematic, separate photographs show associated finds and materials: at the top left a rectangular block fragment; at the top right three fragments with curved and straight edges; at the right side a rectangular carved or textured block; at the bottom left a photo of a stone or masonry surface; near the bottom center a vessel with a flared rim; and at the bottom right a photo of a rough wall or cut surface. No scale bar, axis, or numeric measurement labels are visible.
Three burials were encountered in pits excavated into the paleosol and tepetate between 2B-Sub 1 and Sub 2: two adult women (20–25 and 35–40 years) and a young child of indeterminate sex (4–5 years). The child was buried with a necklace of spondylus shell beads and miniature obsidian crescents. A bone sample from this individual returned a date of 1755 ± 20 BP (UCIAMS 288838, OxCal cal AD 241–362 2σ), consistent with a painted red-on-natural, outflaring vase with flush nubbin supports that was the sole deposit associated with one of the women, depicted in Figure 3 and diagnostic of the Early Tlamimilolpa phase (Rattray Reference Rattray2001:171–173). The burials represent the earliest occupation for Complex 2, being directly above the San Pablo Paleosol, and suggest a mix of residential functions (Structure 2B-Sub1) and perhaps a temple or ritual space (Structure 2B-Sub2 and abutting patio).
The portico and interior room of Structure 2B-Sub1 registered very high pH concentrations consistent with burning. A deposit of burnt maize cobs and husks was recovered in the southwest corner of the room, and one of the cobs returned a date of 1710 ± 20 BP (UCIAMS 288864, OxCal cal AD 257–409 2σ) that corresponds to the abandonment of the building, with the maize potentially burned as a termination ritual. The inhabitants then covered the substructures with a thick (ca. 50 cm) layer of pure sand that helped preserve the architecture. Box-and-fill walls of adobe and stone were constructed to encase this fill and the more heterogeneous sediment that followed. This raised the living surface approximately 1.5 m, transforming the area from structures at ground level into an elevated platform complex. The excavations of Manzanilla (Reference Manzanilla, Manzanilla and Chapdelaine2009, Reference Manzanilla2018) and team at Teopancazco’s neighborhood center revealed evidence of termination rituals involving the interment of decapitated crania and the possible relocation of the residence of district intermediate elites during the transition between the Tlamimilolpa and Xolalpan phases. It is possible that the interment of the Complex 2 substructures and building of an elevated platform represent a similar event for Tlajinga.
Structures from the later occupation, primarily dating to the Xolalpan phase, were highly decorated. Mural remains have been recovered from Structures 2A, 2B, and 2C, all arranged around a central patio we estimate to cover an area 130–169 m2 based on the excavations and magnetometry. Those from Structure 2A are the best preserved and most ornate, depicting motifs such as green feathered eyes, discs (chalchihuites), and marine motifs like shell and starfish (or stars) (Carballo et al. Reference Carballo, Barba, Ortiz, Blancas, Hernández Sariñana, Codlin, Saucedo and Rodríguez2021:Figure 10). The patio side of Structure 2B-Sub2 retains a band of red discs or shells painted over white. There was a large looting trench within the patio, which we excavated to reveal the buried façade, and the discovery of a miniature year-sign almena suggests the presence of a looted altar.
Comparing the Neighborhood Center and Apartments
It is clear that the buildings atop the platform running west of the Street of the Dead stand apart from the rest of the district. The platform group at the southern end are the most elevated mounds at Tlajinga. Their architectural elaboration does not characterize apartment compounds in the district, which are located at ground level and feature little to no decoration. But were the platform complexes temples, civic structures, residences of district elites, or some combination of these functions? We bring together evidence from architecture, artifacts, and floor-chemistry in addressing that question in relation to other documented neighborhood centers at Teotihuacan.
Whereas substructures of the earliest occupation of Complex 2 appear to have served mixed residential and ritual functions, the later occupation appears to be more consistent with ritual or civic-ceremonial functions, at least where we have excavated. A comparison of floor-chemistry signatures of Complex 2 and an apartment compound at Tlajinga (18:S3E1) registers lower concentrations of phosphates, protein residues, and fatty acids on the platform complex, in both the early and the late occupations (Figure 4). Enrichment of floors with these chemical compounds can be associated with food preparation or consumption, meaning that the overall higher and more distributed concentrations in Compound 18, noted in darker colors in the figure, are likely indicative of both activities within a domestic setting. In contrast, the patchier distribution in the patios of Complex 2, between Structures 2A and 2B and within 2C, are suggestive of only consumption in these open spaces.
Selected floor-chemistry signatures from excavations in Apartment Compound 18:S3E1 and Platform Complex 2:S4W1 showing greater enrichment in floors of Compound 18. For Complex 2 trench excavation, the central portion registers substructures while upper and lower portions represent room and patio floors of last occupation, respectively. (Color online)
Figure 4 Long description
The figure presents six floor-plan heatmaps arranged in two rows. The top row covers Apartment Compound 18:S3E1 and the bottom row covers Platform Complex 2:S4W1. Each row contains three maps, one each for phosphates, protein residues and fatty acids. Intensity levels in each map are represented by binned legend values, where higher numbers indicate greater relative signal abundance on the floor surface. No spatial axes or coordinate units are shown; spatial position corresponds to architectural room layout. For Apartment Compound 18:S3E1, the phosphates legend shows bins ranging from 1 to 5, with the highest bin values present across multiple rooms throughout the compound. The protein residues legend shows bins labeled 7.0, 8.0, 9.0, 10 and 18, with elevated bins distributed across several rooms including the central and end rooms. The fatty acids legend shows bins from 0 to 4, with bins 3 and 4 present in distinct room areas at one end of the compound. For Platform Complex 2:S4W1, the phosphates map shows the same bin scale of 1 to 5, with higher bins concentrated in limited patches within the central substructure zone and within one room area. The protein residues map uses the same bin scale as the upper row, with fewer rooms reaching the upper bins. The fatty acids map shows bins 0 to 4, with higher bins present only in isolated patches within the lower room and patio areas. Across both rows, Apartment Compound 18:S3E1 shows higher bin values distributed across more rooms, while Platform Complex 2:S4W1 shows higher bin values confined to fewer, more isolated areas.
In artifact categories, recovered using identical field methods and aggregated by architectural context for all occupation phases, greater differences are apparent between apartment compounds and platform complexes in lithics than in ceramics. The 412 non-obsidian lithics recovered by PATT excavations can be categorized into four general groups: agricultural tools, grinding tools, other utilitarian artifacts (e.g., smoothers, polishers, percussors), and sculpture. Comparison of density distributions of the first three categories from domestic areas (Compounds 17 and 18) and those of hypothesized semipublic use (Complexes 2 and 4) are presented in Figure 5 (top). Implements related to daily household activities, such as grinding tools and utilitarian artifacts, are significantly more abundant in apartment contexts. When standardized by cubic meters of excavated sediment, grinding tool density is almost four times greater for the apartments (0.38 pieces per m3) than for the neighborhood center (0.10 per m3) and a little over twice as dense for other utilitarian artifacts (0.73–0.30 per m3). Additionally, 11 sculpture fragments were recovered but are not rendered in the graph. Only one came from Compound 18 (0.004 per m3), while the other 10 came from Complexes 2 and 4 of the neighborhood center (0.035 per m3), again highlighting their greater architectural elaboration.
Artifacts excavated by the PATT from apartment compounds (17 and 18) and complexes of the southern neighborhood center (2 and 4) with 95% confidence error ranges denoted: (top) densities of non-obsidian stone tool types; (bottom) percentages of ceramic forms.
Figure 5 Long description
Non-Obsidian Tool Densities. Horizontal axis categories: Agricultural, Grinding, Other Utilitarian. Vertical axis label: Pieces per m superscript 3 excavated. Range: minus 0.40 to 1.00. Legend entries: Apartment Compounds; Neighborhood Center. Agricultural: Apartment Compounds bar at 0.10; Neighborhood Center bar at 0.00. Grinding: Apartment Compounds bar at 0.35; Neighborhood Center bar at 0.10. Other Utilitarian: Apartment Compounds bar at 0.75; Neighborhood Center bar at 0.30. Ceramic Forms. Horizontal axis categories: Food Preparation, Food Service, Storage, Ritual. Vertical axis tick labels: 0 percent to 60 percent. Legend entries: Apartment Compounds; Neighborhood Center. Food Preparation: Apartment Compounds at 20 percent; Neighborhood Center at 15 percent. Food Service: Apartment Compounds at 40 percent; Neighborhood Center at 45 percent. Storage: Apartment Compounds at 32 percent; Neighborhood Center at 30 percent. Ritual: Apartment Compounds at 10 percent; Neighborhood Center at 10 percent.
Percentages of ceramic forms are only subtly different between the two contexts and are all within the range of error (Figure 5, bottom). In a sample of over 11,000 analyzed sherds, relatively minor differences are registered in the proportion of food preparation and service vessels. The variability fits the expectation that there would be more food preparation in apartments and more food service in the neighborhood center, but the differences are not significant, at only 4% more food preparation vessels from apartment contexts and 5% more food service vessels from neighborhood center contexts. The material analyses are therefore consistent with lower food production and other utilitarian activities on the platform complexes, viewed particularly through lithic remains, while ceramic assemblages are consistent with a mix of semipublic and residential functions.
The architectural elaboration and decoration of the platform complexes much more sharply differentiate them from the apartments. Mural motifs from Complex 2 convey symbols of preciousness such as green disc motifs and the feathered eyes of quetzals or other tropical birds. Motifs from Complex 4 contrast in portraying weapons, geometric signs juxtaposing water and fire (atl-tlachinolli), and imagery of singing birds, butterflies, and flowers consistent with the afterlife paradise for warriors killed in battle. Their martially themed imagery is consistent with Manzanilla’s (Reference Manzanilla, Manzanilla and Chapdelaine2009, Reference Manzanilla and Robb2017:100) proposition that districts housed their own military facilities and means of training soldiers akin to the telpochcalli of the Aztec period, as does the fact that actual dart points are found in abundance in the district, including a cache offering in Compound 17 with 72 of them (Carballo et al. Reference Carballo, Hirth, Hernández Sariñana, Buckley, Mejía Ramón and Kennett2019).
Patios of a size considerably larger than the internal of apartment compounds at Tlajinga were found in both platform complexes, both also with evidence of destroyed altars. Remains from Complex 2 indicate the altar was adorned with one or more miniature year-sign almenas, while the altar in Complex 4 was associated with remains of a stone Old God of Fire brazier and a ceramic composite censer. We believe the patio excavated at Complex 2 to be the central one for the complex, while the one excavated at Complex 4 is located on the northern edge of the platform and is likely secondary in scale. Comparing the area of the Complex 2 patio to that of other courtyards and patios in apartment compounds and neighborhood centers in the city places it somewhere in the middle, similar to higher-status compounds such as Atetelco and Yayahuala, but smaller than the temple precincts of neighborhood centers such as La Ventilla and Teopancazco (Table 1). Yet it is important to note that we believe Tlajinga’s neighborhood temple precinct to be the triadic group farther north on the eastern platform at Complex 7:S3E1, which has a larger patio (see also Widmer and Storey Reference Widmer, Storey, Arnauld, Manzanilla and Smith2012). The patios on the platforms of Complex 2 and 4 could have nevertheless accommodated dozens to low hundreds of people depending on how tightly packed they were (see Murakami Reference Murakami, Tsukamoto and Inomata2014:Table 2.1). These clearly served ritual functions and were likely also seats of civic activities at the district level for some two centuries until the decline of the city.
Areas of Largest Courtyard or Patio in Excavated Compounds at Tlajinga Compared with Selected Cases from Other Districts at Teotihuacan.
Note: Area estimates and compound classifications represent a synthesis of Manzanilla (Reference Manzanilla, Manzanilla and Chapdelaine2009:Table 2.1), Murakami (Reference Murakami, Tsukamoto and Inomata2014:Table 2.1), Smith et alia (Reference Smith, Chatterjee, Huster, Stewart and Forest2019:Table 3), Widmer (Reference Widmer, de Tapia and Rattray1987:330), PATT excavations, and geophysical prospection.
Combining lines of data supports our proposition that the southern platform group of the neighborhood center at Tlajinga served different functions from those of typical apartment compounds. Deep excavations chart their development from structures at ground level, which likely served a mix of residential and ritual functions, to elevated and decorated structures more consistent with the latter. The greater architectural elaboration and mixed function of the substructures indicates that there was already an intermediate elite who lived differently from other inhabitants of Tlajinga—in masonry structures covered in lime plaster next to a building decorated with murals of probable public use. As our geophysical mapping documents other room blocks on the platforms, and chemical signatures and artifact assemblages indicate different uses but with some overlap, it seems likely that district elites continued to live on the elevated platform that encased these substructures, just not in the areas we excavated for the late occupation. These individuals would have organized the district-level public rituals, civic activities, and production and trade activities that kept Teotihuacan’s neighborhoods integrated into the broader urban fabric of the city.
Acknowledgements
We thank the inhabitants of San Pedro Tlajinga, the Consejo de Arqueología and ZAT-INAH, and CEMCA for their logistical and administrative support of the project. Thanks also to Rob Sternberg and three anonymous reviewers for helpful editorial comments on earlier drafts.
Funding Statement
Investigations were made possible by the financial support of the National Science Foundation (BCS-1321247), the H. and T. King Grant for Precolumbian Archaeology of the Society for American Archaeology, and by Luis Octavio Ruzo, to whom we are greatly appreciative.
Data Availability Statement
Data can be accessed in technical reports available on the project’s page in the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR), https://core.tdar.org/project/440550/tlajinga-teotihuacan-mexico. Other resources are available on the project webpage, http://sites.bu.edu/patt/.
Competing Interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
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