Life and Death in the Ancient City of Teotihuacan: A Modern Paleodemographic Synthesis

5. General Demographic Characteristics of the Tlajinga 33 Population

The Tlajinga 33 Skeletons 97 only items present in the Late Xolalpan are mica and one shell pendant. These findings contrast with the wealthy burials of earlier periods, which contained up to 11 (Early llamimilolpa) and 4 (Late llamimilolpa-Early Xolalpan) different items of greenstone and shell. The highest-ranking individual , Burial 57, is from the Early TIamimilolpa. This middle-aged male was wrapped or clothed in a garment that had approximately 4,000 olivella shells sewn on it. On the skull was an elaborate headdress consisting of four shell disks (see Figure 4-3). This individual was also accompanied by greenstone beads, shell pendants, and shell fragments. No other individual had such elaborately crafted exotic items. Also, except for the 5 individuals in the shaft tomb during the Late Xolalpan (Burial 50), which had 43 different items in an undoubtedly incomplete recovery of the original offering, no other Late Xolalpan burial had more than 5 items, a wider gulf in offering quantity and complexity than is present in the earlier two phases. There are various individuals with moderate-to-large offerings in the earlier phases. Thus, the Early Tlamimilolpa is probably the wealthiest phase, as more individuals are found in public locations with wealthier offerings of exotic items. Also more individuals have offerings , compared with the last phase, where most individuals are in domestic locations and have few to no offerings, and there is a great gulf between the richest grave and all others of the period (see Figure 4-4). Summary and Comparison with Other Compounds at Teotihuacan Sixty-eight individuals in formal graves out of 110 individuals excavated as burial contexts are not a large sample on which to base interpretations of mortuary patterns. Of these, only 49 are primary interments, which appears to be the usual mode of disposal of the dead. Nineteen are secondary burials, which represent disturbed and reburied individuals, sometimes with at least part of their grave goods. Forty-two are secondary-context interments of small concentrations of human bone, usually including pieces of several individuals, found in fill and middens in the compound. These individuals also probably represent mainly disturbed interments (we are ignoring the individuals with cut marks for the moment), but they were obviously reburied with less care than secondary ones and never with any offerings. These individuals are fragmentary and have lost all of their original mortuary characteristics . However, in spite of these problems, there does seem to be good evidence of internal status differences among the residents of Tlajinga 33, ranging from those in deep graves excavated into tepetate bedrock and 98 Life and Death in Teotihuacan Figure 4-3. Part of the Shell Headdress on the Skull of Burial 57 accompanied by a variety of lavish offerings, including shell and greenstone , to those in simple earth pits dug just large enough to hold a flexed body and otherwise accompanied by no offerings or at most a bowl or other token. Through time, there seems to have been a decrease in the number of individuals of the former type and proportionately more of the latter. Males are favored with more energy investment in mortuary features and tend to predominate in public locations, although a few females have impressive offerings, one having been buried in an altar. It has been thought that Teotihuacan compounds were lineage-based but probably with patrilineal bias (Millon 1976). Findings in Tlajinga 33 seems to support a possible patrilineal pattern, but the higher-ranking females may also indicate the presence of some cognatic pattern as well. Future analysis of the Tlajinga 33 skeletons may determine if a lineage structure is present. Otherwise, the predominance of middle and older adults in the higher statuses seems to indicate that status within the compound was probably mostly achieved, and that statuses could be defined The Tlajinga 33 Skeletons 99 Figure 4-4. A Flexed Burial with No Offerings, from the Late Xolalpan on a compound-wide level. Individuals of ability in the older ages hold positions of social and religious importance within the compound that are reflected in their treatment at death. The fact that children and adolescents lack offerings indicates that they did not live long enough to achieve a position in the compound that would entitle them to wealth indicators at death. However, there are individuals whose status is possibly ascribed, that is to say, they were born to higher-ranking families. Burial...