lunes, 8 de octubre de 2007

The Teotihuacan Culture

The Teotihuacan Culture

The Teotihuacan culture was extended by the states of Puebla, Tlaxcala and Michoacán. One was in the Valley of Mexico. It was organized in a theocratic State, in which also they governed the priests. The hunting, the fishing and the harvesting was practiced, and agriculture and the commerce principally based their economy. The commerce was based on the interchange of ceramics, masks and candlesticks. On the other hand they acquired other towns finished products. Its industrial production was of tools and arms. Most important they were the priests, who controlled the knowledge. The second group formed the military and thirdly they were the craftsmen, small retailers and farmers. Teotihuacan was the more important ceremonial center of the Central Plateau. Respect to their cultural manifestations, the Teotihuacans emphasized as they honor architects and city planners. From the buildings aligned in a called avenue "Street of the Dead" opened to avenues forming a great cross that divided to the city. Around the buildings that were to the sides of the street the artisan districts and houses located in where it lived the population, craftsmen, retailers and foreigners. In the suburbs the agriculturists lived, fishermen and hunters, in wood huts. All the city counted on a water-drainage system. Its excessive one to be able caused constants wars, situation that took to its weakening.
Goverment
They had an organized and powerful central government, and a powerful market economy. Its society divided in different classes from craftsmen, farmers, workers and retailers, governed by a powerful aristocracy. In order to control the traffic of jade, cacao, pens of tropical birds, animal skins and other products of luxury, Teotihuacán maintained colonies as remote as Kaminaljuyú (the present city of Guatemala) and Matacapán (in high territories of Veracruz, to the east of Mexico).
Religion
It is possible to distinguish to Tláloc (God of Rain), Quetzalcoatl (the feathered Serpent), Xipe Totec (God of the Fertility), Huehueteotl (the old God of the Fire), among others. The cults to the sun and the moon strongly are represented by the pyramids that today take their names and that occupied central points in the layout of the city. They also adored the serpent, to the jaguar and the falconet birds. The priests were represented in figurillas and paintings ceramics with as much frequency as they were it the Gods, being clear his importance in the daily life. The graves of the personages of greater social hierarchy became in ritual zones, like temples or pyramids, and were accompanied by numerous offerings of ceramics, objects of semiprecious stone and masks.
Agriculture
The agriculture in its majority is of weather. The water for irrigation is obtained through deep wells but the service is limited due to the domestic consumption. The most important culture in the municipality is the maize, follows the alfalfa, oats, barley, frijol, maize, wheat, avocado, peach tree and tuner them .
Mathematics and Astronomy
Mathematics and Astronomy say that the priests had all the control of the knowledge and could be the unique ones who could write. If to the mathematics and astronomy very well were controlled. They also dominated the architecture. They developed to a system of numeration with base in points and rays that allowed them to facilitate their ritual administrative workings .
Art
Of the main characteristics of the art in Teotihuacan it is the painting mural, which "austere and is distinguished, it cheers and graceful, and intensely religious." The murals bear a relation to tie subjects with the nature and the religion. They represented mountains, rivers and abundant sites in water until terrestrial and marine animals. They painted in all public space and for that reason it is possible to find paintings almost anywhere murals. The most used color was the red, but in different tones, the pigments were natural and they were combined with tuner dribble to be able to have one better adhesion. Thepaintings more important murals are in Tetitla, that it is located to the outskirts of the archaeological zone.
Flora and Fauna
In hills there was Pine, encino and wood of Taxodium Mucronatium well-known, ten like Ahuehuete or Sabino and the Cedar; Of the fauna, murals and "ceramics" of bony rest of some special ones of birds are observed specially, which allows knows a great diversity like owl, the eagle, the Sparrow hawk, wild turkey, doves, etc. Also there were species other people to Teotihuacán like the Quetzal, and still one does not know because. Other species of fauna were the Deer, hare, Coyote and Jaguar; and also reptiles like the Viper of Bell.
How to get there
Like arriving to Texcoco from the City of Mexico, has a highway, a distance of 51 kilometers, that are crossed approximately in one hour; the free highway is number 136 the Mexico-Texcoco until arriving at the archaeological zone.

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