Northern Chapter Meeting

When
21 Mar 2017
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location
The Peaks Alpine Room 3150 N Winding Brook Rd, Flagstaff

The End of Teotihuacan: Perspectives on Collapse and Regeneration from beyond the Ancient Metropolis

Sarah C. Clayton, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The first millennium CE witnessed the growth and decline of Teotihuacan, one of North America’s earliest major cities and the capital of an unprecedentedly powerful state with far-reaching political influence. Teotihuacan flourished for several centuries before collapsing, by the 600s CE, for reasons that remain enigmatic. Although its monumental center has benefited from more than a century of archaeological research, investigations of daily life and politics in surrounding communities across the Basin of Mexico are rare. In this talk I discuss the archaeological reconstruction of the impact of Teotihuacan’s dissolution on a community located beyond the margins of the capital city. Perhaps surprisingly, new evidence from the site of Chicoloapan, 40km south of Teotihuacan, suggests that this settlement prospered in the generations following the breakdown of the state. Its population was augmented by the arrival of immigrants from other areas, perhaps including refugees from the capital. Current research at Chicoloapan is significantly advancing our understanding of both the timing and nature of Teotihuacan’s decline and the impact of these changes on members of its regional population