Feathered Serpent Pyramid (FSP): Archaeology of Teotihuacan, Mexico
The
objects found in Grave 14 constitute the richest offerings discovered to
date in Teotihuacan. They were distributed throughout the entire interment
zone. Many were placed directly on top of the skeletons, although some
items were found between bones, and even less beneath the bodies. Nearly
600 greenstone objects were recovered, including beads, earspools, nose
pendants, figurines, headdresslike plaques called "resplandores",
cones, and others. The more than 800 obsidian objects include projectile
points, prismatic blades, bifacial knives, miniature knives, perforators,
and anthropomorphic and zoomorphic eccentrics of diverse forms. Over 3,400
shell items, both unworked and worked in the form of beads, pendants, earspools,
etc. were also discovered, along with slate disks, a few ceramics, organic
remains, and animal bones.
Offerings
were recorded and then removed so that excavation could continue below
them. Most of the complete and semi-complete offerings were drawn in 73
field maps. The picture shows the central section of a general plan reconstructed
from these sheets, and other photos and notes. As the excavation was carried
out section by section and according to different groups of offerings,
complicated associations among the offerings were not well understood in
the field. Therefore, locational information about the offerings were input
into a GIS program. The next map shows the distribution of offerings in
in Grave 14, overlain by silhouette reconstructions of the individual bodies
(Sugiyama 1995).
The map indicates that, in addition to an even dispersal of personal
ornaments, a large quantity of general offerings were distributed among
individuals, with two spots of marked concentration. This suggests that
the individuals and the offerings were elements in the presentation of
a cohesive, collective symbolic message. No individual was singled out
in for special treatment in the central grave. Despite the outstanding
richness of the associated offerings, the occupants appear to have been
sacrificial victims, executed at the commencement of the pyramid construction
program.
