Feathered Serpent Pyramid (FSP): Archaeology of Teotihuacan, Mexico
In
Teotihuacan iconography there is only one representation known of a realistic
serpent (Drawing A) (1); all other figures with serpent-like bodies, known
to date, contain features that are not found on real snakes. The so-called
Feathered Serpent was a creature that basically combined elements of serpents,
birds, and crocodiles. A typical representation of the feathered serpent
may include: a serpent head; "bird eyes"; a curling snout; a
wide mouth with a series of backward-curving fangs (like those of a crocodile),
without incisors or molars; a bifurcated tongue; an eyebrow with a curled-up
end; a feathered body; and a tail-rattle (Drawings B, C, and D). The depiction
on the facade at the FSP is one of the oldest and most typical representations
of the Feathered Serpent at Teotihuacan. Comparative studies of representations
made up of these diagnostic elements suggest the following propositions,
based on associated elements and their contexts.
Feathered
serpents characteristically appeared in Teotihuacan as sculptural figures
attached to balustrades of staircases. Feathered serpents were also represented
frequently on the margins of walls, such as tablero moldings or the borders
of taludes. This usage persisted in Mesoamerica well after the decline
of Teotihuacan. The use of the Feathered Serpent as an element structuring
entire scenes may have been due to the fundamental way in which this diety
related to a creation myth: the Feathered Serpent was believed to have
brought time to this world, thereby defining and sustaining space (2).
This may have been why it was often depicted on balustrades, and border
structures that defined or delineated sacred space.
Feathered serpent heads were also used as an independent iconographic element
attached to anthropomorphic figures, perhaps as a possible means of identification.
One connotation that may have been lent to such figures was that of militarism,
although a military association was not exclusive to the feathered serpent,
but also shared with the coyote, the jaguar, and the bird (3). Teotihuacan-style
(feathered) serpents found abroad, particularly in the Maya area, had strong
military associations, although clear cases of association with military
paraphernalia are rather scarce in the metropolis.
The
association of the feathered serpent with sacrificial rituals are abundantly
manifested in different ways. On ceramic vessels, feathered serpent heads
are often represented explicitly in association with a heart and/or drop
sign, which likely represents blood. On this vessel fragment found in the
North Palace of the Ciudadela, a serpent's head and a tail rattle with
a trilobal sign, representing a heart, are incised with possible representations
of knives below the chevron chain that Langley (4) interprets as having
martial symbolic meaning. The motief in the next drawing is a stylized
feathered serpent with a triple-drop sign, which apparently symbolized
the heart or blood in front of the upper jaw. Thus, feathered serpents
seem to have been involved in the symbolism of warfare and human sacrifice.
Feathered serpents also have been associated with water and fertility.
Water symbols and representations of shell are often associated with the
creature, like the representations at the FSP. However, in some cases,
the water symbols are not clearly distinguishable from blood symbols. Water
signs combined with shells, supposedly meaning water, also appear in association
with hearts, where they most likely have the meaning of blood. In some
cases (5), water and possible red-painted blood come out together from
the feathered serpent fangs (See mural at top of The FSP Home Page). It is
therefore probable that Teotihuacanos conceived of water and blood as metaphorically
overlapping or connected.
Perhaps
more prominently, Feathered Serpents in Teotihuacan were used as symbols
of authority. One way in which this was expressed is through association
with a woven mat, a symbol of authority and rulership throughout much of
Mesoamerica (6). Significantly, the mat symbol appears almost exclusively
with Feathered Serpent heads in Teotihuacan, in many cases with the latter
shown resting on the former.
Another way in which authority was expressed was through the association of Feathered
Serpents and headdresses. The fact that the depiction of unworn headdresses
as the central motief in many scenes was so common at Teotihuacan suggests
that headdresses had a special significance for this society (7). The Feathered
Serpent was often represented in the form of a headdress or appears as
an element attached to a headdress, in contexts that suggest that these
headdresses also carried the meaning of authority. The FSP represents a
significantly different case, in which the Feathered Serpent is associated
with an authority-related headdress, which it carries on its body.
Apart
from these attributes discussed previously, the Feathered Serpent also
may have been related to Venus, perhaps since its earliest appearance in
Teotihuacan iconography. Among symbols and objects associated with the
Feathered Serpent is the quincunx sign, which repeatedly appears on his
body. It has been suggested that the sign represents, besides terrestrial
water, turquoise and precious things, the five world directions, Tlaloc
(8), a year bearer, or the five cycles of the Venus almanac which combined
with eight cycles of the 365 day vague year to represent a large cycle
(9).
The
relation of the feathered serpent with Venus is also suggested by another
unidentified symbol discovered on a mural in the Great Plaza in the Ciudadela
(Drawing A; Photo right) (10). Very analogous symbols were also found at
a Teotihuacan-style building in Tikal (Figure B) (11). In Yaxha, a similar
sign was represented on the body of an obviously Teotihuacan-type serpent,
overlapped by the depiction of a sacrificial knife (Figure C) (12). Although
the mural found in the Ciudadela has not been dated, it is logical to suppose
that it was an integral element of the symbolism of the Ciudadela, at least
for a time. The signs are reminiscent of representations of Venus found
in the Vienna Codex or in Mixtec codices (Figure D) (13), in which a similar
sign is attached as the symbol of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, god of Venus.
These data also support the association of the Feathered Serpent at the
FSP with Venus. However, as the specific meanings of these glyphs is still
in dispute, the association of Venus with the Feathered Serpent has not
been confirmed.
Inspite
of those attributes suggested by elements associated to feathered serpent
representations in later periods, specific meanings of the feathered serpent
at the FSP remains unclear. At the pyramid, only abundant shell motiefs
indicate its water association. In order to better understand symbolic
messages expressed at the facades, another enigmatic sculptural head, called
here Headdress Head, should be interpreted adequately.
Archaeological information obtained from the pyramid also assists us
to interpret the symbolic message of the facades. Chronological data indicate
that the Feathered Serpents at the FSP appear to have been among the oldest
examples in the city. Architectually speaking, the FSP was exceptional
in having single sacred entity repeatedly symbolized in high relief at
such an exceptional scale. As described in other pages, the discoveries
of mass-sacrificial burials and offerings at the pyramid support the idea
that some attributes previously mentioned had been associated with the
feathered serpent at the pyramid. Particularly sacrificial ritual, militarism,
and rulership were principal factors involved in the feathered serpent
at least since the FSP was constructed around A.D. 200. The pyramid was
evidently one of the earliest pyramids dedicated to the Feathered Serpent
in grand scale in Mesoamerica, if not the earliest, that was erected by
the state with political implications.
(1) Miller 1973:73.
(2) Carrasco 1982; Alfred López 1990; 1989, personal communication;
López, López and Sugiyama 1991.
(3) C. Millon 1973, 1988; Kubler 1972; Winning 1948.
(4) Langley 1986:62-67.
(5) Mural from Techinantitla, at the DeYoung Museum, San Francisco (after
Berrin 1988:138).
(6) C. Millon 1988a:119.
(7) Langley 1986: 107-124; Clara Millon (1973, 1988a).
(8) Caso 1967b:145, Figure 2; Pasztory 1976:136-137; Thompson 1962:65-66;
von Winning 1987 vol. II:11 and 66.
(9) Carlson 1991; Caso 1967b; Seler 1963:188-191.
(10) Cabrera 1992:Figure 6;
(11) Pasztory 1978a:109.
(12) Miller 1991:Pl. 4; Taube 1992:64.
(13) Seler 1967:Vol. II:Figure 118.
