Feathered Serpent Pyramid (FSP): Archaeology of Teotihuacan, Mexico
At the FSP,
the Feathered Serpent was represented as the divine entity to which the
pyramid was dedicated. The headdress head placed on the body of this deity
likely represented specific attributes of the Feathered Serpent, rather
than an independent entity juxtaposed with the Feathered Serpent (1). The
representation of this headdress can be divided into two parts: the head
of a mythical animal in the lower half of the headdress (II in Photo) and
the headdress on the top of the head of this mythical animal, namely part
of a double headdress in the upper half (I in Photo). This reading of the
complex image is supported by a strong Mesoamerican artistic/religious
tradition in which animal head representations used for headdresses often
wear their own, smaller headdresses. The lateral fringes of feathers seem
to be attached to the whole headdress complex. In addition, a nose pendant
(discussed further below) is attached under the jaw, independent of the
headdress complex.The
identification of the lower part of this headdress complex is more controversial.
The components of this mythical head, "bird's eyes", curling
snout, upper jaw with a row of inner curved fangs, and eye brow with curled-up
end, suggest that it might represent the Feathered Serpent (4). However,
it is not covered with feathers, but rather by a bead-like textured surface.
This texture often appears in helmet-style headdresses in Teotihuacan iconography.
It may represent a type of material used for headdresses, but certain symbolic
meanings also seem to have been connected with this type of texture. Sugiyama
believes that this image depicts the Primordial Crocodile, a predecessor
of the Postclassic Mexican deity, Cipactli (Photo) (5). The Postclassic
Primordial Crocodile is the original monster, feminine and aquatic, that
appears widely in the form of a crocodilian beast, and on occasion as a
sawfish or a snake in certain pictorial and ethnohistoric records.
In Postclassic
images, the head of the Cipactli, a version of the Primordial Crocodile,
is often indistinguishable from serpent representations (Photo) when it
lacks diagnostic body parts. Cipactli is characteristically represented
by only the upper jaw, and often covered with a bead-textured surface,
just as depicted at the FSP. She was a sort of big fish from which the
earth was created, according to the Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas
(6). More importantly Cipactli was represented as a calendar sign in the
Postclassic period. It appears as the first day sign in the Tonalpohualli,
and in extention, as a symbol for the initiation of larger cycles, carrying
a strong but abstract sense of 'beginning'. Cipactli as a calendar sign
seems to have been used in combination with the Venus almanac in the Codex
Borgia, as discussed extensively by Seler (7).
The concept of a Primordial Crocodile goes back at least to the Late
Preclassic period (8). At Monte Albán, the Oaxaca version of the
Primordial Crocodile (9) was represented by at least A.D 200. In some cases
the glyph appears with numbers as a calendrical sign. It particularly appears
in the form of headdresses or in facade representations, conveying calendrical
significance. Considering the contemporaneity of and interrelationships
between the Oaxacan capital and Teotihuacan, the data seem to favor the
Primordial Crocodile interpretation.
(icon
21.gif) A nose pendant composed of a rectangular plaque and four fang-like
pendants is clearly shown under the upper jaw of the Primordial Crocodile
at the FSP (painted green in this drawing). This was evidently not a part
of the headdress complex. This type of nose pendant has been documented
both at Teotihuacan and elsewhere in association with individuals who have
been identified as deities or priests. Two nose pendants similar to this
type were also found by the PTQ88-89 in burials associated with the FSP
(see Greenstone Nose Pendants). This type of nose pendant seems
to have symbolized authority, and, at the same time, it may have identified
a particular status of individual or social group, as suggested by the
various calendar-related elements described above. In fact, this combination
of headdress (often the Feathered Headdress Symbol) with a nose pendant
without a face, was a pattern used as a central theme for entire scenes
in Teotihuacan art works (See an example here). These elements appear to
have suggested important identification codes, replacing the realistic
representation of faces. The case at the FSP may be one of the most monumental
examples of this pattern in the city's early period. The headdress represented
at the FSP may have symbolized explicitly (but in mythico-cosmological
terms) the authority proclaimed by the specific person who was going to
wear it.
(1) Sugiyama 1989b, 1992:206-209.
(2) Langley 1986:114, 293-294.
(3) Langley 1986:153-167.
(4) Sugiyama 1988a, 1989b, 1992.
(5) López, López, and Sugiyama 1991:99.
(6) Garibay 1965:25-26.
(7) Seler 1963:113-128.
(8) Smith 1984.
(9) Urcid 1992.
