Archaeology Magazine - November/December 1993 - 139

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scorpion-tailed man clearly wears a goggle-eyed mask established themselves in Tlaxcala as the power of the
old city waned. Some of them may have also been part
of the Teotihuacan Venus war cult.
When I saw this painted chamber, I realized in one of of the foreign population represented in enclaves such
those moments that all archaeologists live for, that this as the Merchants' barrio at Teotihuacan. In time, they,
aided by other like communities, simply overran and
was the very sacrificial chamber where the humiliated
Bird Warrior Captain had been prepared for sacrifice. destroyed the city.
These are immensely exciting times in Teotihuacan
The Venus glyph backdrop behind the defeated Bird
Current excavations by Cabrera and others
in
of
research.
the
"battle"
scene
was
a
Captain
representation
this very room. Moreover, a representation of this same are producing wonderful surprises. Just this past August,
chamber is included in a previously undeciphered glyph I visited Cabrera's new dig in the La Ventilla area, just
at Cacaxtla - the glyph shows a rectangular box deco- southwest of the Ciudadela. Surrounded by an army of
rated with Teotihuacan Venus glyphs terminating in the archaeologists, conservators, and field workers, we
well-known scattering hands of the Great Goddess and walked from one ancient building to the next, passing by
her attendants. The Bird Warrior's blood must have city streets that had not been trodden in 1,500 years. I
been offered in rites evoking
the forces of fertility under
the auspices
of Venus.
Nowhere is this concept more
graphically represented than
in a portrait of one of the Cacaxtla jaguar warriors. He
holds a great bundle of darts
bound up in blue cloth tied
with the same strips of fabric
worn by sacrificial victims.
From the darts' obsidian tips,
large droplets of blood fall
down, filling the water bands
that frame the scene. These
blood drops are bright blue,
having been transformed into
the nourishing waters of life.
The last group of murals
was found in a sunken chamber called the Templo Rojo.
Amid myriad symbols of natural bounty such as mature A red band with Venusglyphs was painted on the lower walls of a newly excavated room
maize plants and cacao trees,
in the La Ventilla area ofTeotihuacan . Those buried under the Feathered Serpent
a Cacaxtla merchant warrior
Pyramid may have beenprepared for sacrifice in just such a chamber.
named Four Dog is dressed in
the costume of a well-known Maya trader deity. His was startled by what I saw in one small room where
merchant pack, laden with Lowland products such as young workers were carefully removing the dry fill from
quetzal feathers, rubber for the ball game, jaguar skins, the face of a red-painted band of murals along the lower
and possibly cacao, is propped up on his lance. Below walls. To my astonishment, I realized it was a sacrificial
chamber just like the one at Cacaxtla. I had been scourhim, laid out on the floor for all to walk on, is a remarkable tableau of emaciated captives with sacrificial ties ing the literature for images of just such a room at
bound around their heads. Between the legs of one of Teotihuacan. Here, the red basal band was decorated
with Teotihuacan Venus glyphs with red droplets falling
these victims is a burning five-stepped temple-pyramid
in between, and at the corners were goggles of the
consumed by flames, a ubiquitous symbol for conquest
in the Aztec world. The Templo Rojo murals show us for Storm God Venus warriors. Other rooms in the comthe first time that this symbol was in use at least 600 pound bore murals of the plumed jaguars or pumas of
years earlier when Teotihuacan was destroyed by fire. the elite Teotihuacan military orders. Was this the kind
Furthermore, on the step riser directly below these cap- of place in which those buried beneath the Feathered
tives are the name glyphs of at least seven places Ca- Serpent Pyramid had been prepared for sacrifice? I will
caxtla conquered. Two of these places are illustrated
always remember that special day as the twentieth anwith Teotihuacan-style temples. I propose that these
niversary of my first visit to the mysterious City of the
Gods. I could never have imagined that, in 20 years
place names may be temples or enclaves in or around
Teotihuacan. The warrior merchants of Cacaxtla had time, stars on walls would be as fascinating as those in
migrated up along one of their well-traveled routes and the heavens.
1993 69
November/December

Archaeology Magazine - November/December 1993

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