Sarah C. Clayton, Anthropology, UW-Madison
“Teotihuacan and its Countryside: the Rural-Urban Dynamics of an Ancient Metropolis”
Sponsored by Archaeological Institute of America.

Abstract: The first century BC in central Mexico witnessed the emergence of Teotihuacan, a city that rapidly developed into the capital of an urban state of unprecedented size, monumentality, ethnic diversity, and political power in North America. Teotihuacan’s monumental center has benefited from more than a century of archaeological study. Investigations of Teotihuacan’s rural communities are rare by comparison, partly due to the rapid destruction of archaeological sites as Mexico City continues to grow. To understand Teotihuacan’s growth and organization as one of the earliest and largest indigenous states in the Americas, archaeologists are looking beyond the ancient city to study its regional environmental and social landscape. This talk will focus on reconstructing everyday life in Teotihuacan’s countryside, the regional process of state collapse, and the challenges of excavating Mexico City’s vanishing archaeological landscape.