Mexico's National Museum of Anthropology - Guided Tour - P1 (of 2)

That column represents part of the perception of universe of indigenous from Mesoamerica. At the very very top we have the chance to see the way Los Hermanos Chavez Morado from Mexico represented heaven, planets, the moon, the sun, Venus, the planets, some important constellations and stars. At the top of the column we have the chance to see again the eagle and the rattlesnake in the peak of the eagle. At the bottom of the eagle we have the chance to see two faces. The face that is looking to my left side is the face of indigenous, original people who lived in this continent before Europeans arrived. The symbol in the middle is the symbol of corn, corn. And at the very very bottom we have the chance to see a sword in the middle of the sun. It represents the moment when Spaniards arrived. And again we have the chance to see a jaguar to my right side and an eagle. The eagle and the jaguar are two of those 20 days in the calendar in Mesoamerica. But also the column represents this conduct indigenous used to go to those three different underneath. Also represented in estelas, in buildings, in architecture. If you look carefully we are able to read the names of the artists José and Tomás Chavez Morado 1964. We are able to see science represented by that guy at the top of the column. The symbol of the atom and the sun falling down. It represents the moment when this culture was invaded by Spaniards by archaeology. The most important, the most powerful city in the history of Mesoamerica. But Teotihuacan is not the original name of that place. Teotihuacan is not very far from Tenochtitlan. Remember Tenochtitlan was the city built by the Aztecs in the year 1325 AD. Once you visit Zócalo Square, Metropolitan Cathedral, the National Palace, those ruins are or were discovered or were excavated in the year 1987. 43-44 years ago. The city of the Aztecs in contrast with Teotihuacan was built recently. Tenochtitlan was built in the year 1325. 200 years before Spaniards arrived. In other words, the Aztecs lived in Mesoamerica 200 years. But in contrast, imagine the beginning of Mesoamerica. 2500 BC, zero year and 16th century AD. The Aztecs are here. Teotihuacan was a city that was built according to archaeology, anthropology, the analysis of ceramics, the analysis of animals, human bones, physical anthropology, carbon dating. The city of Teotihuacan was built 2000 years ago and it was populated until 800 or 900 AD. In other words, Teotihuacan was populated by indigenous people at least for 900 years and it was abandoned around 800-900 AD. The city of Teotihuacan has been abandoned for original ethnic groups for the last 1100 years ago. When the Aztecs arrived to downtown Zocalo Square, the city of Teotihuacan was totally abandoned. Nobody lived in that place. And of course, with this comment, what I try to say is this. The Aztecs were not the ones who built the city of Teotihuacan. They didn't meet each other. They didn't speak the same language. But of course, they were part of Mesoamerica universe. When the Aztecs, when Los Mexicas discovered the abandoned city of Teotihuacan, the Aztecs, Los Mexicas were the ones who named in their own language that city as Teotihuacan. This map is very very interesting because we have the chance to see how huge is Mesoamerica. The border imaginary line of Mesoamerica is here. 200-300 kilometers at the bottom from the border with the states Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and the north part of El Salvador. That huge territory was called by archaeology in 1943 Mesoamerica. During those 4,000 years of history in Mesoamerica, in this huge territory, these millions of people shared in an important way similar architecture, similar ceramics. In Mesoamerica, even when these millions of people were not friends, in some cases, in the majority of the cases, they were forced to be together to create alliances because of trading. Trading and commerce was important and talking about important things, that kind of architecture, designing the stones, greeting language, the use of calendars, the use of numbers with stripes and circles are part of Mesoamerica. Right now we are located in the central part of Mesoamerica, Mexico City and all the states around. The city of Teotihuacan was a city that was built at least 2,000 years ago but the city of Teotihuacan used to have an important relationship with different people from Mesoamerica, especially from people or with people from the Gulf of Mexico, people from Oaxaca and of course the city of Teotihuacan had contact with this Mayan area. These different cultures, civilizations met each other, they had important relationships and according to different and important Mayan stones around 378 AD, people from the city of Teotihuacan arrived till this territory, important cities in Belize, in Guatemala, also in Honduras. Talking about Los Mayas, Los Mayas in my opinion are those different ethnic groups, the most developed ones in the continent but believe it or not, Los Mayas were not the ones who created the calendar in Mesoamerica, not Greed and Language, not the famous concept of zero but once Los Mayas learned or got those science from this area, from Oaxaca, Los Mayas developed in a very amazing way, Greed and Language, astronomy, mathematics and many more things. Los Mayas from the classic period contemporary with Teotihuacan. Maybe the three main important temples are the moon temple, the sun temple and the rattlesnake with feathers temple and as I mentioned before, those temples in Mesoamerica represent temples, in some cases are tombs, in some cases like the sun temple, since the moment was created, the sun temple works as a calendar but also these temples represent mountains, the mountain behind the moon temple represents that mountain behind and the mountain besides the sun pyramid represents that mountain, mountains and volcanoes and friends, according to earth pictures and according to archaeology, the original size of Teotihuacan was around 23 square kilometers, 23 square kilometers and talking about numbers, archaeology estimates that around 100 to 250,000 people populated Teotihuacan, more than 1,500 years ago but remember once you visit the archaeological site, the archaeological site was the heart of those 23 square kilometers, that place was the place where the richest families who ruled the city lived and the majority of those 250,000 people lived, spread out in those 23 square kilometers. The city of Teotihuacan was built from the north, from the moon temple to the south, north south and in this square, well represented in the market here, you can find maybe the most powerful building temple in the continent, it's the replica, the rattlesnake with feathers temple, it was called the rattlesnake with feathers temple because we have the chance to see, the chance to see the rattlesnake with feathers but the face of that snake is the face of a felon, it's a jaguar or a puma and the tongue is the tongue of a snake and also here we have the chance to see different elements from the sea, conches, stuff from the sea, those things are connected with the world underneath. When this temple was designed at least 1,800 years ago, people who built this temple put inside on the ground more than 100,000 offerings, stones, obsidian, jade, emerald from the north, bones, animal bones, human bones and talking about human, human beings, inside 129 human bodies were killed and they were offered at the moment the temple started to have the power, from those 129 human bodies, four human children bodies were found buried at the top of the temple, every kid was located or was buried in every corner of the universe, if you visit the real archaeological site we are not going to be able to to visit the tunnel but it's an original tunnel that was discovered by Mexican archaeology no more than 20 years ago by accident, it's a tunnel that goes 16 meters underneath 100 meters in distance and it goes directly under the pyramid, under the temple and here in the museum we have the chance to see a representation of the tunnel, but family remember according to Mesoamerica right now we are located on the earth, heaven and if we were able to visit the tunnel we are traveling to the world underneath, imagine that we are going down, we are going down death, darkness, but in contrast for example to catholic religion to be in this universe, to be underground is not bad, it's not good but it's something that complements the earth and heaven, it's something that has to happen, of course those bones are replicas and it shows the way those human bones were found, those 120 human people bones were buried in this temple but all of them were foreigners, I mean those guys were captured in battles in the Gulf of Mexico, in Oaxaca, in the north part of Mesoamerica, also in the Mayan world offered to be killed to the temple and the museum decided to add colors and stone because if we were in Mesoamerica and if we have the chance to visit all those cities during those 4 000 years of history, all those cities were painted and brilliant, colorful and indigenous got colors from different types of clay, from shells from the sea, from minerals, from plants and they mix those elements with water to get more than 100 colors, trading, commerce was important, agriculture and that sculpture, that stone is 100% original, it represents a woman with a mask and it was found almost at the bottom of the moon temple some decades ago, was discovered by Mexican archaeology, that sculpture is more related with agriculture, mountains and fertility and of course it was brought to the museum in the year 1964, all the items inside the glasses are 100% original ones found by different archaeological excavations in Teotihuacan for the last 100 years, this column and this part of the building is a replica but inside everything is original, those masks are the original ones found in different excavations and ceramics, clay 100% original and conches with colors painted, clay, flutes, stucco and original colors, there are different techniques to manufacture ceramics in Mesoamerica, maybe the most common technique used to manufacture ceramics was with our hands but also Mesoamerica used molds and also stamps, later on in the Mayan room we are gonna see those different stamps used by people to create those designs in the ceramics and this ceramics was burned in those ovens underneath at least 950 1100 Celsius degrees original stucco, stucco is the cement and also talking about techniques to paint, two important techniques were used fresco style and dry technique, fresco style is the technique used by indigenous and basically is the same technique used by the most important artists in renaissance in Italy, 16th century AD, when the stucco, when the cement was fresh, artists are right and they started to paint and of course the ink was able to penetrate to get inside in the cement and dry technique is exactly the opposite one, when the stucco, when the cement is totally dry artists are right and they started to paint but in contrast to fresco style if these guys painted in dry technique the ink was not exactly able to penetrate to get inside in the surface, Teotihuacan painted in the majority of the cases with fresco style and of course friends in this area we are able to see very specialized things, not everybody in Mesoamerica were able to create obsidian tools, painting these designs, creating those mountains, not everybody was able to write, what I try to say is this, we are able to see important and luxury items, the majority of these pieces were found in important places, in palaces, in places where governors lived, in tombs, in offerings, those colors are replicas