Constructing, Deconstructing,

and Reconstructing Social Identity

- 2,000 Years of Monumentality

in Teotihuacan and Cholula, Mexico -
Volume Edilors : Saburo Sugiyama. Shigeru Kabala.
Tomoko Taniguchi. and Elsuko Niwa

Cultural Symbiosis Research Institute

Aichi Prefectural University
 8. Building the Tlachihualtepetl:
The Social and Ideological Foundations of the Great Pyramid
ofeholula, Mexico
Gabriela Urufiuela +., Patricia Plunket++ , and Amparo Robles+'+'+'

Abstract When the Spanish arrived in the central highlands of Mexico in 1519, Cholula's Great
Pyramid, the Tlachihualtepetl or "man-made hill", was the iconic symbol that identified the ancient
temple city, and although it had been abandoned many centuries earlier, it encased the political and
religious history of one of the major pilgrimage centers of the New World. By mapping the earliest
construction stages of this massive building and creating digital 3D models of its continuous
transfomlatiol1s, we are beginning 10 understand the architectural language developed by Cholula's
leaders to manifest their concepts of human-divine relations during the rapidly changing political
environment of the Early Classic Mesoamerican world. We show that Cholula's temple complex was
more like an acropolis than a pyramid, and was designed to create an inclusive rather than an
exclusive overarching ideology; that the religious buildings used visual metaphors to reference the
ancestors and the underworld; and that each construction stage of the main temple left apparent parts
of earlier buildings, perhaps a strategy to symbolically link the new platform to a glorious past that
legitimated the authority of the new leader.

When the Spanish arrived in the

central highlands of Mexico in 1519,
Cholula's Great Pyramid , the
Tlachihualtepetl or "man-made hill",
was the iconic symbol that identified
the sacred city. Although it had been
abandoned many centuries earlier, it
encased a large part of the political
and religious history of one of the
major pilgrimage centers of the New
World. Its final version, almost 400m
on a side and more than 60m high
(Marquina 1970: 38), is the largest Figurel. The Great Pyramid of Cholula, or
prehispanic monument 111 the TlachihualtepetJ ("man-made hill").
Americas. But, like many Mesoamerican pyramids, the huge mound we see today (Figure I) was not
created as a single project; instead, it was the end result of a long sequence of superimposed
buildings. The pyramids of central Mexico were artificial mountains that elevated cult areas,
separating them from daily life; their construction, their shape and their size expressed the power of
community leaders. Thus, relevant political or ideological changes were often accompanied by the
edification of new pyramids that covered the previous ones.

+ . ++ Professors of the Department of Anthropology, Universidad de las Americas, Puebla in Mexico.

+++ Master Student of the Department of Anthropology, Universidad de las Americas, Puebla in Mexico.

95
 Aware of this dynamic , and seeking to discover and record
the stages that had produced such an immense architectural
creation, in 1931 a crew headed by Ignacio Marquina (1939: 52,
57, 1970: 33) initiated the T1achihualtepetl's exploration by
excavating tunnels (Figure 2), a strategy that had been used
previously both at Teotihuacan and Tenayuca, to find and follow
the fayades of the earlier buildings inside. When the Cholula
Project ended in 1971, almost 10km of underground galleries
crisscrossed the core of the Great Pyramid (de la Luz and
Contreras n.d. [1968]). Although this work demonstrated Ihat it
conlained several substructures, their complexity was
unexpected, and the archaeologists were confronted with a
labyrinth of walls corresponding to tens of ancient edifices.
Since it was impossible to follow all of their perimeters, they
focused on exposing paris of the ｦ｡ｾ､･ｳ＠ of the main buildings,
reaching the conclusion that these represented seven major
construction stages, although two of them were lateral
enlargements and only five constituted vertical superpositions
fonning the p1atfonn itse1f(Marquina 1939, 1970, 1990).
excavated by Marquina's crew In its last years, the Cholula Project started to generate
follow and expose the partial maps of the architecture exposed in the different tunnels.
architecture of the substructures. But the amount of specific information was overwhelming, and
at that time it would have required years of manual calculation
and drawing work to correlate all the data obtained, and hence Marquina 's practical solution was to
create abbreviated models to render the Tlachihualtepetl's development (see Marquina 1939, 1970,
1990). The mapping provided the general dimensions for these models, but the specific morphology
of the buildings was based on the sketches made over the many years of the project's life.
Logistically, it was the most viable altemative, but in the end it implied an extreme
oversimplification of one of Mesoamerica's most complex architectural sequences. In order for the
interpretation of those successive constructions to reflect the trajectory of the community that built
them, it is necessary to establish in detail their shapes and sizes, the design and distribution of their
spaces, the materials used , their building processes, and their iconographic programs; all of these
were aspects that could not be included in a condensed version of the Great Pyramid ' s evolution.
Today's technology offers the means to recover and efficiently manage the thousands of data
that in Marquina ' s days would have been incredibly time consuming and with little guarantee of
achieving the requisite precision to make sense of the isolated and sometimes deformed architectural
elements exposed in the tunnels. Thus, we decided to
take over the fine work that Marquina left pending
and to date the monument's construction sequence
using radiocarbon determinations (Uruiiuela and
Robles 2012; Urunuela et al. 2006, 2009). It is not
easy to map in the narrow tunnels since the access to
some of them is difficult, while others are partially
collapsed (Figure 3), and although certain
architectural features are readily apparent, meticulous
observations often are required to distinguish thin
floors and clay surfaces that blend into the adobe fill.
Currently, we are mapping with a total station
and virtually recreating both the tunnel system and Figura 3. Mapping inside
the structures it exposes with AutoCad. Although we partially collapsed tunnels.

96
 have recorded only about 40% of the alleged 10 km, thi s has allowed us to: I) detect previously
unreported building stages; 2) preci sely specify the morphology of those already known; and 3)
understand the particular deve lopment process of the Great Pyramid. Since no inauguration or
termination offerings that could yield symbolic meanings have been excavated in the
TlachihuaJtepetl , these three aspects arc fundamental to the decipherment of the ideological and
political di scourse embedded in the constructions of each of its successive stages.
Monumental architecture materializes power and authority. The nature and proven ience of the
materials used (adobe or stone, local or not), and the labor forc e needed for their ex traction , transport
and assembly, allow us 10 estimate the amount of energy invested (Robles 2012), thus renecting the
economic capacities of those who commissioned it. Also, the effici ency and strength of their
leadership is expressed by their ability to manage the design, planning, and building logistics. In sum ,
politico-economic factors are, one way or the other, conspi cuously manifested in the structures. But
monumental architecture is al so a reflection of ideology, a mass communication language that
expresses not only the leaders' concepts of human-divine relations, but al so their attitude towards the
role the rest of the community should play in those relations. Wide wall s or high fe nces, stron g doors
or narrow stairs, small rooms, any element used to indicate restricted access to certain cult areas, is
an explicit indicator of separation between those who are welcomed to come in and those who are
not. In verse ly, wide staircases, large gathering spaces, and open areas, tran smit the idea of belonging
and of communal activity. Thus, the design, shape and size of thc architectural features are in and of
themselves messages of the degree of participation that the leaders expect from their people.

The Tlahihualtcpetl's Early Development

Our new data show that the Great Pyramid is not the final result of five main superimposed pyramids
as Marquina proposed, but of at least eight (Figure 4) (Uruiluela et al. 2006, 2009; Urunucla and
Robles 2012). We are finishing the mapping of the first five, so here we will focus only on the period
corresponding to those stages in order to discern at least part of the message that Cholula's Terminal
Fonnative and Early C lassic main temple might have conveyed. The mapping and recording of these
buildings is still in progress and hence the reconstructions presented here should be considered
preliminal)'.

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MOdem "",'aoe Buld."II SI"IIM 001 '&pOI1"" ｾ ｹ＠ M.. qu .... 8oo1clng .. ｾ＠ ｭｯ､ＬｾＮ｡＠ kom !MIal M.,qu .... ,epot1o-d

Figure 4. Building stages identified by Marquina compared with those registered

to date by our present project.

The rapid and simultaneous growth of Teotihuacan and Cholula during the first centul)' A.D.
suggests that each young city prov ided an attractive environment for immigrants. However, th e scale
of immigration was exceptional , involv ing tens of thousands of people on both sides of the Sierra
Nevada. Elsewhere ( Plunket and Urufiuela 1998, 2006, 2008; Urufiuela et al. 2006, 2009), we have

97
suggested that in the second half of the first century A.D. , a massive eruption of Popocatepetl drove
people out of the piedmont as many communities were displaced by the catastrophe and its
consequences; emerging cities beyond the risk zone seem to have been best equipped to handle the
sudden influx of refugees, perhaps because they were able to direct the cheap immigrant labor
towards the construction of monumental architecture. Based on our remapping of the substructures of
Cholula's Pyramid, we now explore the nature of the Tenninal Fonnative and Early Classic temple
that the city 's rulers built, and consider the visual vocabulary they developed to promulgate and
legitimize their budding power.

El Edificio de los Chapulines

The oldest stage of the Great Pyramid was the previously unreported Edificio de la Olla (see Figure
4) (Uruiiuela et al. 2006, 2009). This minor adobe building constructed in the first century marked
for the first time the ritual space that would be maintained through many centuries as the seat for the
main temple in Cholula. However, the first truly monumental stage of the Pyramid was the second
substructure: "EI Edificio de los Chapulines", built around A.D. 100, barely a generation after the
eruption. After compensating for deformations and settling, thi s seven-level building measured
almost 108m E-W by at least 129 N-S, and it stood around 185m high (Figure 5). Each of its tiers is
morphologically distinct, and stairways on all four sides invite ascent from different directions, an
"acropolis" design with several terraces perhaps intended for diverse ritual events. In fact, the layout
may have been dev ised for community-wide process ions, like those that still take place today.

Figure 5. Reconstruction of the "Edificio de los Chapu1ines". View from the NW. Projecting to the
north on top of the raised plaza, an earlier small platform (inside the red circle) juts from beneath
Los Chapulines ' NW corner.

98
 The west side of Los Chapulines is commonly described as its primary fa9ade because of its
wide staircase, but on this front there is no entrance to the unroofed precinct on top of the mound.
Instead, access to this 20-meter-square enclosure is at its northwest comer, facing and aligned with
the main steps on the north, thus suggesting that the north was in fact the most important front. The
west stairway was perhaps more symbolic since it faces the volcano, a constant reminder of the
uncontrollable power that may have brought the community together. This interpretation is supported
by the fact that, when Los Chapulines was scaled by the next constmction stage, the wide staircases
on the north , east , and south were dismantled , while the one on the west was left intact and covered
over. In this manner, the tennination rite respected the elements associated with the supernatural
forces, disassembling only the paths directly related to the human authorities who were being
replaced.
Approaching Los Chapulines from the north one would step onto a raised plaza, and then
aseend a wide night of steps to a terrace on the fourth level. To the right would be a small platfornl
(the Chapulincitos Platfonn), and flanking the staircase rising to the next level, two post-and-beam
galleries with square pillars. There may have been a paired platfonn on the left , but this area remains
unexplored. The small platfornl once had murals and modeled motifs decorating all four sides, and
its black tab/eros still bear the remains of red skulls. Above the tab/em is a clay cornice of modeled
interlocking red, yellow and green volutes (Figura 6), and multicolored feathers appear to cloak the
body of a serpent (see Plunket and Uruiiuela 2012: Figure 9). The volutes are perhaps a visual
metaphor for "smoke and mist," a phrase used in later Aztec times to refer to the glory ofa dead king
(Sullivan and Knab 1994:207).

Figure 6. Detail of the "Chapulincitos Platform". Note the clay cornice of modeled
interlocking red, yellow and green volutes above the tublero.

99
 From the fourth level, one
wou ld ascend the steps to the upper
enclosure, passing between the
murals on the sixth and seventh tiers.
Here the tab/eros again are painted
with skulls that stare out from the
black background as if emerging
from the underworld to wh ich th ey
belong (Figure 7, and see Figure 5).
Placed betwecn the skull s are the
segmented bodies of red in sects.
The layout of the north side b
suggests a sequence of ritual s that
begins on the fourth level and ends "
inside the upper enclosure. We
dOIl 't know whether the small Figure 7. One of th e painted red skulls of the sixth level of
platfonn on the fourt h story the uEdificio de los Chapulines".
supported a structure, but if not, it
may have served to elevate one or more individuals so that they cou ld be seen from below,
surrounding them with feathered serpent imagery, cloud scrolls, and ancestral skull s. This
iconography intimates that the act ivi ties that took place here were related to rulership, and perhaps
were prelude to the ri tes ca rri ed out in the upper precinct.
The mural s on the top two levels could be seen from a distance, and their human skulls that
view ou r world from the shadows of the tab/eros- in effect portals to the land of the dead- are key
to the entire building's message. Congregat ions of ancestors surround the most sign ifi cant areas of
the building, and the ascend ing nature of these spaces, from the fourth to the seventh level, suggests
two main moments performed before the ancestral images. The skulls and the insects that inhabit the
dark underworld define these areas as sacred space from where the assembled predecessors could
witness and endorse the actions of their li ving descendants. Thus, the ceremonies perfomled there
must have required the sanction of ancient authority represented by the skeletal images. Their
impersona l rendering and repetition suggests that they don't refer to one particular ancestor, but
rather to a generalized ot herworld com munity. By centering the access to all ancestors in one
magnificent bui lding, Cho lula 's rulers were creat ing a new common identity for their heterogeneous
population.
Los Chapu lines was bu ilt over earlier minor platfonns, and part of one of these was left jutting
out from its northwest comer (see Figure 5), the first example of another singular feature that from
then on became typical of the entire seq uence of the Pyramid: intentionally leaving parts of prior
constnlctions visible.

Los Tab/eros Lisos

Few tunnels trace the contours of Los Tableros Li sos (see Figure 4), the Pyramid' s thi rd stage (not
previously reported), but except on the west where it creates a large plaza, it seems to repli cate the
morphology of Los Chapulines (Figures 8 and 9), maintaining a design that favored large terraces at
different level s with a variety of staircases. Again , it left apparent and functioning sections of the
northern face of Los Chapulines.
Los Tab leros Lisos was built during the middle of the second century A.D., and although it is
barely one meter higher than its predecessor, it grew considerably to the south and to the west. The
T-shaped plan of the lower fi ve ti ers is perhaps a reference to cave ent rances where connections
cou ld be made to the otherworld, thus designating the templ e comp lex as a place to affirnl the
covenant between the li vi ng and the dead.

100
Figure 8. " Los Tableros Lisos" (white lines) replicates
Chapulines", but adds a large plaza to the west

los Chapuhnes (center), and the Jaguar Platform (SE corner)

-
Los Tableros Usos
Escalonado 1 0
\ 20m
- Escalonado 2

Figure 9. Schematic pl ans of construction stages from Los Chapulines to the Esca lonado 2.

JOJ
The Stepped Pyramids
The Pyramid's fourth and fifth stages, the Edificio Escalonado I (previously unreported) and the
Escalonado 2, constitute a radical change (see Figures 4 and 9). We know less about the Escalonado
I because the tunnels almost always traced the Escalonado 2, but it represented a huge investment in
the early third century A.D. The platfonn almost doubled its height , now rising to 34m, and
significantly amplified its base and added a wide raised plaza to the east; however, on its NW comer
the lower four levels were extended to the north, creating one lateral terrace on the first level and
another on the fourth. Instead of using adobe for the core as before, limestone was hauled from 9 km
away, which suggests that this was an affluent period in the city's history. The Escalonado I is a
nine-level platfonn thai rather than smooth taluds had stepped surfaces on all four sides, conceivably
the source ofCholula 's Mixtec name, Nuu Ndiyo or Town of the Stairs (Sm ith 1973:72). This design
was replicated in the Escalonado 2 that covered it in the second half of the third century. The new
nine-tiered design suggests that the two Escalonados added yet another powerful underworld
reference by evoking the nine levels of that region.
The Escalonado 2 added just one meter to the height of the Escalonado I, and on the north and
south lies directly over it (see Figures 4 and 9), but on the east it extends the platfonn another 25m,
covering part of the east plaza of the Escalonado I, but leaving the easternmost 20m of Ihat
architectural space visible; like the previous building, a latera l extension was constructed on the NW
corner. Most of the en largement was made of adobe instead of limestone, plausibly a strategy to
emulate the magnificence of the previous monument but at a lower cost. All four ｦ｡ｾ､･ ｳ＠ of the
Escalonado I and 2 are important, each one distinct and asymmetri c, employing on ly the placement
of the drains as visua l axes to give the impression of a harmonic distribution. Again, these buildings
also left portions of previous structures in play. For examp le, on the NW extension the Escalonado 2
preserved the terrace of the fourth level of the Esca lonado I and, as mentioned above, it also left
partially visible the raised east plaza of the Escalonado 1 (Figure 10); on the SE, both Escalonados
maintained the ｦ｡ｾ､･＠ of an older building from the time of Los Chapu lines: the " Jaguar Platfonn",
whose black tablero exhib its jaguars and feathered serpents, possibly locked in an epic battle (Figure
11 and see Figure 10). Moreover, although the mapping is still in progress, we are currently
obtaining the data from the NW corner, and these seem to indicate that on the west side both
Esca lonados conserved the entire ｦ｡ｾ､･＠ of Los Tableros Lisos (see Figure 9); sinee this was
composed of taluds, it contrasted sharply with the stepped surfaces of the Esca lonados. The
preservation of Los Tableros Lisos ' taluds on the west suggests that perhaps this face was never
intended to provide the same accessibility as the rest of the monument.

<

FigurelO. Iso mel ric NE view of the Esca lonado 2 that left visible sections of the
Escalonado I (gray areas) and the "Jaguar Platform" (in red).

102
 o 20m
I J

Figurell. Detail oflhe SE corner oflhe Escalonado 2, showing the "Jaguar Platform".

Comments

We have discussed the visual vocabulary that Cholula's rulers used 10 establish and legitimize their
power and these ideas can be summarized as follows:
I. The design and layout of Cho lula 's monumental architecture is quite different from that of
Teotihuacan. Cholula 's temple complex is more like an acropo li s than a pyramid and was
designed to create an inclusive rather than exclusive ovcrarching ideology. In Teotihuacan 's
pyramids the focal point is the templc on top, which is reached by a single staircase. In
contrast, the multiple accesses and large terraces at different levels of Los Chapulines and
Los Tableros Lisas suggest a model appropriate for diverse cult activities in which much of
the population could participate. That public accessibility is even more obvious in the stepped
ｦ｡ｾ､･ｳ＠ of the Escalonados, a message of inclusion that strongly contrasts with Teotihuacan 's
plain taluds and single stairways that proclaim exclusion.
2. This does not mean that these buildings had a totally democratic or an anarchic design. The
main staircase of Los Chapulines is the on ly one flanked by decorated tableros. Also,
2
although hundreds of worshipers could fit on the numerous terraces, the 400m upper precinct
is for a small er group, and on the south side of the wide wall that delimits it, a narrow
staircase indicates that the access to that particular area was limited to those who officiated
the rites. This same pattern is maintained in Los Tableros Lisos. In the Escalonados, although
three of their sides offer general access to the top, staircases are superimposed on the stepped
surfaces, highlighting the formal route, and the west side, which was constituted by the taluds
of the previous Los Tableros Lisos building seems to have been more restricted. In any case,

[OJ
 although the mapping of the next construction stage is still pending, after the Escalonado 2
the message of inclusion seems to change, since Structure 6 apparently used high slopping
walls instead of stepped ｦ｡ｾ､･ｳＮ＠
3. Cholula's buildings continually use visual metaphors to reference the ancestors and the
underworld: a) The black tableros with skulls and creatures of the dark evoke the land of the
dead; b) the ｔｾ ｳ ｨ｡ｰ･､＠ tiers indicate loci where negotiations between the living and the dead
could take place; c) the frames of volutes define the space associated with the world of the
ancestors; and d) the ｮｩ･ｾｴｲ､＠ platforms cite the nine levels of the underworld.
4. Another particular trait of Cholula is that each new pyramid not only covered the previous
one, but also integrated into its core several nearby platfonns. This had two profitable results:
a larger monument was obtained with considerably less investment; and, by covering the
earlier building, the new monument took on its sacred character, but it also hid forever the
symbols of achievement of past authorities, replacing them with the ones that expressed the
power of the new ruler. But then, l. why does each stage leave apparent parts of older
constructions? Rather than careless planning, it seems to be a strategy that symbolically links
the new pyramid to a real or fictitious illustrious past that legitimated the authority of the new
leader.
Our intention here has been to show how Cholula developed a visual vocabulary to express
ideas and concepts that were relevant to its own society. By mapping the stages of the Great Pyramid
and creating digital 3D models of their transfonnations, we are beginning to understand the
architectural language developed by Cholula's leaders to manifest their concepts of ｨｵｭ｡ｮ ｾ､ ｩｶｮ･＠
relations during the changing political environment of the Early Classic Mesoamerican world.

104
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n.d. Proyecto Cholula. Temporada 1968. Sccci6n de Topografia . Ms. on file, Archivo Tecnico del [NAB ,
Mex ico City, 1968 .
Marquina, Ignacio
1939 Exp[oraciones en la piramide de Cholula , Pue. In XXVII CO ligreso IlitemaciOlial de Americallistas.
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INA I-I-SEP, Mexico City.
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Investigaciones No. 19. INAH , Mexico City.
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