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THE TEMPLE OF QUETZALCOATL, TEOTIHUACAN: NEW DATA ON THE ORIGINS OF THE SACRIFICIAL VICTIMS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2020

T. Douglas Price Open the ORCID record for T. Douglas Price [Opens in a new window] ,
Michael W. Spence  and
Fred J. Longstaffe
T. Douglas Price*
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Archaeological Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1180 Observatory Drive, Madison, Wisconsin53706
Michael W. Spence
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Western Ontario, N6A 5C2London, Ontario, Canada
Fred J. Longstaffe
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Western Ontario, N6A 5B7London, Ontario, Canada
*
E-mail correspondence to: tdprice@wisc.edu
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Abstract

Continuing isotopic investigation of the sacrificial burials and trophies beneath the Feathered Serpent Pyramid (Temple of Quetzalcoatl) in ancient Teotihuacan, Mexico, has produced new results. Isotopic proveniencing using bioapatite strontium and structural carbonate oxygen isotopes in tooth enamel was applied to 39 samples, 24 from the sacrificial victims and 15 from the trophy jaws. Both the strontium and oxygen isotope ratios suggest that most or all of the sacrificial victims came from the central highlands of Mexico, which includes the area of Teotihuacan. In this sense, we find somewhat less multiethnicity represented among the military at Teotihuacan than previously thought. Analysis of carbon isotope ratios in enamel structural carbonate indicated a childhood diet dominated by maize, relatively homogeneous among the victims at the pyramid, and typical for much of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , Summer 2021 , pp. 215 - 230
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

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References

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