Teotihuacán was one of the thriving cultures in pre-Hispanic times in Mesoamerica. Located in the Central Valley, about 40 kilometers from Mexico City, this city-state was a dominant focal point between 200 and 650 AD, a time known as the Classic period, and its influence affected other contemporary civilizations.
The architectural layout of the site is identified by a road about two kilometers long (Avenue of the Dead) that articulates the political-administrative and religious centers, with buildings as significant and impressive as the Pyramid of the Sun, the Pyramid of the Moon and the Temple of the Feathered Serpent.
Around the year 550 AD, however, the urban population began to decrease and various buildings were destroyed, events that were accompanied by widespread fires. A team of Spanish researchers states, in an article published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, that a systematic analysis of the damage to the pyramids reveals the effects of several megaearthquakes.
Archaeologists identified destruction compatible with a strong earthquake in the west staircase of the Old Temple of the Feathered Serpent, in the first rows of the west staircase of the Adosada platform (New Temple) and in the Pyramid of the Sun. In total, they They have determined up to five different ancient earthquakes from the Tzacualli period (1-100 AD) to the Xolalpan-Metepec (450-550 AD).
“Repeated megaearthquakes off the Pacific coast may be responsible for the pattern of damage to buildings. This proposal does not conflict with other existing theories about the abrupt collapse of Teotihuacán, considering that the sudden superposition of natural disasters could have increased internal tension (uprisings) and social unrest,” the experts write.
At least two of these earthquakes, according to the researchers, would have exceeded 8.5 points on the moment magnitude scale, a measurement system that placed the 2011 earthquake in Tohoku (Japan) at 9.1 points, the fourth most powerful recorded on the planet in the last 500 years.
It must be taken into account, archaeologists say, that the expansion and rapid growth of Teotihuacán could already be related to the volcanic eruptions of Popocatépetl (50-100 AD) and Xitle (around 300 AD), which left this city as a strategic union point in the Central Valley.
The earthquakes that caused cracks in the corners, displacement and rotation of masonry blocks, collapse of walls and destruction of the upper parts of buildings would have even been the cause of the evolution of the Teotihuacan architectural style, which expanded the main religious buildings. and political, such as the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon, and rebuilt the Temple of the Feathered Serpent.
Teotihuacán, which reached 22 square kilometers at its peak, had an estimated population of between 100,000 and 200,000 inhabitants. But from the year 550 AD. A drastic decline in population, fires and building collapses began, marking the beginning of the Epiclassic Period in the central highlands of Mexico. The abandonment of the city is related to the exodus to Xochicalco and the flourishing of Toltec culture in Tula.
Researchers believe that analysis of liquefaction (the chemical process that generates a liquid from a solid) and deformation of sediments from Lake Texcoco, located near the city-state, could shed more light on the paleoseismic records that affected the central basin of Mexico.
What Spanish specialists are clear about is that earthquakes played a fundamental role in the evolution of the ancient city of Teotihuacán, significantly impacting its architectural development and ultimately contributing to its decline and abandonment.
