Dec 97/Jan 98 - Snake becomes jaguar, Teotihuacan (detail)
These heads support a theory that the events recounted in the most famous of Mexican legends took place here, that Teotihuacan was the home of the legendary priest-king Topiltzin before he was driven out by adherents of the cult of Tezcatlipoca, rather than the Toltec capital Tollan, considered by most to be Tula (see my photo taken at Tula), and that this legend is much older than the popular estimate. "Aztec annals tell of Topiltzin, Toltec priest-king - fair-skinned, black-bearded, and long-haired - who founded Tollan. ... He was dedicated to peaceful worship (which only involved the sacrifice of animals) of the feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl. But Tollan was also home to devotees of [the less likable] Tezcatlipoca (Smoking Mirror), god of warriors, witchcraft, life and death, whose worship required human sacrifice. Tezcatlipoca appeared in various guises to provoke Topiltzin. As a naked chili-seller, he aroused the lust of Topiltzin's daughter and then married her; as an old man he persuaded the teetotalling Topiltzin to get drunk. Humiliated, Topiltzin left for the Gulf coast where he set sail eastward on a raft of snakes promising one day to return and reclaim his throne. [Moctezuma and the Aztecs mistook Cortez for a prodigal Topiltzin in 1519.] The conventional wisdom is that Topiltzin set up a new Toltec state at Chichen Itza in Yucatan [a central Mexican named Kukulcan, 'winged serpent', invaded the Yucatan in 987 according to Mayan records], while the Tula Toltecs built a brutal, militaristic empire that dominated central Mexico." (LP) The jaguar was a totem of the cult of Tezcatlipoca, or jaguar worship was an aspect of it. A plaque in the square facing this temple explains that the lower portion exposed here with the snake's head sculpture had been covered in an ancient renovation, and that the exposed heads above, once snakes'-heads as well, were modified to become jaguars'-heads. Of course, this would be consistent with the temple's conversion from use in the worship of Quetzalcoatl to use in the worship of Tezcatlipoca. (But Teotihuacan fell centuries before Kukulcan arrived at Chichen Itza.)
- Tollan was "a place of splendour - legends speak of palaces of gold, turquoise, jade and quetzal feathers, of enormous corn cobs and coloured cotton that grew naturally." (LP) Teotihuacan fits that bill much better than Tula.
- "It was once thought that Tula influenced or invaded Chichen Itza because Chac Mool statues have been found there and because of the similarity in the sites' architectural styles and artifacts. ... However, Tula is now considered to have been a link along an Itza trade route stretching north to Paquime and south to Central America." (National Geographic)
- The Classic Mayan name for Teotihuacan in hieroglyphic texts has been deciphered as 'Puh' or 'Place of Reeds', the meaning of Tollan in Nahuatl. There's a theory that this was a generic name for any large settlement in the highlands, "a metaphor for a large gathering of people in a city as a bundle of reeds and rushes. ... Tula and Cholula [also] took the name Tollan". (Wikipedia) Tula was destroyed by 1179. How do we know what it was called before then? According to Stuart, there were "many so-called 'Tollans', ... [but] Teotihuacan was the archetype." So who knows?
- If Tollan was Teotihuacan ('Birthplace of the gods' in Nahuatl, an Aztec name), then the legend was 800-1000 yrs old when Cortez arrived, and just > 500 yrs old if Tollan was Tula. Most of what you'll read online accepts the standard history with Tollan as Tula, etc.
Update: Re the conjectural basis for the association /b/ Tula and the Tollan of legend, first made in the late 19th cent.: "Toltecs and Desirée Charnay: The site of Tula in Hidalgo state was first equated with Tollan in the archaeological sense in the late 19th cent. - the Aztecs were ambivalent about which set of ruins was Tollan, although Tula was certainly known to them. French expeditionary photographer Desirée Charnay (1828-1915) raised money to follow the legendary journey of Quetzalcoatl from Tula east to the Yucatan. When he arrived at Chichén Itzá, he noted serpent columns and a ball court ring that were similar to those he had seen at Tula, 800 miles (1,300 km.s) NW. Charnay had read the 16th cent. Aztec accounts and noted that the Aztecs gave the Toltecs credit for the creation of civilization, and he interpreted the architectural and stylistic similarities as evidence that Tollan, the capital city of the Toltecs, was Tula, with Chichen Itza its remote and conquered colony. By the 1940s, most archaeologists did as well.
- "Tula was fairly large but it didn't have much control over its close neighbours, let alone those at long distances. Teotihuacan, large enough and likely to be the centre of an empire, was long gone by the 9th cent. Many sites throughout Mesoamerica have linguistic references to Tula or Tollan or Tullin or Tulan: Tollan Chollolan is the full name for Cholula, for example, which has some Toltec aspects. The word seems to mean "Place of reeds". And although aspects and motifs, etc. identified as 'Toltec' appear at many sites along the Gulf Coast and elsewhere, there isn't much evidence for military conquest; the adoption of Toltec traits appears to have been selective, rather than imposed. Such aspects include the use of colonnaded galleries at temple sites; tablud-tablero architecture, chacmools and ball courts; relief sculptures with various versions of the mythical Quetzalcoatl 'jaguar-serpent-bird' icon; and relief images of carnivorous animals and birds of prey holding human hearts. There are also 'Atlantean' pillars with images of men in the 'Toltec military outfit' (also seen in chacmools), wearing pillbox helmets and butterfly-shaped pectorals and carrying atlatls. There is also a form of government that is part of the Toltec package, council-based rather than a centralized kingship, but where that arose is anyone's guess. Some of the 'Toltec' traits can be traced to the Early Classic period of the 4th cent. or earlier.
- "It seems clear that although there is no real consensus among archaeologists about the existence of a single Tollan or the identification of a Toltec empire, there was some sort of inter-regional flow of ideas throughout Mesoamerica that archaeologists have named Toltec. It's possible, perhaps likely, that much of that flow of ideas came about as a byproduct of the establishment of inter-regional trade networks [focused on] obsidian, salt, [etc.] by the 4th cent. (and probably much earlier), but really kicked into gear after the fall of Teotihuacan in 750. So, the word Toltec should be removed from the word "empire," certainly: and perhaps the best way to approach the concept is as a Toltec ideal, an art style, philosophy and form of government that served as the "exemplary centre" of all that was perfect and longed for by the Aztecs, an ideal echoed at other sites and cultures throughout Mesoamerica."
www.thoughtco.com/toltecs-semi-mythical-legend-of-aztecs-...
Dec 97/Jan 98 - Snake becomes jaguar, Teotihuacan (detail)
These heads support a theory that the events recounted in the most famous of Mexican legends took place here, that Teotihuacan was the home of the legendary priest-king Topiltzin before he was driven out by adherents of the cult of Tezcatlipoca, rather than the Toltec capital Tollan, considered by most to be Tula (see my photo taken at Tula), and that this legend is much older than the popular estimate. "Aztec annals tell of Topiltzin, Toltec priest-king - fair-skinned, black-bearded, and long-haired - who founded Tollan. ... He was dedicated to peaceful worship (which only involved the sacrifice of animals) of the feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl. But Tollan was also home to devotees of [the less likable] Tezcatlipoca (Smoking Mirror), god of warriors, witchcraft, life and death, whose worship required human sacrifice. Tezcatlipoca appeared in various guises to provoke Topiltzin. As a naked chili-seller, he aroused the lust of Topiltzin's daughter and then married her; as an old man he persuaded the teetotalling Topiltzin to get drunk. Humiliated, Topiltzin left for the Gulf coast where he set sail eastward on a raft of snakes promising one day to return and reclaim his throne. [Moctezuma and the Aztecs mistook Cortez for a prodigal Topiltzin in 1519.] The conventional wisdom is that Topiltzin set up a new Toltec state at Chichen Itza in Yucatan [a central Mexican named Kukulcan, 'winged serpent', invaded the Yucatan in 987 according to Mayan records], while the Tula Toltecs built a brutal, militaristic empire that dominated central Mexico." (LP) The jaguar was a totem of the cult of Tezcatlipoca, or jaguar worship was an aspect of it. A plaque in the square facing this temple explains that the lower portion exposed here with the snake's head sculpture had been covered in an ancient renovation, and that the exposed heads above, once snakes'-heads as well, were modified to become jaguars'-heads. Of course, this would be consistent with the temple's conversion from use in the worship of Quetzalcoatl to use in the worship of Tezcatlipoca. (But Teotihuacan fell centuries before Kukulcan arrived at Chichen Itza.)
- Tollan was "a place of splendour - legends speak of palaces of gold, turquoise, jade and quetzal feathers, of enormous corn cobs and coloured cotton that grew naturally." (LP) Teotihuacan fits that bill much better than Tula.
- "It was once thought that Tula influenced or invaded Chichen Itza because Chac Mool statues have been found there and because of the similarity in the sites' architectural styles and artifacts. ... However, Tula is now considered to have been a link along an Itza trade route stretching north to Paquime and south to Central America." (National Geographic)
- The Classic Mayan name for Teotihuacan in hieroglyphic texts has been deciphered as 'Puh' or 'Place of Reeds', the meaning of Tollan in Nahuatl. There's a theory that this was a generic name for any large settlement in the highlands, "a metaphor for a large gathering of people in a city as a bundle of reeds and rushes. ... Tula and Cholula [also] took the name Tollan". (Wikipedia) Tula was destroyed by 1179. How do we know what it was called before then? According to Stuart, there were "many so-called 'Tollans', ... [but] Teotihuacan was the archetype." So who knows?
- If Tollan was Teotihuacan ('Birthplace of the gods' in Nahuatl, an Aztec name), then the legend was 800-1000 yrs old when Cortez arrived, and just > 500 yrs old if Tollan was Tula. Most of what you'll read online accepts the standard history with Tollan as Tula, etc.
Update: Re the conjectural basis for the association /b/ Tula and the Tollan of legend, first made in the late 19th cent.: "Toltecs and Desirée Charnay: The site of Tula in Hidalgo state was first equated with Tollan in the archaeological sense in the late 19th cent. - the Aztecs were ambivalent about which set of ruins was Tollan, although Tula was certainly known to them. French expeditionary photographer Desirée Charnay (1828-1915) raised money to follow the legendary journey of Quetzalcoatl from Tula east to the Yucatan. When he arrived at Chichén Itzá, he noted serpent columns and a ball court ring that were similar to those he had seen at Tula, 800 miles (1,300 km.s) NW. Charnay had read the 16th cent. Aztec accounts and noted that the Aztecs gave the Toltecs credit for the creation of civilization, and he interpreted the architectural and stylistic similarities as evidence that Tollan, the capital city of the Toltecs, was Tula, with Chichen Itza its remote and conquered colony. By the 1940s, most archaeologists did as well.
- "Tula was fairly large but it didn't have much control over its close neighbours, let alone those at long distances. Teotihuacan, large enough and likely to be the centre of an empire, was long gone by the 9th cent. Many sites throughout Mesoamerica have linguistic references to Tula or Tollan or Tullin or Tulan: Tollan Chollolan is the full name for Cholula, for example, which has some Toltec aspects. The word seems to mean "Place of reeds". And although aspects and motifs, etc. identified as 'Toltec' appear at many sites along the Gulf Coast and elsewhere, there isn't much evidence for military conquest; the adoption of Toltec traits appears to have been selective, rather than imposed. Such aspects include the use of colonnaded galleries at temple sites; tablud-tablero architecture, chacmools and ball courts; relief sculptures with various versions of the mythical Quetzalcoatl 'jaguar-serpent-bird' icon; and relief images of carnivorous animals and birds of prey holding human hearts. There are also 'Atlantean' pillars with images of men in the 'Toltec military outfit' (also seen in chacmools), wearing pillbox helmets and butterfly-shaped pectorals and carrying atlatls. There is also a form of government that is part of the Toltec package, council-based rather than a centralized kingship, but where that arose is anyone's guess. Some of the 'Toltec' traits can be traced to the Early Classic period of the 4th cent. or earlier.
- "It seems clear that although there is no real consensus among archaeologists about the existence of a single Tollan or the identification of a Toltec empire, there was some sort of inter-regional flow of ideas throughout Mesoamerica that archaeologists have named Toltec. It's possible, perhaps likely, that much of that flow of ideas came about as a byproduct of the establishment of inter-regional trade networks [focused on] obsidian, salt, [etc.] by the 4th cent. (and probably much earlier), but really kicked into gear after the fall of Teotihuacan in 750. So, the word Toltec should be removed from the word "empire," certainly: and perhaps the best way to approach the concept is as a Toltec ideal, an art style, philosophy and form of government that served as the "exemplary centre" of all that was perfect and longed for by the Aztecs, an ideal echoed at other sites and cultures throughout Mesoamerica."
www.thoughtco.com/toltecs-semi-mythical-legend-of-aztecs-...