Archaeology of a Teotihuacan Neighborhood

In 2007, the number of people living in cities across the globe surpassed the number in rural areas, highlighting the need for more research on the development, organization, and decline of cities within cross-cultural and diachronic frameworks. Within this context, the Proyecto Hacienda Metepec is conducting research at the ancient metropolis of Teotihuacan in central Mexico.

Continuously occupied for over 1,000 years, the site presents an opportunity to study and ancient city over a long temporal sequence, and to ask question relevant to the urbanism in other times and places. What makes cities vulnerable to collapse and what makes them resilient? Can collapse be predicted from material evidence? To what extent is immigration involved in the processes of urban development and decline? In addressing these questions, this research will contribute to our broader understandings of urbanism and to the factors involved in societal disintegration.

This collaborative project brings together researchers to understand the factors involved in the decline of urbanism, the mechanisms of reconfiguration after collapse, and the effects of urban decline on the local population. The project focuses on a region of the city of Teotihuacan that was occupied through its decline, making it an opportune location to explore urban processes over a long temporal sequence. With the explicit goal of better characterizing the nature of the collapse, the project explores which aspect of material culture exhibited continuity between the pre- and post-collapse periods and which aspects exhibited discontinuity or change over time.