Reexamining “uniformity” at Teotihuacan

Abstract

As North America’s largest city during the first half millennium CE, Teotihuacan stands out in many ways. Its growth in the northeastern Basin of Mexico transformed the immediate area into a bustling, urban landscape marked by grand monuments, and the surrounding region into a political territory subject to a powerful state. A key part of this trajectory was the development of a complex economy entailing the circulation of goods within the city and along networks that linked surrounding communities. It is highly likely that Teotihuacan had a thriving market system that included neighborhood-scale and large, central marketplaces (Clayton 2015b; Millon 1973; Sullivan 2006). Many of the durable goods that were used in household contexts at Teotihuacan were mass-produced in large workshops. Some of these were centrally located (Cowgill 2015; Múnera Bermúdez 1985); others were embedded within residential neighborhoods across the city and on its suburban margins (Cabrera Cortés 2011; Gómez Chávez 1996; Millon 1973). The prolific use of molds in ceramic production made it possible to expediently create virtually identical vessels, masks, figurines, and ornaments. Mass production in the context of a market economy meant that countless “copies” of objects could be widely distributed to households across the city and in outlying communities. These circumstances would have resulted in considerable