The Origin of Ancient States in Mesoamerica : Ideology and Polity Materialized at the Moon Pyramid, Teotihuacan

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The Moon Pyramid, one of the main monuments in Teotihuacan, Mexico, was intensively excavated in order to understand the state ideology, the political structure, and the urbanization process of this planned ancient city. As a joint project with the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History, we carried out three-month fieldwork during the summer of 2000 and 2001. The recording and analyses of the materials obtained, input of the information, ink-drawing, and other laboratory works have been taking place at the Aichi Prefectural University and the local research center in Teotihuacan, where we store virtually all excavated materials. Our tunnel excavation into the core of the Moon Pyramid revealed that there were seven architectural stages (named one to seven), each one superimposed above its earlier one, and that there were three burial complexes, called Burial 2, 3, and 4, which were associated with the fourth, fifth, and sixth stages respectively. Burial 4, discovered near the center of the Moon Pyramid in 2000, was composed of 17 human heads decapitated without any offering. A new tunnel excavated near the top of the pyramid in 2001-2002 uncovered the upper floor of the 5^<th> building. We also found the rest of possible temple or alter and two burial pits on this upper floor when we were concluding the 2002 fieldwork, therefore we plan to explore the burials in 2002-2003 season. Trenches and pits were excavated around the perimeter of the pyramid in order to temporally and spatially locate the Moon Pyramid in its city-wide context. As a result, the long modification process of the monument is now fully understood ; the process appears to have reflected expanding state politics, and the contents of the burials would have represented the state ideology and characteristics of its government as well. Particularly the importance of sacrificial rituals and military institutions was stressed as a fundamental factor of the state formation and transformation.