Research History of the Feathered Serpent Pyramid: Before 1988

Discoveries at the Feathered Serpent Pyramid before 1980

In 1917 Ignacio Marquina, as part of Manuel Gamio's project, carried out the first extensive excavations at the Ciudadela. The areas excavated included large platforms, parts of palaces, and the Feathered Serpent Pyramid. The impressive carved stone facade of the pyramid, then called the Templo de Quetzalcoatl by Mexican archaeologists, was discovered between the pyramid and the Adosada during the final stage of the excavation (Photo shows the front facade of the pyramid [right], which was covered by the Adosada platform [left]). Precious artifacts made of greenstone, obsidian, shell, and ceramics were discovered by the same project in association with burials located in fill deposits in the upper part of the pyramid. The burials were interpreted as secondary deposits of human bones exhumed from other places.

In 1925 Pedro Dosal unexpectedly discovered four graves at the four corners of the Feathered Serpent Pyramid, each containing a human skeleton and associated offerings. The offerings include 14 obsidian projectile points and approximately 400 pieces of shell fashioned into the form of perforated rectangular plaques simulating human teeth , identical to examples from graves discovered in the 1980s.

In 1939, under the orders of Alfonso Caso, José R. Pérez dug pits and tunnels at different places near the Feathered Serpent Pyramid. A large number of offerings were found in front of the staircase of the pyramid, and others were discovered under the staircase of the Adosada. These features were interpreted as offerings associated with the Feathered Serpent Pyramid and the Adosada, respectively. Two brief reports on these excavations are available: an unpublished manuscript by Pérez, written 15 days after the conclusion of fieldwork, and a brief report published eight years later by Daniel Rubín de la Borbolla. The first report contained more detailed information than the second, particularly about caches associated with the Feathered Serpent Pyramid.

Discoveries at the Feathered Serpent Pyramid between 1980 and 1987

The Proyecto Arqueológico Teotihuacán 1980-82 was directed by Rubén Cabrera of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (Cabrera et al. 1982a, 1982b, and 1991). As a major presidential program of the Mexican nation, this project had about 600 people engaged in excavation, conservation, and laboratory work, with field efforts directed mainly on the southern part of the Avenue of the Dead. The Ciudadela complex was selected by the project as a main focus for extensive excavation and conservation activities. The goal of this work was to remove all post-Teotihuacan layers from the huge precinct in order to expose the full monumentality of the Teotihuacan period constructions; virtually all structures in the Ciudadela, except for a small area east of theFeathered Serpent Pyramid, were excavated and consolidated for public display. (Photo shows a view of the North Palace with the Feathered Serpent Pyramid in the background, after the excavation and preservation work was concluded in 1982.)

The exploration of the Feathered Serpent Pyramid took place in 1982 (Cabrera and Sugiyama 1982), the first stage of excavation involving the removal of recent fill deposits related to erosional instabilities caused by Marquina's excavations in this area. (The first photo shows a west-east view of the south side of the Feathered Serpent Pyramid during the exploration; The second shows east-west view of the same after consolidation works.) The second stage, aimed at clarifying the stratigraphic relationships between the pyramid and the South Palace, involved digging trenches and test pits into the facade and floors of the corridor between the pyramid and the palace. In one of these test pits, the accidental discovery of a single grave (Grave 153) motivated the search for other burials at the Feathered Serpent Pyramid. The single individual found in this grave was a male who had thousands of small shell beads located around the thorax region. Stratigraphic evidence showed that the grave was sealed by floors laid down during the construction of the Feathered Serpent Pyramid.

In 1982, another test unit revealed the edges of a long, east-west pit excavated into the sterile subsoil level (tepetate), exactly on the centerline of the Feathered Serpent Pyramid and under the masonry north wall of the "South Palace". Investigations of this pit continued during the 1983-84 field season of the same project (Sugiyama 1989a). A total of 18 people, with offerings, were eventually uncovered (Grave 190). After the completion of the excavation, the burial of another individual (Grave 203; photo) was discovered to the west of Grave 190, its location mirroring the location of Grave 153 on the other side of the north-south centerline. While Grave 203 contained significantly different types of offerings, stratigraphic data and the spatial pattern formed by the distribution of the graves indicate that they all formed one sacrificial burial-cache complex directly associated with the erection of the pyramid. At the same time, the data from the south side suggested strongly that more graves remained undiscovered on the north and east sides of the Feathered Serpent Pyramid, as well as in the interior of the pyramid.

In 1986, a multiple burial (recorded later as Grave 204) was unearthed on the north side of the Feathered Serpent Pyramid in a practice excavation conducted by students studying physical anthropology at the Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia. Grave 204 is in a location of symmetry with respect to Grave 190, and the contexts of the two graves, and the materials associated with them, appear to have been very similar. The discovery of burials in the early 1980s, together with the excavation reports previously mentioned, were what triggered the next extensive excavations, carried out during the 1988-89, that sought to document a large scale, dedicatory complex at the Feathered Serpent Pyramid.