Ancient Archaeology meets Public History: Project Tlalocan, the Underworld Beneath the Feathered Serpent Temple

By: Kristine Malpica, Public History

As I enter the massive Ciudadela plaza in Teotihuacan Mexico, the sun is peering over the top of the Feathered Serpent Temple, one of the world’s most known edifices. Constructed around 250 C.E., this pyramidical monument of magnificently carved stone was once brilliantly decorated with plaster and brightly colored paint, honoring and celebrating Mesoamerica’s iconic symbol, the Feathered Serpent.

Casting my gaze from the Feathered Serpent Temple platform across the vast Ciudadela plaza, I can visualize hundreds of thousands of people gathering to participate in grand public ceremonies, during Teotihuacan’s apogee between 250-450 C.E. The latest archaeological research findings made by the Tlalocan Project, suggest that this plaza was intentionally flooded during the rainy season, in order to ritually reenact the origins of cosmological time, the calendar and agricultural cycles. During these large public spectacles, the Feathered Serpent Temple metaphorically represented the mountain of creation, rising from the primordial sea, solidifying ideological and political power and social cohesion.

Today, I am the one of the first to arrive at this popular UNESCO World Heritage archaeological site, once North America’s first metropolis of over 100,000, now attracting millions of international visitors annually. This ancient complex transports me across time and space as I listen to the throngs of tour groups, vendors hawking their crafts, music from flutes, barking dogs and myriad sounds filling the air. I can easily imagine this urban capital, nearly two thousand years ago, with similar sights and sounds of a bustling cosmopolitan civic center, pilgrimage destination and vast marketplace.

Seventeen meters below my feet, archaeologist Sergio Gomez Chavez and the Tlalocan Project (an international team of multi-disciplinary specialists administered by Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History) made one of archaeology’s most astounding discoveries in the past century- a man-made tunnel and cave structure beneath the Temple of the Feathered Serpent. It has taken over 15 years for the team to remove over 1000 tons of earth, using the latest technologies and methodologies, in order to uncover hundreds of thousands of objects ritually buried by the ancient Teotihucanaos and not seen for nearly two millennia. This project made headline news and shed new light on this ancient site.

Recently, objects excavated from the tunnel beneath the Feathered Serpent Temple were exhibited in the U.S. for the first time, garnering much public interest. This has prompted the Tlalocan Project to embark on an ambitious new plan to make their collections available to museums. This would disseminate the project’s research worldwide and introduce ancient Teotihuacan society to global audiences, who can share in the excitement of archaeological discovery and view objects which have seldom or never before been publicly seen.

To promote the installation of exhibitions of the Teotihuacan collections in museums around the world, the Tlalocan Project is creating an exhibition prospectus to share with interested institutions. As an intern, I began the process of preparing this prospectus, which will include crucial information for borrowing institutions, including the significant cultural history of Teotihuacan; the history and background of the Tlalocan Project; and the important discoveries made in the tunnel beneath the Feathered Serpent Temple. It will also describe the scope of archaeological collections available for exhibition and present the team’s research on the objects.

My primary responsibility in creating this prospectus focused on researching the Tlalocan project history over the past 15 years, placing it in context with related archaeological excavations at the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, Ciudadela complex and Teotihuacan, more broadly. I conducted this research in a broad array of primary and secondary sources, including books; journal articles; press releases; media articles; interviews with Tlalocan project and museum staff; television documentaries; museum exhibition catalogues; lecture transcripts and presentations. I have also helped to identify and select multi-media resources, including photos, videos, 3D graphic imagery and other materials which will support the new exhibitions. I also worked closely with Tlalocan Project staff to identify the short and long term museum exhibition goals and objectives.

Finding, interpreting and synthesizing this great abundance of materials from disparate sources has sharpened my research, writing and organizational skills. The language barrier has challenged me to improve my Spanish and translation skills and also read between the lines to understand and analyze, to the best of my ability. This process has honed my communication skills and taught me new ways to navigate cultural and linguistic differences. This internship gave me opportunities to broaden my academic and professional relationships and experiences working with an international institution and team of multidisciplinary researchers. This will undoubtedly serve me well in an increasingly multicultural, globalized museum and public history field.

It has been a privilege and pleasure to deepen my knowledge of Teotihuacan and further my involvement with the Tlalocan project, as they begin an exciting new public history and exhibition chapter.

Looking ahead, I hope to assist with the next stages of planning and development for new international partnerships with institutions where interpretive museum exhibits can be hosted. I also hope to help forge long term collaborations, by working with Tlalocan project staff to evaluate and determine ways that U.S. students, researchers and institutions can partner on this important research and exhibits, which can serve as a model to promote transnational cooperation.

This internship experience has taught me much about Teotihuacan as an important cultural and historical site of pilgrimage past and present. In our current climate of political, social and ethnic tensions, we can learn many lessons from Teotihuacan, one of the most multicultural ancient societies with a large immigrant population. Like this ancient society, we face many challenges today in integrating different cultures, nationalities and languages and must work cooperatively, working across borders towards solutions that build bridges that unite, not walls that divide.