Teotihuacan: The First Metropolis in the Americas | SLICE HISTORY | Full Documentary

Archaeologists are now certain. It is in Mexico, 30 miles from the capital city, that the first metropolis of the Americas was born, ancient Teotihuacan. Built in the second century BC, the city continued to expand until its decline in the sixth century. Neither Maya or Zapotec, Teotihuacan's origins aren't linked to any known culture. It's a civilization that's totally unique. After a century of searching, scientists are just beginning to unveil its fabulous history. They found that this city, this civilization, attracted populations from all over Mesoamerica, creating a new model, the cosmopolitan metropolis. When you arrive here, what you see most prominently are those two giant pyramids, the Pyramid of the Moon over there at the end of the Avenue of the Dead, and then, of course, the Pyramid of the Sun right in front of me. It's a colossal monument with a volume of 35 million cubic feet. About 2,000 years ago, its builders did not have any metal tools, nor machines, nor draft animals. Everything was built with human sweat and tears. It's amazing. To reach the top, you must climb the 265 steps of its monumental staircase. These pyramids were the first to be searched by the explorers of the 19th century. But in reality, they're at the center of a huge site which occupies almost the entire valley. It's arguably the biggest archaeological site of ancient America, if not the world. Its population was huge for the time, nearly 120,000 inhabitants. At its peak, between the second and the fifth century, Teotihuacan stretched over 5,000 acres, which, according to archaeologists, made it the first metropolis of the Americas. What is its story? How did it develop into the largest city in pre-Columbian America? Saburo Sugiyama has been trying to answer these questions for 37 years. He studied the city's three major monuments, the Citadel, the Pyramid of the Sun, and the Pyramid of the Moon. And he came to understand how this city was born. Before, people thought that the Pyramid of the Sun was built first, then the Citadel, and finally, the Pyramid of the Moon. But today, thanks to architectural studies of the monuments, measurements, positioning, and orientation, we've developed a very precise map. We discovered that these three major monuments were all built at the same time, in the second century AD. They were all started together at the beginning, and it seems these pyramids played a very important role, attracting people to come to live here. We think this because we've determined that the residential areas were built after the pyramids. So everything began with the building of this monumental center, organized around the Avenue of the Dead. Still today, no one knows who began this project. Research has never elucidated this point. But Saburo has discovered why the city developed around this ceremonial center. To understand, one must climb to the top of the Pyramid of the Moon. The view is spectacular. Yes, and at the time, people said that only the gods could have built such giant monuments. You have in front of you the Avenue of the Dead and the Plaza of the Moon that could easily contain 100,000 people. We searched inside the pyramids, and we found evidence of ceremonies, including human sacrifices. Just imagine, with this clear view, a human sacrifice performed high up here could have been seen from far, far away. Do we know what purpose these sacrifices served? We unearthed many representations of the human sacrifice performed here. We also unearthed images of the god of water. The various peoples who came to Teotihuacan all believed that there was a god of water, because here and throughout Mesoamerica, they lived mainly from growing corn and squash. So water was very important. Saburo also discovered that the layout of the ceremonial center of the city was linked to the staging of astronomical events. He observed that at the winter solstice, the sun, on its course east to west, is drifting to the south near the Pyramid of the Sun, indicating the start of the dry season, while at the summer solstice, the sun moves northward near the Pyramid of the Moon, which announced the rainy season. According to Saburo, this staging of the cult of water acted like a magnet, drawing a growing population to Teotihuacan. This is why the different populations wanted to come to live here. They thought they were coming to the center of the world, to the Axis Mundi, represented by the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. Teotihuacan would have been a powerful spiritual center whose reputation traveled beyond its borders, attracting people from far away. That's what's suggested by the latest archaeological discoveries. Close to the Avenue of the Dead and the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon, they've uncovered nearly 700 fragments of Maya murals, of which only about 10 are restored. This is a fabulous discovery, and now that I see them, I see their state of preservation is amazing. The colors are vivid. Yes, it's an unexpected discovery, very surprising, and I think it's crucial to help us understand how the city developed. If you look closely, it's really Maya Maya. What you see here was created by the hands of Maya artisans. And what is it that's typically Maya in these drawings, in these motifs? Well, first, there are the very thin lines, the tones of the colors, and the type of drawings, which are typically Maya. All of this proves that the Maya craftsmen came to Teotihuacan to paint. The Maya rich enough to create these decors immigrated here. This is very surprising, because the Maya cities located between the Yucatan Peninsula, Chiapas, and the current Guatemalan lowlands are more than 1,000 miles from Teotihuacan. In one of these cities, San Bartolo, Maya paintings covering the walls of the house of an elite have allowed archaeologists to verify this hypothesis. Their style corresponds exactly to fragments discovered at Teotihuacan. Finding such a perfect form of Maya art here, is that proof that the Mayas lived here in Teotihuacan? Yes, thanks to this discovery, we know that high-ranking Mayas migrated to Teotihuacan to live here around 300, 350 AD. A group of Mayas chose to immigrate to Teotihuacan. During their excavations, archaeologists discovered that the Mayas were not the only foreigners coming to settle here. Like the Italian, Chinese, or Indian neighborhoods of today's contemporary cities, Teotihuacan would have had several neighborhoods populated by foreigners. Veronica Ortega has extensively excavated one of these neighborhoods. She's uncovered more than 80 graves, of which more than half are of Zapotec origin, a civilization that lived at the same time as Teotihuacan. As you can see, the body is fully extended. This position is very different from what we found in other parts of the city, where the dead are in a folded position. Here, the arms are extended along the body. This is very specific to Zapotec culture. A typically Zapotec burial method. Are there other archaeological elements that could support this hypothesis of Zapotec origins? Yes, there are. We found some of the funerary offerings associated with this tomb. This piece, for example, is a god of the underworld, which is commonly found at Monte Alban, a Zapotec city. We also have these small vases, representing the god of water. They're very common in Teotihuacan. But the fact that the handles are attached in this way, that's rather characteristic of Monte Alban. All this confirms that we are looking at a Zapotec person, who certainly came from Monte Alban. A Zapotec funerary model with Zapotec objects. What can we deduce? That these people kept a strong connection to the Zapotec region. They came from there, they were born there, and then migrated to Teotihuacan. Or some were second or third generation immigrants. But they maintained a strong link with the Zapotec people. Maybe when they went out in the town, they looked like Teotihuacans. But in the privacy of their home, their way of life resembled that of their origins. If I understand well, we have something like New York's melting pot, with an Italian neighborhood and Chinese, with people who are arriving with pieces of their culture. And continue it, but they're part of the American culture. Yes, that's it. We've understood that Teotihuacan was a multi-ethnic society. Its population consisted of immigrants from throughout Mesoamerica. They spoke lots of different languages. They tried to keep a link with their roots and their areas of origin. But also to create a specifically Teotihuacan identity, just like in New York, where people maintain their links with their countries of origin, while trying to adapt to that urban space to build a new cosmopolitan and metropolitan identity. So yes, it's an interesting comparison. The Mayas came from the lowlands, the Zapotecs from Monte Alban. Studying DNA and isotopes in bones and teeth of the deceased, anthropologists have discovered a multitude of immigrants from the neighboring regions of Puebla, Tlaxcala, the Gulf Coast, and Chiapas. This cosmopolitan model was unknown in the Americas. Teotihuacan would have been the first multi-ethnic metropolis of the continent. Excavating different neighborhoods, archaeologists discovered that this massive immigration allowed the city to dramatically enrich itself. On the outskirts of the city, at the Museum of Teotihuacan Culture, they preserved some of the finest pieces unearthed here, like these incense burners or these masks. It shows a rich and unusually diversified artisanal artistic activity. For the archaeologist Sergio Gomez, this is evidence of a very important economic exchange. In this room, we only see objects from various regions with which Teotihuacan had relations or was linked to. For example, this one. The finish is a very bright finish, and it's decorated with curls and hooks that are common to cultures on the Gulf of Mexico. So it was probably manufactured somewhere on the Gulf Coast. We also have objects from the Maya area, also from the west of Mexico and from the Zapotec region. This shows that Teotihuacan had strong trade relations with other regions. And that's due to Teotihuacan's cosmopolitan structure? Yes, the Teotihuacan state had great reason to tolerate the presence of various groups of foreigners in the city because they imported products from their home regions, where they knew the language and also the trade routes. All this trade allowed the Teotihuacan economy to prosper considerably. Thanks to these immigrants, Teotihuacan knew a particularly developed import activity. Sergio Gomez discovered that the city also produced and exported on a large scale, including objects made of obsidian, a volcanic rock sharper than glass, but also cotton and ceramics. Teotihuacan imported finished objects, but also a lot of raw materials that artisans transformed in their workshops to produce items that bore the seal of Teotihuacan. They were sold locally, but also exported out of the city. You're describing Teotihuacan as an international business center? Absolutely. People came here from northern Mexico and Central America to exchange goods because for many products at the time, Teotihuacan was the most important distribution center and a reference for economic activity and trade. So Teotihuacan became the economic capital of Mesoamerica. Thanks to this prosperity, the metropolis became urbanized with the construction of different neighborhoods from the Avenue of the Dead to the outskirts of the city. For the archaeologist Linda Manzanilla, Teotihuacan was the inventor of a new urban lifestyle. One of the reasons why half the rural population of the southern Mexico basin immigrated to Teotihuacan, and this also applies to the migrants from the other parts of Mesoamerica, is the quality of life offered by the city. It offered many services, a provisioning system, housing, a quality of life which did not exist in their home areas. And this large complex we're walking by is an example? It's called Tetitla, and it's a huge 40,000 square feet housing complex. There are others near here of the same size. But the further we move towards the city's outskirts, the smaller the houses are. This complex, consisting of residential apartments, would be among the first examples of group housing in the Americas. A one-level building, but with high-end finishing, with rich murals. Like this figure topped with a bird's head over its coiffure. This representation of an eagle spreading its wings. Or this fisherman was putting a shell in his net. By meticulously searching every room in the complex, the archaeologists were able to enter into the intimacy of the families who lived here. We studied the chemical contents in the ground, the liquids absorbed by the stucco, but also the pollens, the phytoliths, that tell us about the vegetation, the wildlife, seeds, artifacts, and the waste. All this has allowed us to determine which spaces were the work areas, generally in courtyard areas, or which are resting areas, because often we don't find anything in the floor of the bedrooms. It's true when we see the ruins, the paintings, the size of the spaces, they seem to live well here. Yes, I think that dividing the apartment into several rooms with different functions made life easier. There were quiet rooms with less light, while the working spaces, like the courtyards, were larger and brighter. The patios allow air to circulate, and kitchens and dining areas were to the side. It's clear that a family, mom, dad, and kids, could live very well in this space. A well-thought-out organization without loss of space, the American Urban Collective Housing Structure was probably born here. Archaeologists estimate that between 10 to 15 families were living in these large complexes. And all these families were gathered in the same enclosure, but why? Well, we believe there were professional groupings, people who practiced the same trade. For example, I searched a complex in which everyone worked to prepare the lime for the stucco that can be found on walls, floors, and streets. Yes, it's seen everywhere. Exactly. The whole city was covered with stucco, and so each family had its own independent apartment. But the families were grouped by their common activities. I understand better now how this city became the first major American metropolis. First, a religious center, it was able to invent a new multicultural urban model and developed into a regional economic capital. The question, who were its founders, becomes all the more exciting. Who was behind the metropolis's development? Who directed it? This enigma has haunted archaeologists for decades, but no scientist has yet been able to solve it. To advance in this quest, Saburo has chosen to search a strategic location, the Plaza of Columns in the heart of the city's monumental center in front of the Pyramid of the Sun. Here, three small pyramids are hidden beneath these mounds. This is a very big complex that must have had ceremonial, residential, and administrative functions. We think this was the perfect place to control and direct the city. It has never been excavated, although it's huge and was very important. This is why we've decided to work here. Saburo and his team have just begun excavating one of these pyramids. They're digging a tunnel to access the building's foundations and voyage back in time. We're excavating by digging tunnels to avoid damaging the top of the pyramid. This way, we can access the base of the pyramid without damaging its structure and stratigraphy. So this is where the pyramid that's on the surface begins. Yes, these are the foundations, the oldest part of the pyramid, facing north. The objects found here are ceramics, obsidian, and bones, which tell us about this ancient era when the pyramid was in operation. We should find the city's leaders here. So far, Saburo hasn't found anything significant, but his excavations will last for years. Come here, everyone. Is it hot? We're about to find out. I like spicy. Me too. OK, I'll put more chili on them. Here in Mexico, you like it very hot. I work in Peru, where the chili is not as strong. Yes, here the chilies are very hot. Anybody want some? A lot of archaeologists, most, in fact, including you, have excavated in Teotihuacan. You've dug into the past looking for the leaders of the city, but it's a work of a lifetime. Archaeologists have been digging at Teotihuacan for over 100 years, trying to understand who built such a big city and who directed it. But so far, we've not found any sufficiently convincing evidence to allow us to determine that. Learning who founded Teotihuacan is the greatest enigma we have to solve. So the investigation continues. The investigation goes on, and we won't give up. One thing is certain. By creating Teotihuacan, the mysterious founders laid the groundwork for the model of a cosmopolitan metropolis, which 2,000 years later will cover both of the American continents.