Associated Products
Earliest Evidence of Primate Captivity and Translocation Supports Gift Diplomacy Between Teotihuacan and the Maya (Article)Title: Earliest Evidence of Primate Captivity and Translocation Supports Gift Diplomacy Between Teotihuacan and the Maya
Author: Sugiyama, Nawa
Author: Sugiyama, Saburo
Author: Cagnato, Clarissa
Author: France, Christine A.M.
Author: Iriki, Atsushi
Author: Hughes, Karissa
Author: Singleton, Robin R.
Author: Thornton, Erin
Author: Hofman, Courtney A.
Abstract: A multimethod archaeometry study (zooarchaeological, isotopic, ancient DNA, paleobotanical, and radiocarbon dating) of a spider monkey sacrificed in the ceremonial center of Teotihuacan, Mexico (1 to 550 CE) is interpreted as a diplomatic gift exchange with neighboring Maya. Not only does this spider monkey provide the earliest known instance of primate translocation and captivity in Mesoamerica, it helps date incipient modes of interregional diplomacy between two major powers during Early Classic Mesoamerica: Teotihuacan and the Maya. Details of human–primate interaction include age at capture and transport (before ∼3 y of age), captive duration (over 2 y), anthropogenic diet (staple was maize, though secondary resources unique to anthropogenic diet including arrowroot and chili pepper were also found), context of sacrifice
(tethered and associated with complete golden eagle and an array of other statecrafts), and general site context (including presence of Maya vessels and Maya-style murals). The timing of the spider monkey’s sacrifice (250 to 300 CE) and its life history suggest a reconsideration of epigraphically attested militaristic involvement of Teotihuacan at certain Maya sites. We propose that a period of more multilateral and fluid ritual exchange with Maya dignitaries preceded the Teotihuacan state’s eventual ascent to prominence.
Year: 2022
Primary URL:
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2212431119Primary URL Description: Open access link to the article
Access Model: Open access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: PNAS
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Plaza of the Columns Complex, Results 2022 (Web Resource)Title: Plaza of the Columns Complex, Results 2022
Author: Yolanda Pealez
Author: Nawa Sugiyama
Abstract: Summary of results form the the 2022 excavation seasons published on our website, built since 2017. There are many other additional pages, including bios of new project participants, and blogs and feeds from project-related conferences and events.
Year: 2023
Primary URL:
http://ppcteotihuacan.org/en/results/results-2022/Primary URL Description: Page within the Project Plaza of the Columns Complex website that is administrated by PI N. Sugiyama. We provide regular updates on project activities, including conference presentations, etc. Here is a new page we created summarizing the results of the two field seasons that were covered by the NEH grant.
Revisiting “Mesoamerica’s Classic Heritage”: Updates from Teotihuacan (Article)Title: Revisiting “Mesoamerica’s Classic Heritage”: Updates from Teotihuacan
Author: Nawa Sugiyama
Abstract: The chapter revisits the ideas explored in the volume, Mesoamerica's Classic Heritage (2000). Teotihuacan sustained a pan-Mesoamerican worldview conspicuously materialized into the form and layout of the city. The chapter provides an update on the timing and nature of multi-regional interaction, and how innovative intellectual knowledge was materialized into key symbols. It highlights new finds from Project Plaza of the Columns Complex within this grand synthesis of data since this seminal publication two decades ago.
Year: 2023
Primary URL:
https://www.barpublishing.com/when-east-meets-west-volumes-i-and-ii.htmlAccess Model: E-book and in print
Format: Other
Publisher: BAR Publishing
Proyecto Complejo Plaza de las Columnas, Teotihuacan: Informe Parcial de la Sexta Temporada (2022) (Report)Title: Proyecto Complejo Plaza de las Columnas, Teotihuacan: Informe Parcial de la Sexta Temporada (2022)
Author: Nawa Sugiyama
Author: Saburo Sugiyama
Author: Luis Rogelio Rivero Chong
Abstract: Federal report reviewed and approved by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), that is archived at the National Archive of INAH. Includes nine chapters written by project members and collaborators of the results from the two field seasons in 2022 and laboratory work. This report includes many student authors and co-authors.
Date: 06/13/2023
Access Model: National Archive of INAH, Mexican federal agency
Teotihuacan and the Missing Staple: An Analysis of Deer Use at Plaza of the Columns Complex (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Teotihuacan and the Missing Staple: An Analysis of Deer Use at Plaza of the Columns Complex
Author: Esther Aguayo
Author: Nawa Sugiyama
Author: Yen-Shin Hsu
Author: Christine France
Abstract: This poster investigates the dynamic, complex food system of Teotihuacan (150 BCE-550 CE) in central Mexico and how white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) played an unusual, supporting dietary role for the Teotihuacan elite and its people. While deer was the largest mammal in the Pre-Columbian world and a staple food source for numerous Mesoamerican urban centers, they are virtually absent at Teotihuacan, representing just 3.9% of the city’s faunal assemblage. Previous research in Teotihuacan determined that, despite an estimated population of over 100,000 people at its height, even commoners had access to adequate amounts of protein. This investigation details the abnormal distribution of deer bones at Plaza of the Columns Complex (PCC), a palatial-administrative complex within the ceremonial center of Teotihuacan. The distribution (NISP 425) at PCC demonstrates that deer were not underutilized as a food source but instead limited to specific ritual contexts, with the best evidence for food consumption located at an offering and feast. Outside of these contexts, deer elements were more suitable for tool making than for consumption. Comparative analyses using bone surfaces, stable isotopes indicating diet and provenance, and element distribution evaluating deer usage to more abundant fauna provide a comprehensive view of food acquisition and animal exploitation at Teotihuacan and broaden our understanding of the food system necessary to feed a large population.
Date: 4/2/2022
Teotihuacan-Maya Diplomacy: Updates from Project Plaza of the Columns Complex & Ciudades Cosmicas (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Teotihuacan-Maya Diplomacy: Updates from Project Plaza of the Columns Complex & Ciudades Cosmicas
Author: Nawa Sugiyama
Author: Saburo Sugiyama
Abstract: Synthesis of Maya-Teotihuacan interaction from the Project Plaza of the Columns Complex, Teotihuacan, including the results of analysis of Offering D4 where a spider monkey was found was presented. Paper presented as part of the Being Maya: Identity, Ontology, Agency Workshop held at the Santa Fe Institute, New Mexico.
Date: 08/03/2022
Conference Name: Santa Fe Institute, Behing Maya: Identity, Ontology, Agency Workshop
Hallazgos Recientes en la Plaza de las Columnas (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: Hallazgos Recientes en la Plaza de las Columnas
Abstract: Updated summary of preliminary results from Project Plaza of the Columns Complex excavations presented for tour guides that are trying to obtain their certificate to become guides at archaeological sites within Mexico. It directly educates the guides who will be able to provide updated information to tourists throughout Mexico.
Author: Nawa Sugiyama
Date: 8/28/2021
Location: Online
Proyecto Complejo Plaza de las Columnas: Homenaje a Rubén Cabrera Castro (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Proyecto Complejo Plaza de las Columnas: Homenaje a Rubén Cabrera Castro
Author: Nawa Sugiyama
Abstract: Reflections on the legacy of archaeologist Ruben Cabrera Castro in research at Teotihuacan in light of the new discoveries of Project Plaza of the Columns Complex. This was a public event organized by the National Institute of Anthropology and History at the Teotihuacan Archaeological Park open to the public.
Date: 8/23/2023
Conference Name: National Instite of Anthropology and History (INAH)
メキシコ、テオティワカンで発見されたクモザルが意味するもの (The Significance of the Spider Monkey Discovered at Teotihuacan, Mexico) (Article)Title: メキシコ、テオティワカンで発見されたクモザルが意味するもの (The Significance of the Spider Monkey Discovered at Teotihuacan, Mexico)
Author: Sugiyama, Nawa
Author: Sugiyama, Saburo
Abstract: Dissemination article about the spider monkey discovery and the broader implications of the find.
Year: 2023
Primary URL:
https://out-of-eurasia.jp/images/newsletter3.pdfAccess Model: Open access
Format: Magazine
Periodical Title: News Letter出ゆーらしあ (Out of Eurasia News Letter) 3:4-6
Publisher: News Letter出ゆーらしあ (Out of Eurasia News Letter)
Proyecto Complejo Plaza de las Columnas, Teotihuacan: Informe Parcial de la Séptima Temporada (2023) (Report)Title: Proyecto Complejo Plaza de las Columnas, Teotihuacan: Informe Parcial de la Séptima Temporada (2023)
Author: Suygiyama, Nawa
Author: Sugiyama, Saburo
Author: Rivero Chong, Rogelio Rivero
Abstract: Seventh excavation and laboratory report of the Project Plaza of the Columns Complex for work 2023-2024. Report 570 pages.
Date: 04/22/2024
Access Model: Archived at the Technical Archive, National Institute of Anthropology and History
Catálogo de fragmentos de pintura mural del PPCC (Report)Title: Catálogo de fragmentos de pintura mural del PPCC
Author: Sugiyama, Nawa
Author: Sugiyama, Saburo
Author: Rivero Chong, Luis Rogelio
Abstract: Mural catalog including scan, line drawing, and description of each fragment curated by the Project Plaza of the Columns Complex. Total 904 pages.
Date: 04/22/2024
Access Model: Stored in Technical Archive, National Institute of Anthropology and History
A Zooarchaeological Reconstruction of the Grand Feast of Plaza of the Columns, Teotihuacan (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: A Zooarchaeological Reconstruction of the Grand Feast of Plaza of the Columns, Teotihuacan
Author: Sugiyama, Nawa
Author: Hsu, Yen-Shin
Author: Robles Martínez, Edsel
Abstract: Offering D1 represents the residue of an extravagant feast, involving a plethora of artifacts, over 25,000 ceramic fragments, and more than 50,000 animal bones ceremoniously “killed” and discarded in a pit excavated in an old plaza floor. We present the zooarchaeological report of this assemblage, focusing on trying to understand the scale of public feasting at Teotihuacan. The volume and properties of the ceramics tells us this event was a state-sponsored feast that included many foreign diplomats, likely special guests, to commemorate the completion of the construction of Structure 25C, one of the three major pyramids at Plaza of the Columns. As most of the trash from this grand feast seems to be sealed in this offering cache, it provides an opportune context to reconstruct ancient cuisine and the role of feasting in alliance building, power negotiations, and social identity construction.
Date: 04/17/2024
Conference Name: 89th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology
Materialization of Time, Space, Nature, and Societies Denoted by New Lidar Maps at Teotihuacan. Saburo Sugiyama (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Materialization of Time, Space, Nature, and Societies Denoted by New Lidar Maps at Teotihuacan. Saburo Sugiyama
Author: Sugiyama, Saburo
Author: Sugiyama, Nawa
Author: Sekiguchi, Kazuhiro
Author: Iwashiro, Kuninori
Author: Chiba, Yuta
Abstract: Primary archaeological data indicate that the current reconstruction of the city of Teotihuacan was apparently built with a master plan around AD 200. Three major monuments were harmoniously integrated into a rigorously calculated city layout with functional and/or symbolic units including the Avenue of the Dead, plazas, administrative facilities, or residential compounds. We have mapped, excavated, and
consolidated buildings since the 1990s, recording architectural features, sculptures, or murals with total stations, drone-mounted lidar, Slam-lidar, 3D scanners, and photogrammetric devices. To explore architectural principles, artistic aesthetics, and integrated ideological factors like worldview or concepts of
time and space, we analyze populous urban zones, surrounding cultivation lands, and mountaintop areas of Cerro Gordo and Patlachique, where Teotihuacanos left their concerns to landscape and astronomy. Taking advantage of ArcAstroVR, a new astroarchaeology program built on Stellarium, we reconstruct ancient skyscapes with masonry buildings precisely defined by our maps and analyze the city’s standardized
orientations, dimensions, and spatial distributions, often reflecting astronomical phenomena of particular periods and time. We particularly test previous interpretations of the city’s N-S and E-W axes and argue in archaeological contexts the sociopolitical implications of advanced astronomical knowledge and the invention of Mesoamerican calendar systems blueprinted at Teotihuacan.
Date: 04/17/2022
Conference Name: 89th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology
Reconstructing Ancient Mesoamerican Cuisine through Innovative Imaging Techniques of Amorphous Carbonized Objects (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Reconstructing Ancient Mesoamerican Cuisine through Innovative Imaging Techniques of Amorphous Carbonized Objects
Author: Cagnato, Clarissa
Author: Sugiyama, Nawa
Author: Longo, Laura
Author: Longo, Elena
Author: Parisatto, Matteo
Abstract: Archaeobotanists (paleoethnobotanists) often come across small, amorphous carbonized objects (ACO) in their flotation samples. However, identifying ACO’s is often difficult, and as such, they mostly remain unidentified. New ways are therefore necessary to study these objects, which, we hypothesize are in some cases the remains of complex food preparations. One way is using nondestructive SR X-ray microtomography (μCT), a key
technique to consider for the imaging of archaeological materials. For the very first time, phase-contrast SR μCT
was applied to putative food remains from Mesoamerica and to experimentally prepared foods. In this paper we present the methods and preliminary results of the study of ACO’s from Mesoamerican contexts. These data provide novel information on the ingredients used and the ways in which foods were prepared by Classic period (AD 250–900) populations living at Teotihuacan in Central Mexico but also in the Lowland Maya region.
Date: 04/17/2024
Conference Name: 89th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology
Maya-Teotihuacan Updates from Plaza of the Columns Complex, Teotihuacan (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Maya-Teotihuacan Updates from Plaza of the Columns Complex, Teotihuacan
Author: Sugiyama, Nawa
Abstract: Updates of Maya-Teotihuacan relationships at Plaza of the Columns Complex and their broader implications.
Date: 11/29/2023
Conference Name: Being Maya: Identity, Ontology, Agency Workshop, Santa Fe Institute
Plaza of the Columns Complex, Results 2023 (Web Resource) (Web Resource)Title: Plaza of the Columns Complex, Results 2023 (Web Resource)
Author: Pelaez C, Yolanda
Author: Sugiyama, Nawa
Abstract: Summary of results from seventh field season, 2023.
Year: 2024
Primary URL:
http://ppcteotihuacan.org/en/results/results-2023/Results 2024 (Web Resource)Title: Results 2024
Author: Yolanda Pelaez Castellanos
Author: Nawa Sugiyama
Abstract: Every year we summarize excavation finds from the field season to the broader public. In addition to this new entry in the project's website, we also update our blogs based on activities and insights from diverse team members. For example, we added blogs entitles, Welcome students of Xochicalli School to the PPCC, and Piece of the Month.
Year: 2025
Primary URL:
http://ppcteotihuacan.org/en/results-2024/Primary URL Description: Results of field season page
Secondary URL:
https://ppcteotihuacan.org/en/blog/Secondary URL Description: Blogs mentioned in abstract.
Animal Matter in Indigenous Place-Thought: A Case from the Moon Pyramid, Teotihuacan (Article)Title: Animal Matter in Indigenous Place-Thought: A Case from the Moon Pyramid, Teotihuacan
Author: Nawa Sugiyama
Abstract: This article interrogates an archaeological application of the Indigenous concept of placethought, defined by VanessaWatts as an “understanding of the world via a physical embodiment” through studying corporeal animal forms. This latter encompasses the osteological traces of animal matter (sacrificed animals and prepared body parts) that, because of their material vitalities, provide an opportune site of engagement to retrieve ancient interpersonal relationships. Over 100 corporeal animal forms from Burials 2 and 6 are interpreted as agentive persons who brought into being the Moon Pyramid as an altepetl (water mountain) of Teotihuacan. The altepetl is a seminal place-thought in Mesoamerica intimately tied with sovereignty. The author argues that potentate apex predators (eagles, wolves, jaguars, pumas, and rattlesnakes) became part of Teotihuaccan’s community through
their captive management and were buried alive to sustain the altepetl as master guardians. A zooarchaeological and isotopic investigation of corporeal animal forms provided lurid details of
human–predator interactions, including differential access to the animals, esoteric knowledge about their personhood, and even deceit of that information. She concludes that providing a contextually and historically contingent, data-driven, and inter-personally centered reconstruction of ancient place-thought, though admittedly partial and from a specific perspective, should be attainable given the enhanced methods in archaeology.
Year: 2024
Primary URL:
http://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070817Primary URL Description: Open access URL of MDPI publication
Format: Journal
Publisher: Religions
Animal Matter: Ritual, Place, and Sovereignty at the Moon Pyramid, Teotihuacan (Book)Title: Animal Matter: Ritual, Place, and Sovereignty at the Moon Pyramid, Teotihuacan
Author: Nawa Sugiyama
Abstract: This chapter introduces the main protagonists and the theoretical framework underpinning the study of nearly two hundred faunal remains retrieved from the offertory caches at the Moon Pyramid of Teotihuacan, Mexico. Animal matter, both corporeal animal forms (animal bodies and by-products) and their representation, are understood within a relational ontology as active persons with social positionality. Corporeal animal forms materially record diachronic and synchronic patterns of interpersonal relationships between humans and animals. Thus, they provide optimal contextually situated reconstructions of how corporeal animal forms participated in ritual performances. State ritualized performances are particularly effective sites of engagement to retrieve the social transactions among humans, animals, and other agentive persons during the process of sovereignty formations at Teotihuacan.
Year: 2024
Primary URL:
http://academic.oup.com/book/58206Primary URL Description: Oxford University Press website of the online book publication.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Type: Single author monograph
Copy sent to NEH?: No
Carved Monuments from Cerro Patlachique in the Teotihuacan Valley, Mexico (Article)Title: Carved Monuments from Cerro Patlachique in the Teotihuacan Valley, Mexico
Author: Nawa Sugiyama
Author: Karl A. Taube
Author: Saburo Sugiyama
Author: Ariel Texis Muñoz
Abstract: Mountains figure prominently in Mesoamerican cosmogeny, and a deep history of pilgrimage and worship surrounds many, though few have been systematically investigated using modern archaeological methods. Here, the authors present results from the lidar mapping and surface survey of a plateau at the summit of Cerro Patlachique, located at the southern limit of the Teotihuacan Valley, Mexico. While ceramic typology establishes Cerro Patlachique as a site of pilgrimage before, during and after the occupation of Teotihuacan, the documentation of 34 carved monuments substantially expands the existing corpus and identifies the summit as a place of convocation with water deities.
Year: 2025
Primary URL:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/carved-monuments-from-cerro-patlachique-in-the-teotihuacan-valley-mexico/28FC39830E46C55A46809EDD79604010Primary URL Description: Link to open access publication in journal Antiquity
Format: Journal
Publisher: Antiquity
Photographs and Photogrammetry Models of Cerro Patlachique Monuments (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)Title: Photographs and Photogrammetry Models of Cerro Patlachique Monuments
Author: Nawa Sugiyama
Author: Ariel Texis Muños
Author: Saburo Sugiyama
Author: Karl A. Taube
Abstract: This dataset comprises documentation of forty carved stone monuments located on the summit of Sierra Patlachique, collected between 2018 and 2021 under the Plaza of the Columns Complex Project and the Mesoamerican Cosmic Cities in 3D Project. Thirty-six of these monuments were recorded via photogrammetric survey and processed in Agisoft Metashape (v.2.2.0) to generate detailed mesh models. Accompanying these models are high-resolution TIFF photographs (color and black-and-white) illustrating iconographic details, and a comprehensive Excel spreadsheet cataloguing dimensions, iconographic measurements, provenance, and descriptive notes. All data are provided in open‐standard formats to support archaeological analysis, comparative iconography, and digital heritage preservation.
Year: 2025
Primary URL:
http://https://datadryad.org/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.4f4qrfjp0#readmePrimary URL Description: Link to database in Dryad, including photographs, supplementary table, and 3D models.
Access Model: Open Access
The Ideas and Images of Cities and Centers: Teotihuacan and the Lowland Maya (Book Section)Title: The Ideas and Images of Cities and Centers: Teotihuacan and the Lowland Maya
Author: David A. Freidel
Author: Saburo Sugiyama
Author: Nawa Sugiyama
Editor: Jerry Murdock
Editor: Anne S. Dowd
Editor: Arlen F. Chase
Editor: David A. Freidel
Abstract: Considered Maya and Teotihuacan chronoscapes as based on common inspiration for rulers to place themselves and their peoples in the model of the cosmos that compellingly explained and legitimized dynastic succession. In both Teotihuacan and the Maya, we demonstrate time and space were materialized and thus knowable through the architectural configurations and the distribution of notable features, such as the pecked crosses. We examine archaeological material correlates of these political intuitions.
Year: 2024
Primary URL:
http://muse.jhu.edu/book/111422Primary URL Description: Online version through Project Muse
Access Model: Online through Project Muse
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Proyecto Complejo Plaza de las Columnas, Teotihuacan: Informe Parcial de la Octava Temporada (2024) (Report)Title: Proyecto Complejo Plaza de las Columnas, Teotihuacan: Informe Parcial de la Octava Temporada (2024)
Author: Nawa Sugiyama
Author: Saburo Sugiyama
Author: Luis Rogelio Rivero Chong
Abstract: Site report approved and archived at the Archivo Técnico del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City, Mexico. Report 694 pages. With Annex I, plan view drawings and Annex II: Mural catalog, total of 1217 pages.
Date: 04/15/2025
Access Model: Digital copy submitted and archived
Ceramic Catalog (Report)Title: Ceramic Catalog
Author: Nawa Sugiyama
Author: Saburo Sugiyama
Author: Luis Rogelio Rivero Chong
Abstract: Ceramic catalog of semi-complete specimens of Offering D1, including descriptions, photographs, photogrametry models, and drawings. This with submitted and approved to be housed in the Archivo Técnico del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.
Date: 04/15/2025
Access Model: Stored in Technical Archive, National Institute of Anthropology and History
Household-Level Management of Small Game at Teotihuacan, Mexico: Zooarchaeological and Isotopic Proxies from Plaza of the Columns ComplexMexico (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Household-Level Management of Small Game at Teotihuacan, Mexico: Zooarchaeological and Isotopic Proxies from Plaza of the Columns ComplexMexico
Author: Nawa Sugiyama
Author: Christine France
Author: Erin Thornton
Author: Edsel Robles
Author: Yen-Shin T. Hsu
Abstract: In the absence of large domesticates, one of the New World’s largest cities seems full of paradoxes. At Teotihuacan, the two known domesticates, the dog and turkey (17%), and the largest readily available herbivore, deer (11%), were not major contributors to animal protein, yet, there is no evidence of elevated cases of animal protein deficiency in the human remains. Continuing previous scholarship on rabbit management in the city, we present zooarchaeological and isotopic results of animal management from a state-coordinated feasting deposit at a civic administrative center in the urban core at Plaza of the Columns Complex. Small game seems to have provided most of the predictable resources to feed the masses. We hypothesize that household-level management of small game, including rabbits, quail, and turkey, were adaptive strategies in the urban core, providing predictable and accessible animal protein to a highly metropolitan and densely occupied city. Variability in the isotopic values indicative of degrees of anthropogenic diet, even among domestic turkeys, likely originate from diverse acquisition strategies (household, market, and opportunistic hunting), scale of operation (for immediate household consumption versus market exchange), and urban density.
Date: 04/23/2025
Relational Ontologies in Archaeological Practice: A Perspective from Animal Matter in Teotihuacan (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Relational Ontologies in Archaeological Practice: A Perspective from Animal Matter in Teotihuacan
Author: Nawa Sugiyama
Abstract: With the animal turn and vibrant discourses on relational ontologies in the anthropological literature, archaeologists, too, are striving to find ways to acknowledge and integrate Indigenous knowledge systems while maintaining methodologically and contextually grounded interpretations of the material culture left behind. In this talk, I contextualize the use of relational ontologies within the framework of a case study from the ancient metropolis of Teotihuacan. I propose multi-archaeometry methodologies allow us to go beyond understanding subjugated agencies by recognizing active, intentional, and contextually contingent socialites of animals in the formation of ceremonial landscapes. As articulated by the Mexican historian and philosopher of religions of Mesoamerica, Alfredo López Austin, relational ontologies were part of the “hard nucleus” that provided continuities despite radical cultural, economic, and ideological ruptures throughout past and present Mesoamerican communities. With enhanced methods to bring specific corporeal interactions to life, archaeologists should strive to provide historically and contextually contingent, data-driven, inter-personally centered, and socially engaged reconstructions of ancient landscapes.
Date: 04/11/2025
先住民サイエンスによる動物操作: テオティワカンにおけるヒトと動物の交錯実態の探求 (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: 先住民サイエンスによる動物操作: テオティワカンにおけるヒトと動物の交錯実態の探求
Author: Nawa Sugiyama
Abstract: General project description about integration of indigenous science into the study of animal management, utilizing two case studies from the urban center of Teotihuacan.
Date: 06/14/2025
Feast Diplomacy: Teotihuacan-Maya Ritual Economies at Plaza of the Columns Complex (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Feast Diplomacy: Teotihuacan-Maya Ritual Economies at Plaza of the Columns Complex
Author: Nawa Sugiyama
Abstract: One fateful November evening in 1621, 90 members of the Wampanoag tribe came together with English Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony to celebrate and reify a political alliance between two different cultures trying to find common ground at the initial stages of their interaction. This historic case of feast diplomacy highlights their capacity to cement social identities, power structures, alliances, and shared practices through a performance-driven ritual economy. The fortuitous find of the vestiges of a grand feast that involved foreign diplomats in a civic-administrative complex at the ceremonial core of Teotihuacan, Mexico provides us with an unprecedented opportunity to examine the intersection of interregional and internal socio-politics, cuisine, and a robust ritual economy in Classic Mesoamerica. Offering D1 features 25,000 ceramic sherds, 100,000+ faunal material, a robust palaeobotanical assemblage, and other material residues of a grand feast curated over an area of 7x2.5m, ritually burned, and sealed beneath a plaza floor. Reconstruction of 70 fine Maya vessels displaying scenes of gift exchange of precious goods among regal elites from a context pre-dating historically attested “arrival” scenes of a military takeover by Teotihuacan strongmen in Maya epigraphic records is revolutionizing what we think we know about early Maya-Teotihuacan interaction.
Date: 08/19/2025
Estudios Arqueométricos sobre la Interacción Maya-Teotihuacan En el Proyecto Complejo Plaza de las Columnas (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Estudios Arqueométricos sobre la Interacción Maya-Teotihuacan En el Proyecto Complejo Plaza de las Columnas
Author: Nawa Sugiyama
Abstract: The Plaza of the Columns Complex Project celebrates 10 years since its founding, with long-term collaborations with an international, multidisciplinary team to research a civic-administrative complex at the heart of the ceremonial core of Teotihuacán. In this presentation, I would like to highlight some key insights obtained through archaeometric methods, many of which were applied here at LANCIC, to reveal a context of innovation and collaboration between the two great powers that defined the Mesoamerican Classic: Teotihuacán and the Maya. Here, we examine the function of material remains in cultural exchange from a diachronic perspective, looking at two contexts. Offering D4 encapsulates a scenario of gift exchange, including a spider monkey and dedicated greenstone artifacts in a pre-Entrada context, representing early diplomatic contact between the Maya and Teotihuacan prior to the epigraphically attested military takeover of Teotihuacán at Tikal. Second, we examine the iconoclastic destruction of Maya-style murals, just as the Entrada was underway at Tikal. In both scenarios, our strong collaborations among specialists lead to a more holistic understanding of interregional exchange, art and craftsmanship, and social identity.
Date: 01/16/2025
Animales en el Altepetl: Estudio Zooarqueologico de la Pirámide de la Luna (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Animales en el Altepetl: Estudio Zooarqueologico de la Pirámide de la Luna
Author: Nawa Sugiyama
Abstract: Examining the indigenous concept of altepetl, the talk explores the integration of relational ontologies on the zooarchaeological remains of animals offered in the Moon Pyramid. It summarizes for a more general public audience the core theories and results covered in the Animal Matter book.
Date: 09/23/2025
Amorphous carbonized objects and their contribution to reconstructing ancient Mesoamerican cuisine: An innovative non-destructive methodological approach (Article)Title: Amorphous carbonized objects and their contribution to reconstructing ancient Mesoamerican cuisine: An innovative non-destructive methodological approach
Author: Clarissa Cagnato
Author: Nawa Sugiyama
Author: Laura Longo
Author: Alessandro Bonetto
Author: Matteo Parisatto
Author: Elena Longo
Author: Marko Prasek
Author: Giuliana Tromba
Author: Antonio Marcomini
Author: Elena Badetti
Abstract: Archaeobotanists often come across small, amorphous carbonized objects (ACOs) in their flotation samples. Although their identification remains difficult and requires a range of characterization techniques, the study of ACOs recovered from sites in Europe and the Levant have allowed researchers to reconstruct ancient recipes. However, similar materials from sites in pre-Hispanic Central America have been overlooked, hampering our understanding of their ancient cooking traditions. This
article proposes a new pipeline to study such remains through three types of nondestructive imaging techniques: optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and synchrotron radiation-based phase-contrast X-ray computed
microtomography (SR micro-CT), key techniques to consider for the imaging of archaeological materials. The approach was developed by establishing a reference collection from modern foods based on traditional ingredients (e.g., maize,
manioc) used in the region of interest. This pipeline was then tested on archaeological samples from the ancient site of Teotihuacan (Mexico), which successfully captured the presence of the remains of complex, multi-component food preparations
from a feasting context. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time in which the combination of imaging techniques has been used to discriminate between actual food remains, or simply seeds or plant parts in archaeological contexts from Prehispanic Central America. This study allows to shed more light on ancient recipes and culinary traditions and can be applied more broadly to other contexts in Mesoamerica.
Year: 2025
Primary URL Description: URL will be provided upon publication, we are on final proofs so should be published Nov 19th, 2025
Access Model: Open access, currently in press with final proofs
Format: Journal
Publisher: PlosOne
Pieza del Mes (Exhibition)Title: Pieza del Mes
Curator: Nawa Sugiyama
Abstract: Exhibit of project mural piece, Feathered Serpent, at the Teotihuacan Site Museum, at the UNESCO World Heritage Site. This remarkable mural offers one of the earliest glimpses of the Feathered Serpent deity, likely dating back to before 250 AD. The mural, painted directly on fragile adobe blocks, was preserved only because it was protected face down in a collapsed wall in a compound north of the Sun Pyramid. The mural vividly depicts two feathered serpents with brilliant yellow plumage and multicolored segmented underbelly, likely gracing an ancient entryway. The impactful mural highlights the vibrant origins of Teotihuacan’s mural tradition and the powerful early use of state symbolism on public structures.
Year: 2025