The teocalli for Mesoamerican communities it was the temple or literally the house of God. It was built on top of a monumental structure and of course, it was a sacred place..
Commonly, these types of buildings are mistakenly called "pyramids", since those of Egypt are taken as a reference and are associated, but they have nothing to do with them or even their shape..
In the Nahuatl language (spoken in Mexico since the 5th century), a "teocalli" literally means "house of God" or "temple." It is composed of the suffix "teotl", "divinity" or "deity", and "calli", "house".
After the conquest of America in the hands of Spain, the term "teotl" was transmuted to "teo" (theological concept of God), and therefore the Castilianization of "teocalli".
Article index
It is a monumental construction typical of Mesoamerican communities (those that lived in present-day Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize, Nicaragua, Honduras and Costa Rica), of great proportions that account for the extensive knowledge that ancient civilizations had. about architecture and other sciences.
They were made up of levels with terraces that rested one on top of the other and that at the end, there was a temple. Specifically, those levels had the name "tzacualli", while the temple on the top was "teocalli". As a whole, the entire building received the name "teocaltzacualli", although it was also known as "teocaltzacua".
They are generally called "pyramids", which is not correct. In the first place, it does not have a pyramid shape, since if the definition of it is taken into account, this is a formation with the base of a polygon and whose faces are triangles that converge at a single point called the vertex. Something that in the "teocaltzacua" is not fulfilled.
Another difference with respect to the Egyptians is that those were built as mausoleums, that is, as the place where the remains of the pharaohs rested, while those of Mexico were sanctuaries of public worship..
Next, words in the Nahuatl language derived from "temple".
-"Teocalmamali": "consecrate" or "inaugurate" a temple.
-"Teocalptepiton": "small temple" or "chapel".
-"Teocalchaiani": the one who consecrated a temple.
-"Teocalchaliliztli": the act of consecration of the tempo, that is, the ceremony itself.
When the ancient settlers of Mesoamerica became sedentary, they began to build these monuments around which the social and spiritual life of the inhabitants revolved..
In these buildings, specific rituals were celebrated and for their inhabitants they represented sacred mountains that symbolized the center of the universe..
The peoples that erected them were diverse, the Mayans being the ones with the greatest renown and historical weight, but also the Zapotecs, Olmecs and other societies built them..
Only in Mexico there are 187 sites with this type of buildings, which have different shapes. The most important and well-known are in Chiapas, Mexico City, Yucatán, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Puebla, Veracruz, Guanajuato, Oaxaca, and Hidalgo..
One of the most mysterious is perhaps that of the Teotihuacán civilization, which was prior to the arrival of the Aztecs and lived near the current capital of Mexico..
It is unknown what became of it, since from one day to the next they disappeared, although two structures remained standing, called by the Aztecs "Sun" and "Moon", on whose peaks they believed that some kind of cosmic energy was received due to their special orientation of the structure with respect to the summer solstice.
Yet No Comments