Repeated burnings of Teotihuacan's center challenge the traditional fall date

August 01, 2026MexicoTheoryShare

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Key facts

• Archaeologists discovered that elite compounds along the Avenue of the Dead were subjected to burning episodes
• The original narrative placed the burning around 650 CE as the event marking Teotihuacan's fall
• A reanalysis of the burning evidence revised the date earlier to approximately 550 CE
• A more in-depth study found that the burnings occurred repeatedly, with the earliest episode in the 300s CE
• The city itself survived for roughly a century after the last burning episodes, complicating the idea that burning marked the city's end
• One theory, favored by archaeologist Ed Barnhart, connects the burnings to an early version of the Aztec New Fire Ceremony, in which perfectly functional temples were burned every 52 years to renew the world and reset the calendar
• Teotihuacan notably lacked several features common to other Mesoamerican civilizations: no ball courts, no written language, and little evidence of adherence to the standard Mesoamerican calendar system

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