Ball Game in Paradise: Reconsidering Fertility Imagery in the Tepantitla Mural
The ancient city of Teotihuacan in Mexico collapsed in the eighth century CE. At its apex, it was a political center of immense economic and military strength. The vibrant painted city was left to decay before the Aztec peoples discovered it in the fifteenth century. Since the 20th century, there has been much research and excavation to discover more about the mysterious city and the vanished population. One significant discovery was the Tepantitla Paradise mural from an apartment complex that was believed to represent a central female deity, known as the Great Goddess, but this has been discredited. This paper examines and refocuses the Tepantitla Paradise mural to illustrate extensive foreign influence.
Through the utilization of cross-cultural examples of cosmology and iconographic parallels, we can understand Classic Maya influence present within the Tepantitla Paradise mural. The Classic Maya had political and economic ties to Teotihuacan, but in addition to trade, archaeologists discovered the presence of Maya immigrants through oxygen-isotope studies and archaeological excavation of apartment compounds and temples. The city was sustained by a high influx of immigrants, including many Classic Maya peoples. Iconographic parallels between the Maya and Teotihuacan in the Tepantitla Paradise mural consist of bloodletting fertility rituals, a floral paradise, ball games, and ritual sacrifice, all of which are present in Maya iconography too. The apparent ball game within the mural is the most telling of foreign influence because of the remarkable lack of a ball court within Teotihuacan, especially because ball courts have been found elsewhere in numerous Ancient Mesoamerican cities and the game was practiced across cultures and time and connected to sacrifice and fertility. By examining this aspect of the mural paired with the central figure of a deity, we can better comprehend the possible meanings of the fresco for the inhabitants of the apartment complex. These findings on the Tepantitla Paradise mural illustrate a complex system of foreign influence. The impact of contact is present within these diverse cultures, through the circulation of ideas and images between them.