Tollan – Xicocotitlan (Tula). Toltec’s Capital City
The fall of Teotihuacan, around 750 AD, led to a period of belligerence and separation in the entire central Mexico. A number of large and impressive citadels, protected by walls, were built at Xocicalco in Morales, Cholula in Puebla, Tula in Hidalgo, Cacaxtla or Teotenango. These cities reached a stage of high development between the years 750 and 950 AD – during the so called period of Epi-classic – after which they were abandoned, on grounds
which are still debated by specialists. During the next stage, the so called Early Post-classic, between 950 – 1150 AD, Tula or Tollan, could have claimed, by means of length and power, the right as successor of the great Teotihuacan. The modern interpretations concerning the role of Tollan in the history of Mesoamerica, strike the contradictions between the historical recordings on the fortress and the archaeological discoveries. The paper presents the Ceremonial Centre, with its large pyramids, with the ball courts, or the “Atlantes” statues, as well as the controversies on the potential Toltec influences that go as far as Chichen Itza, in Yucatán.
Keywords: Tula, Tollan, Atlantes, Atlatl, Quetzalcoatl, Toltec, Ball Court Pelota, Pyramide, Morning Star
1. Obsidianul, roca (sticlă) vulcanică, brun cenuşie sau neagră, formată prin răcirea rapidă a lavei, folosită în întreaga Mesoamerică la confecţionarea armelor şi a uneltelor.
2. Alabastru, varietate granulată de gips, folosită la confecţionarea de obiecte ornamentale.
3. Turcoaz, piatră semipreţioasa opacă, cu nuanţe între albastru deschis şi albastru verzui.
4. Pulque, băutură specifică zonei, preparată din cactuşi, cu efect halucinogen.
5. Smith, E. Michael, „The Aztecs”, Second edition, Blackwell Publishing, 2003, U.K.
6. Tula este denumirea ţn castiliană a vechiului nume al orasului fortăreaţă, Tollan, nume dat de azteci.
7. Sahagún, Fray Bernardino, Istoria generală a lucrurilor din Noua Spanie, vol. II, pag. 184, ediţia Porrúa, 1956, Mexic.
8. García Cubas, Antonio, Ruinas de la antigua Tollan. Revista Societăţii Mexicane de Geografie şi Statistică, ediţia a treia, paginile 173-187, 1873, Mexic.
9. Sahagun, op. cit.
10. Statuia se află în prezent la Muzeul Naţional de Antropologie din Mexico City.
