The Merchants' Barrio

In Teotihuacán, most people lived in rectangular multi-residential apartment compounds. The apartment compounds were usually square, varied widely in size, and were home to multiple family units. The apartment compounds were not elite structures; individuals of all social status resided within them (Cowgill 2015). Like the rest of Teotihuacán, residents of the Merchants’ Barrio lived in apartment compounds. The most well-studied apartment compound is Tlamimilolpa. It contains all the main features of an apartment compound: multiple-family units, structure orientation with the city’s grid pattern, a large number of rooms, and walls of stone and concrete that have been stuccoed and painted (Iceland 1989). 

Merchants’ Barrio is unique in that it also contains circular residential structures. This is an unusual thing within the city of Teotihuacán, nowhere else are there stylistically different residential structures. So far, eighteen circular structures have been identified at the Merchants’ Barrio (Iceland 1989). The research suggested that some smaller circular structures were used for storage (Spence et al 2005), but most of the circular structures were used as residential housing (Rattray 1990). The circular structures “were commonly configured around a plaza containing an altar, which suggests the organization of small nuclear family groups as social units that conducted rituals and shared food” (White et al 2008, pg. 283 ). Additionally, the circular structures range from 16.40 to 31.17 ft in diameter, which is a floor area of 20 to 70 m^2 (Spence et al 2005). This is adequate space for a nuclear or extended family. Lastly, burials, commonly associated with residential structures in the city and in Mesoamerica in general, were often found within the circular structures (Spence et al 2005).

Circular structures are fairly rare in Mesoamerica, but they are very common in the Tamaulipas and Tampico-Panuco regions of the Huasteca during the classic period, contemporaneous with Teotihuacán. In this region of Huasteca, there was a wide variety of circular structures ranging from temples to houses. Here we will discuss the circular house-platforms, specifically in order to compare them with the circular house compound identified at the Merchants' Barrio. At Tamaulipas and Tampico-Panuco these circular house structures are made of boulders, stones, and masonry and vary in diameter from 13 to 30 feet (MacNeish 1958). Many of these circular house compounds had stairs, but in later periods the use of stairs declined (MacNeish 1958). 

In the Merchants' Barrio, the circular house structures are made of adobe brick and sometimes stone or concrete is used (Iceland 1989). The diameter of the houses ranged from 16.40 to 31.17 ft (Spence et al. 2005). These characteristics are well within the acceptable variation of these types of structures at Tamaulipas. One difference between the Barrio structures and those in the Huasteca is the use of stairs. There is no indication of stairs associated with the circular structures, but ramps have been identified (Iceland 1989). Figure 2 shows one of the circular houses from the Merchants’ Barrio (Rattray 1990) while figure 1 is a circular house from the La Salta Ruins in Tamaulipas (MacNeish 1958). The structures from both regions are quite similar. The similarity between these structures suggests that the inhabitants of the Merchant’s Barrio were either familiar with the region, were migrants from the region, or were traveling foreigners living in the Merchants' Barrio.

The ceramic artifacts found in the Merchants’ Barrio also support the interpretation that the Barrio’s inhabitants maintained ties to the Gulf Coast. In archaeology, ceramics refers to clay that has been worked and fired in order to create objects and cooking/storage vessels. Ceramics are the most common archaeological artifact. At Teotihuacán ceramics were made within the city and imported from local communities. The most common ceramics are San Martin Orange ware, Burnished ware, and Thin Orange ware. San Martin Orange ware and Burnished ware were made within the city. Evidence for production has been found in the southern part of the city in an area known as the Tlajinga district as well as within two households: San Jose 520 and Cosotlan 23 (Cowgill 2015 p. 303 and 305-307). Burnished ware was present in early periods and San Martin Orange ware was present later in Late Tlamimilolpa, Xolalpan, and Metepec phases. Another common ware, Thin Orange ware, was made in nearby Puebla and then imported into the city (Cowgill 2015).

The Merchants’ Barrio is unique because of its unusual proportion of foreign ceramics (Cowgill 2015, p. 259). It was this high concentration of wares that led to the barrio’s initial identification (Millon 1981) The earliest foreign ceramics at the Merchants’ Barrio are from the Maya Late Formative period (Rattray 1987, p. 261). Tlamimilolpa, one of the apartment compounds in the barrio, contained mostly local pottery with some foreign wares. Approximately 2% of the house’s assemblage of 500 sherds, was pottery from the Gulf Coast and Maya region (Iceland 1989 pg 11). Some of the Maya pottery has been identified as Tzakol and Tepeu (Rattray 1987). These are fine glossy monochrome and polychrome pottery from the Early Classic period (AD 300-550). These Mayan sherds were found in Early Xolalpan period assemblages, while later Late Xolalpan assemblages contained gulf coast ceramics with ties to El Tajin and Veracruz (Rattray 1979). The gulf coast ceramics were mostly bowl and jar forms similar to styles found in the Huaxteca region of Mexico (Rattray 1990). The circular structures contain larger amounts of foreign pottery. Foreign sherds make up 25 to 28% of the ceramic assemblages from these structures (Iceland 1989 pg. 11).

Initial research of the barrio’s ceramics suggested that the pottery was locally produced within the city; the ceramics were made locally and designed to imitate foreign styles (Rattray 1987). This would make the Merchants’ Barrio similar to the Oaxaca barrio where there is strong evidence for the local production of Oaxacan ceramics (Crossier 2007, Rattray 1993). Recently, Sarah Clayton compared the chemical profiles of Maya sherds from the Merchants’ Barrio to other sherds produced in the city found that the two groups are not compositionally similar (Clayton 2005, p. 436). Therefore, it is unlikely that the Maya sherds from the Merchants' Barrio were produced locally (Clayton 2005). Instead, Maya sherds were imported into the Merchants’ Barrio. This suggests that over its history the Merchants’ Barrio maintained a lasting connection to the Gulf Coast and Maya region. Clayton’s work supports the argument that the Merchants’ Barrio consisted of individuals with strong ties to southern Mesoamerica and also suggests the Merchants’ Barrio was unique from other communities at Teotihuacán in its continuing connections to a foreign homeland.

Archaeologists use strontium isotope analysis to understand the origins and migration patterns of ancient humans. Strontium (Sr) is an element that naturally occurs in the earth’s crust. Strontium's isotopic form is found in rocks, soil, and water. There are many forms of strontium isotopes and the ratio of different Sr isotopes are distinctive to particular environments. These Sr ratios move through the food chain from plants to animals to humans. Thus, when humans consume food, the Sr ratio distinctive to the land where the food was grown or grazed enters the body and becomes embedded in teeth enamel and bones. Archaeologists perform chemical analysis on the teeth enamel and bones in order to identify the Sr ratios. The ratio identified can be used to identify where ancient people lived and their migration patterns.

In 2000, archaeologists T. Douglas Prince and colleagues performed their own Sr isotope analysis on bodies from Teotihuacán (Prince et al 2000). Before analyzing the human Sr ratios, they analyzed the Sr isotopes from nine rabbit samples from Teotihuacán. This analysis provided an understanding of local isotope levels near the city. Rabbits provide a good local point of comparison since their habitats are fairly small and localized. After determining this baseline, Prince and colleagues performed Sr isotope analysis on 62 bodies from Teotihuacán, including eight bodies from the Merchants’ Barrio (Prince et al 2000). They found that the human Sr bone ratios were not greatly dissimilar to the baseline. In human bone, the Sr ratio represents the amount of Sr that has been incorporated throughout the life of the individual. Thus, since the Sr rations of individuals from the Merchants’ Barrio largely match the rabbit sample (figure x) Prince et al were able to conclude that these individuals in the Merchants’ Barrio had spent most of their life at Teotihuacán. Dental enamel is more specific and reflects only the amount of strontium incorporated from birth to approximately 4 years of age. Thus, differences in the Sr ratios between enamel and bone indicate the individual’s change in residence. In their analysis, Prince et al found that the dental enamel from the Merchants’ Barrio shows two higher and two lower values than the rabbit baseline. Thus, all four individuals were migrants to the city from at least two different areas. 

From these Strontium ratios, it is seen that the Merchants’ Barrio was made up of more than just Teotihuacán natives. The Merchants’ Barrio had many migrants that would have lived in Teotihuacán for a long time, likely having moved from other areas.

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