Place Names and Political Identities in the Teotihuacán Mural Paintings

The article deals with the sociopolitical implications of the proposed identification of some mural paintings of the ancient city of Teotihuacan (Mexico) as toponyms and titles. This identification is based on structural similarities with later Nahua glyphs, whose relevance has been often neglected due to specific compositional characteristics of the Teotihuacan paintings, arranged as to look like realistic imagery. The identification of the Teotihuacan paintings as glyphs suggests that their spatial distribution corresponds to a known Mesoamerican literary genre known as conceptual map or tableau. This finding allows reconsidering the function of Teotihuacan architectural complexes as formal seats of sociopolitical units similar the later, Postclassic Nahua polities