Disentangling Community and Domestic Uses of Space in Teotihuacan’s Tlajinga District

Abstract Neighborhood centers at Teotihuacan provide important information about the city’s urban organization and systems of governance beyond central administrative complexes. They served multiple social functions, with evidence from some spaces consistent with ritual activities and others with residences for district elites. Yet precise uses can be difficult to discern because architecture and associated materials often present evidence of both, along with possible civic or administrative functions. Interdisciplinary investigations are necessary to probe expected patterns for more domestic activities versus civic-ceremonial ones. After first investigating apartment compounds, the Proyecto Arqueológico Tlajinga Teotihuacan (PATT) turned to understanding the construction history and uses of elevated platform complexes in the district’s neighborhood center. In comparison with nearby apartments, these complexes were elaborately made and decorated. Their larger courtyards and patios could accommodate group ceremonial activities, but portions of complexes may have also served as residences for intermediate elites, evidence of which is stronger for the earliest construction phase. We combine excavation and artifact analysis with geophysical prospection and floor and artifact chemistry to compare platform complexes with a baseline residential pattern from excavated apartments in order to elucidate what spaces served more community versus domestic functions.