Plazas, Social Class, and Spatial Inequality at Ancient Teotihuacan, Mexico - Dataset

We explore two approaches to social inequality — social class and spatial inequality — in relation to the distribution of neighbourhood plazas at ancient Teotihuacan, a large premodern urban centre in the basin of Mexico. We use the digitized map from the Teotihuacan Mapping Project to identify publicly accessible plazas and three-temple complexes across the city, and we measure spatial access to these facilities for elite and non-elite residents. Our findings are twofold. First, Teotihuacan had a large amount of assembly space, and all Teotihuacanos have good access to it, irrespective of class. This finding is consistent with a collective model of Teotihuacan government. Second, there is significant inequality in spatial access to service facilities between elites and non-elites, with elites living closer to facilities. This pattern of accessibility suggests both relatively high quality of life for the residents of Teotihuacan as well as the maintenance of hierarchical inequality within the city.

Alexandra L. Norwood, Anne Sherfield, and Michael E. Smith, 'Plazas, Social Class, and Spatial Inequality at Ancient Teotihuacan, Mexico', Journal of Urban Archaeology, 10 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2024), 35–54