This altar or shrine is located in another Tetitla courtyard. Such shrines take the form of a Teotihuacan temple in miniature and are found in many courtyards. Those very few that were not looted in ancient times contain a skeleton, probably that of a revered ancestor who may have been the progenitor of the social group that owned the compound, often accompanied by a rich offering of pottery, jewelry and other items. These offerings have attracted looters from the time the houses were abandoned up to the modern day.
This brings us to the end of the Guided Tour. By now we are tired and slightly overwhelmed by everything we have seen. I am ready to find a cold beer and a sopa azteca or a few tacos while I mull over our tour. If we had been able to use a time machine to go back 1,500 years, what might we have seen, heard, smelled? Imagine the stench towards the end of the dry season when water was scarce. Or the shy inquisitive smiles of children, peeking around a corner. It would be a totally strange but compellingly human experience.
Written by Richard A. Diehl
