NaWaTL · Narrative, Writing, and the Teotihuacan Language: Exploring Language History Through Phylogenetics, Epigraphy and Iconography

This project deploys an innovative interdisciplinary mixed-methods approach to studying the cultural patterns of ancient Mesoamerican civilization. The study combines traditional comparative analysis of language history with quantitative phylogenetic methods, and with qualitative analyses from epigraphy and ethnohistory to answer a central question in Mesoamerican history: When and from where did the community of linguistic forebears of the Nahuatl-speaking Aztecs disperse in Central Mexico, and are they likely to have played a role in the development and/or downfall of the metropolis of Teotihuacan (ca. 150-600 CE)?