The broad, fertile plains surrounding the colonial city of Puebla, to the southeast of the snowcapped volcanoes that border the Valley of Mexico, were from very ancient times an important centre of pre-Hispanic population. The modern traveler, approaching the city, sees to its west, in the distance, what looks like a sizable hill rising from the plain. This is actually the pyramid of Cholula, the largest single structure in Mexico before the Spanish conquest.

Archaeological exploration of the Cholula pyramid has shown that it was built from adobe in four great construction stages. In its final form, the pyramid measured 1,083 by 1,034 feet (330 by 315 metres) at the base and was about 82 feet (25 metres) high. By Late Postclassic times the pyramid had been abandoned for so long that the Spaniards who subdued (and massacred) the residents of Cholula considered it a natural prominence. All four superimposed structures within the pyramid were carried out according to strict Teotihuacán architectural ideas. The earliest structure, for instance, has the usual talud-tablero motif, with stylized insectlike figures painted in black, yellow, and red appearing in the tableros. Similar decoration, also in Teotihuacán style, is to be found in the later structures.

Great quantities of ceramics and pottery figurines have been recovered from the excavations, and these demonstrate a near archaeological identity between Early Classic Teotihuacán and Cholula. Because of the staggering size and importance of its pyramid, it has been suggested that Cholula was some kind of sister city to Teotihuacán. Cholula was surely part of the Teotihuacán cultural sphere and may well have participated in the administration of its empire. Excavations at the base of the pyramid have produced a previously unsuspected cultural element. Several enormous slabs were uncovered, two of which were a kind of altar, while the third was set upright as a stela. All are rectangular but with borders carved in low relief in the complex interlace motif that is the hallmark of the Classic Central Veracruz style.

Classic Central Veracruz

The Mesoamerican ball game was played throughout the area and still survives in attenuated form in northwestern Mexico. On the eve of the conquest, games took place in a rectangular court bordered on the long sides by walls with both sloping and vertical rebound surfaces. There were two teams, each composed of a small number of players. The ball was of solid rubber, of substantial size, and traveled with considerable speed around the court. It could not be hit or touched with the open hands or with the feet; most times the player tried to strike it with the hip. Consequently, fairly heavy protective padding was necessary to avoid injuries, which in some cases were fatal. Leather padding was worn over the hips, and pads were placed on the elbows and knees. A heavy belt was tied around the waist built up from wood and leather, while in some parts of the Maya region and in Late Formative Oaxaca, gloves and something resembling jousting helmets were worn.

The Classic Central Veracruz style is almost purely devoted to the paraphernalia of the ball game and to the ball courts themselves. At the site of El Tajín, which persisted through the end of the Late Classic, elaborate reliefs on the walls of the courts furnish details on how this equipment was used. Yugos (“yokes”) were the stone counterparts of the heavy protective belts. During the post-game ceremonies, which may have featured the sacrifice of the captain and other players on the losing side, these U-shaped objects were worn about the waists of the participants. On the front of the yugo was placed an upright stone object that may originally have functioned as a ball-court marker and that took two forms: hachas (“axes”), or thin stone heads, and palmas (“palms”). All are carved in an elaborate low-relief style in which life forms are enmeshed in undulating and interlaced scroll designs with raised borders. All of these items, and the style itself, may have evolved out of late Olmec art on the Gulf coast.

Very often the yugos represent the marine toad, a huge amphibian with swollen poison glands on the head; in its jaws is a human head. The earliest hachas, which were characteristically notched to fit on the yugos, were quite thick human heads and may well date to the Late Formative or Proto-Classic. In time, these become very thin and represent human heads wearing animal headgear. Palmas are paddle-shaped stone objects with trilobed bases and exhibit a much richer subject matter than either hachas or yugos, quite often illustrating brutal scenes of sacrifice and death, two concepts that were closely associated with the ball game on the Gulf coast.

Despite the definite presence of the style at Teotihuacán and Cholula, Classic Central Veracruz is focused upon north central Veracruz, where the type site of El Tajín is located, and contiguous parts of Puebla. Today, this region is dominated by speakers of Totonac, a distant relative of Mayan, and the Totonac themselves claim that they built El Tajín. Whether or not Classic Central Veracruz culture was a Totonac achievement, the style persisted through the Classic period and strongly influenced developments in distant regions.

Southern Veracruz

On the southern Gulf coast plain, Olmec traditions seemed to have lasted into the Early Classic and merged with Teotihuacán artistic canons to produce new kinds of art. Cerro de las Mesas, lying in the plains of the Papaloápan River not far from the coast, is one of these hybrid sites. Dozens of earthen mounds are scattered over the surface in a seemingly haphazard manner, and the archaeological sequence is long and complex. The site reached its apogee in the Early Classic, when the stone monuments for which it is best known were carved. Most important are a number of stelae, some of which are carved in a low-relief style recalling Late Formative Tres Zapotes, early lowland Maya, and Cotzumalhuapa (on the Pacific coast of Guatemala).

Cerro de las Mesas pottery, deposited in rich burial offerings of the Early Classic, is highly Teotihuacanoid, with slab-legged tripods predominating. At this and other sites in southern Veracruz, potters also fashioned large, hollow, handmade figures of the gods. An especially fine representation of the Old Fire God was found at Cerro de las Mesas. The most spectacular discovery, however, was a cache of some 800 jade objects. Many of the specimens in this treasure trove are of Olmec workmanship, obviously heirlooms from the much earlier Olmec civilization, while some are clearly Early Classic Maya.

The entire coastal plain from Cerro de las Mesas north to the borders of Classic Central Veracruz culture is famed for Remojadas-style pottery figurines, which must have been turned out in incredible quantity for use as burial goods. The Remojadas tradition dates to the Late Formative and lasts until the Early Postclassic. Figurines are hollow and largely mold-made in the Late Classic, while they were fashioned by hand in the Early Classic. The best-known Classic representations are the “smiling figures” of grinning boys and girls wearing loincloths, skirts, or nothing at all. All kinds of genre scenes are represented, including even lovers in swings, as well as more grim activities such as the heart sacrifice of victims tied down in what look like beds.

Classic Monte Albán

The cultural phases designated as Monte Albán III-A and III-B mark the Classic occupation of this major site in the Valley of Oaxaca. There can be little doubt that the people of Monte Albán were Zapotec speakers, who during Classic times had unequaled opportunity to develop their civilization unaffected by the major troubles that disturbed Teotihuacán and the Maya at the close of the Early Classic. Instead of the 18 or 19 sites known for the valley during the Late Formative, there now were more than 200, a testimony to Zapotec prosperity.

The Monte Albán Classic Period (III-A and III-B) lasted from 250 to 700 ce. During the earlier (III-A) part of the period (250–450) the site shows considerable influence from Teotihuacán. The Early Postclassic Period at Monte Albán (IV; 700–1000) was a time of significant cultural change; it is still uncertain, however, whether the Mixtec replaced the Zapotec at that time.

The Classic site of Monte Albán is quite spectacular. Stone-faced platforms are fronted by stairways with flanking balustrades and exhibit a close counterpart of the talud-tablero motif of Teotihuacán. The temple superstructures had colonnaded doorways and flat beam-and-mortar roofs. One of the best-preserved ball courts of Mesoamerica can be seen at Monte Albán, with a ground plan fashioned in the form of a capital I. Spectators watched the game from stone grandstands above the sloping playing surfaces.

Subsurface tombs were dug in many parts of the site as the last resting places of Monte Albán’s elite. The finest are actually miniature replicas of the larger temples on the surface, complete with facade and miniature painted rooms. The style of the funerary wall paintings is quite close to Teotihuacán, in which areas of flat colour are contained within very finely painted lines in red or black. Teotihuacán presence can also be seen in the finer pottery of Classic Monte Albán, but the manufacture is local as can be proved from the predominance of the fine gray ware that has always typified Monte Albán.

The tradition of literacy dates to Monte Albán I. By Classic times, inscriptions are abundant, appearing on stelae, lintels, slabs used as doors, and wall paintings. The 52-year Calendar Round was the only form of writing dates. The subject matter of these inscriptions can be related to the scenes that they accompany: quite often it is a bound captive standing on a place-glyph, presumably an enemy leader taken in war—an old Monte Albán preoccupation.

The Zapotec of Monte Albán, like the Maya, never exerted much cultural or other pressure on peoples beyond their lands. They did, however, control lands from the Tehuacán Valley in Puebla as far south as the Pacific shore of Oaxaca. Whether they themselves were also controlled by Teotihuacán has not been demonstrated.