Dr. James Fitzsimmons

So one of the things about Mesmerican centers that I think is really cool that people don't realize is that they're like one of those Matryoshka dolls.

So each building is like a Matryoshka doll.

So it starts off really small and then the next king or ruler or whoever will build on top of it.

They won't destroy it.

They'll just build on top of it.

And so what you're seeing here and a lot of Mesmerican centers is like the last phase before it fell apart.

So they're just building one on top of another one on top of another one on top of another one.

Um, and you get these rulers that are almost competing with their ancestors over this.

They're like, oh, this is my, this is my ancestors stuff.

I'm going to, I'm going to make it bigger.

Right.

So you compete with them, but you outdo them.

Right.

It's like, oh, you honor them, but like, I'm also better.

Um, and so there's a lot of that going on.

Yeah.

So that by far is the, and for Mesoamerica, that's the, that's the biggest, that's the most impressive building.

What happened to the civilization?

Uh, Teotihuacan, um, so Teotihuacan, another sort of not so common fact about, factoid about Teotihuacan.

It's not in academic circles, but it's not so common.