Other Interpretations
While the consensus is that these murals show a single deity or supernatural, there are other interpretations within the archaeological community:
- In a 2006 article in Ancient Mesoamerica, Zoltán Paulinyi argues that the Great Goddess or Spider Woman is "highly speculative" and is a result of fusing up to six unrelated gods and goddesses.
- In "The Olmec Mountain and Tree Creation in Mesoamerican Cosmology", Linda Schele states that the primary mural represents "either a Teotihuacan ruler or the Great Goddess".
- Similarly, in his web article, John Q. Jacobs finds that "While differing on specifics, most authors accept a religious interpretation for many elements of the mural art. I question whether evidence supports this broad interpretation."
- In her 2007 book, The Teotihuacan Trinity, Anna Headrick is cautious in identifying the murals as portraits of the Great Goddess, preferring the term "mountain-tree". Headrick identifies the tree which sprouts from the headdress as the Mesoamerican world tree.
Read more about this topic: Great Goddess Of Teotihuacan