Leopoldo Batres

Leopoldo Batres (Ciudad de México, 1852–1926) was a pioneer of the archaeology of Mexico. He worked as an anthropologist and archaeologist for the Museo Nacional de Antropología between 1884 and 1888, beginning his excavations at Teotihuacan, working on the Temple of Agriculture and the Pyramid of the Moon. Later he worked at Monte Albán, Mitla, La Quemada, Xochicalco, la Isla de los Sacrificios, Mexico City, and more work at Teotihuacan, including his erroneous reconstruction of the Pyramid of the Sun.

Researcher Graham Hancock called Bartres's restoration of the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan "grotesque vandalism", citing the removal and selling of a layer of sheet mica between two of the upper levels—mined from 2,000 miles away and used for unknown purpose—removing the outer layer to a depth of more than 20 feet, and adding a fifth stage. Hancock argues that because scientific data might have been incorporated into many of the key dimensions, drastically distorting the original shape and size of the pyramid had possibly deprived posterity of some of the most important lessons Teotihuacan had to teach.

Major publications

• Cuadro arqueológico y etnográfico de la República Mexicana (1885),
• La piedra del agua (1888),
• Excavaciones en la calle de las Escalerillas (1902),
• Exploraciones de Monte Albán (1902),
• Exploraciones en Huexotla, Texcoco (1904)
• El Gavilán, México (1904),
• La lápida arqueológica de Tepatlaxco (1905),
• Teotihuacan (1906).