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Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
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AZTECS:
REIGN OF BLOOD
& SPLENDOR
t
^a*!^
.I'^in.
I
"
^:*^.,
Tula
PYRAMIDS
AT TEOTIHUA(
TOLTEC WARRIOR
Tcotihuacan
Tetzcoco
EMBLEM OF
TENOCHTITLAN
GRASSHOPPER
Iztaccihuatl
EAGLE KNIGHT
^%^Pass of Co,
Teopanzolco
Malinalco
Cuemavaca
Popocatepetl
.^*^
Chalcatzingo
15
25 miles
I^
Pico (U Orizaba
A*"
w^
^.
OLMEC HEAD
Cover:
The fearsome
if
he
had
just
them
to
life.
background of
the Great
found decaying
at
Temple of Tenochtidan.
End paper:
artist
pages 158-159.
on
AZTECS:
REIGN OF BLOOD
& SPLENDOR
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GARDENER'S GUIDE
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LOST CIVILIZATIONS
AZTECS:
REIGN OF BLOOD
& SPLENDOR
By
Books
C O
N^^^N
#^
ONE
THE FALL OF THE CITY "PRECIOUS AS JADE"
9
to Destiny
34
^^^
ESSAY: The
Cit\'
67
THREE
THE TERRIBLE SUSTENANCE OF THE GODS
81
109
FOUR
THE GENTLER SIDE OF AZTEC LIFE
125
ESSAY:
World
Timeline
158
Acknowledgments
Picture Credits
Bibliography
Index
164
160
160
161
149
^.
%*
A
splendid
relic
from squalid
origins to
power and
200 years, this serpent
chest ornament may have been
worn
by a priest. Shown life-size, it is
enriches in just
some
k.^W
--^V-^"
^-1|
.?^
^<^-^^
THE FALL OF
THE CITY
PRECIOUS AS JADE
35
remembered that day in 1519 when he first saw the private gardens
of Motecuhzoma, the Aztec ruler. "We went to the orchard and
garden, which was a marvelous place both to see and to walk in,"
wrote Bernal Diaz del Castillo, a much-scarred veteran of Hernan
Cortes's campaign to conquer Mexico. "1 never tired of noticing the
diversity of trees and the various scents given off by each, and the
paths choked with roses and other flowers, and the many local fruit
trees and the pond of fresh water. Everything was shining and
decorated with different kinds of stonework and paintings that were
a marvel to gaze on.
varieties that
Then
Rattlesnakes form a
skirt for this 12-ton
mother, Coatlicue,
up in 1790 in
Mexico City. From
the stem of her neck,
blood pushes forth
dttg
"I
breeds and
many
to reflect
like it
wistfiilly.
living
Spanish
subjects
worshiped
all
Jesus Christ.
sweat- beaded
brow or gaze
dral. It
workmen wielded
itself
this project
five inches
it
Most dis-
hung
lifelike
with
hearts ranged
around
jawed human
skull.
The news
a clench-
that a relic
of ^
at the
very core of
Mexico
and
later the
wider world
,>
-<,
'.
ki
>^
^'.'^fV^'-^^
"^
'*A''^-'j(^^&L'^^l^^^^
'
>\
^'fimm i^^
^^:^^t
ROAD MAP TO
THE END
OF THE WORLD
One of the most imposing
significant
of Aztec
and
relics is
the
seen below.
It is
feet in diameter,
4 feet thick, 12
and weighs more
dar encircle
called the
Mexico
1790 beneath
map of the
when
the
\\
orld
when
it
would end.
had come to hght 269 \ears to the dav after Q)rtes, the Spanish
conquistador, had accepted the surrender of the might)- Aztecs.
The \icero\-, Juan \'icente Giiemes Pacheco de Padilla, second
count of ReNiUagigedo, took a special interest in the statue and
was rewarded with t\\o other major discoveries, again made b\ laborers engaged in constructing the same public works. First came a
would end on the ritual date "'4movement.'" But the end came far
Weighing 24
of Q)rtes in 1519.
instructed that
it
JAGU.\RS
HLTtRIC.\NES
SUN GOD
as idolatrous, if
Within
not satanic.
a \ear, the
humanlike \isage
IXX)MSDAY
vestiges
all
The
\\ith a
rest
a perple.xing
tongue.
Dubbed
cause of
\\"as
its
resemblance to
embedded
cathedral.
in a pier
It is
a sundial,
it
of the nearb\-
often referred to as
for
its
known today
Tizoc.
up
It
it is
Stone of
might have been broken
as the
ened
\\
Stone
priest intervened
as gi\"en safe
the cathedral,
and the
relic
where
it
These
piqued the interest
startling
capital
was
cinct
and
at the
where
their
bloody
rituals
modern
finds,
like
at the
where
sacrifices.
were
out human
Flanking the pyramid
priests carried
se\'eral
other temples,
in-
plumed
Behind
left:
cit\'.
sC^-^
map
made for
W^BK^mSBtK^^*^
Cortes, this
ofTenochtitlan shows
A dike, at far
gave flood protection.
mainland.
right,
^t^i^
access to
them: The failing Spanish empire had all but banned travel in its New
World domains and discouraged foreigners from entering the counConsequentiv, few outsiders had the chance to examine the finds
firsthand. Intellectuals in the United States, busy establishing their
try.
new
countr\% paid
little if
naturalist.
Hum-
1813,
fiarther
lore.
He
reported that
had actually been highly advanced. When the gates were opened after
Mexico gained its independence in 1821, an era of feverish interest
in the Aztecs commenced. Tourists, scientists, and adventurers descended on Mexico, then returned to Europe with tales to tell (many
of them
in
some
cases, trunkflils
of purchased or purloined
artifacts.
at the
Some of his
readings were
false,
down
the
365-day
identity-
year. It
took
of the serpent-skirted
of
life
began
lin-
guists
Ancient
with 600 soldiers and 16 horses, Cortes had imprisoned the Aztec
ruler,
inaccurately ren-
14
first
arri\'al,
brilliant
accomplishments of
the Aztecs had all but \anished from Mexico's memor\% and no one
was sure just where the key structures of Tenochtidan had stood. For
example, by the 18th centur\', popular opinion held that the ruins of
el
con\enient m\^th
Gone
also
religion
from
common
them
So
powerftil
v\'ere
fact, that
the best
removing the
of them
The Coadicue
statue
dug up
briefl\' at its
in front
of the
supposed haven
fact,
slip
the Coadicue
For many
15
more
tangible picture of
it
existed
the
terrible devasta-
wrought by
tion
Cortes's army.
hampered by
the fact that the remains of Tenochtitlan and its many satellite
Today,
the effort
communities
lie
is
sites,
25 miles
1790,
artifacts
construction projects
lines in
its
own
this
have been
Many
century^when
in the
of sewer
across the
Codex
on leather panels,
or on
who lacked
sites,
used
a written language
the pictures
to help
work resumed on
Tenochtidan
itself
at the
composed
on an
array of narratives
body of work that has helped direct their excaxations of the Aztec
capital.
Spanish
(via codices,
priests,
left
behind
Among the documents are letters by Cortes himthe Holy Roman Emperor, accounts bv several of
buried civilization.
self to Charles
the soldiers
V,
who were
posed by Spanish
friars.
16
them remember
details
when
some measure
an insurance policy:
as
Having abandoned
Along with
letters
narratives
by
life
in the
1519 and
Aztec
a valu-
capital.
and
literature
its
in the
decades that
art
fol-
been
lost in
of the
One of the great ironies of the conquest is that from the ranks
Roman Catholic Church, the ver\' institution that led the
legacv^,
friar
Ber-
last
illustrated
the production
Aztec codices,
cit\'
in
it
resides today.
17
^-^
<,iS^
His motives
Sahagun oper-
aside,
which goes by
its official
name,
New Spain,
rial
is
a rich source
of mate-
Another
produced
text
in
dies
in
although
it
had been
altered
and de-
~^
good and
list
ties,
With Aztec
tionaries
and
and informants, the friars compiled dicof Nahuatl, which was then a spoken, not a
assistants
glossaries
in
The
codices,
illustrate
as
memory prompts.
many of the
18
communi-
and
mantles in
all.
dots for
numbers between 1 and 19, and pennants for 20 and its multiples (right).
They rendered a large number, such as
8,000, as a bulging bag of cacao beans.
the distant Aztec past but also into the period directlv preceding the
10
portra\' elaborateh*
By 1519, designated
as the vear
Reed on
classes,
sans, merchants,
rr^
society-.
wide-ranging
as
manv
territor\'
as
stratified
200,000
and
arti-
Aztec
inhabitants,
The
60
400
8000
19
was
set forever
when
Cortes
left
for Spain.
But
as
Cortes mustered
fmally, at a location he
was
in
first
in,
(present-
iards
independence from the Aztecs where others had failed. Their brighdy
attired warriors
mobbed
ken
who
who was
of the
spoils
coast,
and her
so
also fluent in
fiiture adversary,
of an
earlier fray
intelligence
much so that it is
her. It
was
and
doubtfiil Cortes
Nahuad proved
invaluable
20
similar
Maya
dialects,
which
Nahuad
to
Mava
tribute- bearing
b\'
in Tlaxcala,
moment the
Spaniards had
Motecuhzoma's
ruler
spies
as
ers,
with
alliance
in \^eracruz,
closely, relaying
Motecuhzoma
debarked
of communication,
odd
attire, their
tame
"deer' that carried them '^vherever they uish to go, holding them as
high
as the
like
demons,
of Spanish cannon
fire,
fainted.
moved on toward
some
cit\'
in
Dona
Marina, warned him that the Cholulans \\ere conspiring against him.
As
and
their Tlaxcalan
henchmen massacred
thousands of men, uomen, and children, casting down idols from the
temples in their ruthless attack.
From
arri\al
friars, it is clear
of powerful
that
Motecuhzoma had
raft
ha\e
it,
x-Vs
raft
soon
as
of Quetzalcoad
plving the
and
series
of
21
=a^
that "he
was half desirous that the events which had been predicted
The omens that had unnerved Motecuhzoma gripped his peoAccording to one Aztec codex, nighdy for a year
"there arose a sign like a tongue of fire, like a flame. Pointed and
ple with anxiety.
wide-based,
it
it
looked as
the
fire
it."
On
glowing
'My dear
coals."
no apparent
woman
children,
we
And at night,
people
Where can
have to go!
take you?'
"
When
all
his emis-
and overleaf
arrival
and details
Indian customs and the conquest in both Nahuati, the Aztec tongue, and Spanish. The
tecs themselves
dex in 1577
as pro-Indian,
and
The
coatl. In their
m\Tholog\\
this
deit)'
lea\'e his
As
to return. Certain even before the fact that his reign had
end,
Motecuhzoma gave
a fareu'ell speech.
was
come
"With abundant
terrified
to an
tears
he
strangers," reported Duran. After this public scene, the king returned
to the palace and ''bade farewell to his wi\es and children with sorrow
and
tears,
charging
all
considered himself a
man about
he
to die."
was November 1519. Cortes sat astride his horse looking out on
cit\' he intended to possess. Nearbv uas Bernal Diaz del Castillo,
who, many years later, in his 70s, recounted his impressions of that
It
the
day
in the
with amazing
clarit\'.
"When we
just outside
beheld so man\'
cities
of Tenochtidan,"
Diaz wrote, "we were astonished because of the great stone towers
and temples and buildings that rose up out of the water. Some of our
soldiers said that
all
these things
seemed to be
for never
dream; and
was there
it is
no
seen, nor
=.*
heard, nor even dreamt, anything like that which
we then obser\'ed."
across the
Not
far
from the
city the
And
the great
Motecuhzoma was
richly attired
according to his practice, and he was shod with sandals, the soles of
and
had been
\'iolated
by
sinister strangers.
at
Veracruz
in
have to come with him to the Spaniards' lodging. As the Aztec ruler
was led through the streets, he told his agitated people that he was
going of his own free will. From then on, Motecuhzoma was litde
more than a pitiable reciter of proclamations, a ruler in name only
while Cortes pulled his strings.
Oddly, the
ated
than
An Aztec physician
patient.
The
many European
cities
it
attends a smallpox
disease,
introduced by the
zoma's brother
its
and successor.
The Spaniards
bum
the temple
Eleven months after they fled, the Spaniards return to Tenochtitlan. Cortes sur-
rounded the
and
city,
destroying
thus vanquishing
its
its
aqueducts
people.
traveled conquistadors,
nople.
The
largely deforested
cities
on
a smaller scale,
which
^
_
still
iards that
26
quest,
but whether
is
it
actually belonged to
not known.
archaeology, would argue that the Aztecs had to have been remarkable artisans to have
tions
hewn
idols,
ornamenta-
built
close-set beams.
On manv of these,
10
Dominating the city, the 150-foot pyramid of the Great Temple loomed over this network of busy waterways and streets. While
reviling the idolatry' of the Aztecs, Cortes could not help being awed
bv the achievements of their architects. He mar\'eled at the beaut\' of
the temples and the buildings that housed the idols, and he com-
27
THE
KINGDOM OF
IN
mented on the
quality
of the
priests' quarters.
He was
struck by the
priests'
cut nor
comb their hair from the time they enter the priesthood until
they leave
it."
He
all
so large that in
its
precincts,
which
five
is
are
are equally
THE ANIMALS
Living close to nature
the Aztecs saw in
is all
is
they did,
many animals
including insects
ulate,
as
animals; his
sculptured,^
them on
of the temples.
Diaz guessed that some tens of thousands of skulls crowded the racks.
Two conquistadors who counted them put the number at more than
zoo was so
looked
by
ritu-
tes,
300 workers
According to Cor-
large
aft:er it.
ally inflicted
wounds, plied
their
gruesome
trade.
was shocked
and revulsed. "In that small space," he
wrote, ''"there were many diabolical things to
be seen, bugles and trumpets and knives, and
shrine to Huitzilopochtli, Diaz
many
ple
Tem-
known
riors
who
as the
it
And because
The
ratdesnake abo\'e
its
cise detail:
The
tom
is
is
^^^^
pre-
bot-
say
it is
smoke
entrails
as sacrifice.
as the personification
This one,
claw-shaped jewel.
still
Some of us have
seen
this,
ah\'e
idols,
and they
the most terrible and frightful thing they have ever witnessed.
Not one
50 persons
do not
kill
and
sacrifice
some
in each temple."
The Spanish
way
more
from informa-
detailed account of
hastened
car\'ed in the
the Aztecs
we
presence of the idols they open their chests while the\' are
lecher}'.
it
the
as carefully ren-
mischief,
as
it
granite coiled
typical for
idols,
fertili-
change.
the
Eagle Knights,
ty.
in
and eyer\TJiing was so clotted with blood, and there was so much of it, that I curse
fumigating their
had burned
its
symbol
chest
for a
own
it
29
hands.
high a
level as in Spain.
Consid-
knowledge of God
and communication with other
rous, lacking
civilized nations,
to see
all
it is
remarkable
all
band of
its
mili-
gold.
it,
They picked
it
in the presence
it
like
of
monkevs:
and
lieutenants,
rile
30
Sculpted rocks
Aztec
deities
iards.
But in April,
after
in the capital,
Cortes
was forced to deal with a crisis at his rear. A disciplinary force under
the command of Panfilo de Narvaez had been sent from Cuba by
Velasquez. Cortes hurried back to his outpost at Veracruz, where he
bribed Narvaez's soldiers with jewels and gold, winning their allegiance to the point where he could overcome their leader.
In Cortes's absence, the temporary' commander in Tenochtitlan, Pedro de Alvarado, brashly launched an attack on unarmed
Aztecs, apparently caving in to fears of a rumored Aztec uprising. On
the pretext of observing an Aztec ceremony dedicated to Huitzilopochtli,
Alvarado sent
his
all
off^his head,
which
in the
fell
Next, they butchered the crowds. "Everywhere were intestines, severed heads, hands, and
in that patio!
By
And no one
The
dreadfiil screams
and lamentations
the time Cortes had rushed back from the coast with
reinforcements, the
citizenry
feet.
cit}^
was
in revolt.
tec leader
The Aztec
forces,
During the
Noche
Triste,
or Night of
terrible
lost
Aztecs attacked on foot and by canoe, mercilessly pursuing the despised Spaniards. But, skilled as they were at the art of war, the Aztecs
committed
iards.
more fodder
alive.
all
their clashes
31
in the
=
over Tenochtitlan, Spanish soldiers benefited from this
strategic predisposition. Instead of fighting to kill, the Aztecs fought
to imprison the enemy. Had the Aztec warriors gone for the batdefinal battles
field kill
them
for help
Cortes's
army might
'
T:
months
regrouping, then returned with a formidable alliance of Spanish and
Tlaxcalan soldiers. He had hardened his heart. "When I saw how
rebellious the people of this cit\' were, and how they seemed more
a time. Cortes spent 10
known
before," he wrote,
dangers and hardships, and yet avoid destroying them and their
city,
Defeat for the Aztecs thus came with a vengeance. All their
menacing
finer\'
was
more than
little
Spaniards cut
down
a colorful
and
futile
show. Like
sc\iJies,
the
dan, and the rest surrendered. After a siege of 75 days, Cortes stood
owing
for himself
to
Thus
ilization
ended
and
Tenochddan.
fealtv'
and advancing
civ-
which, by
swiftly
cit)^
as
they went.
The con-
and demolished temples amid billowing clouds of smoke from burning houses. Spanish violence and despotism would continue to devastate the defeated
population for a
is
ver\^
resistance,
.>
servants,
Another poet, anonymous now, stripped of identity by defeat, lamented the tremendous loss: "Broken spears lie in the roads; we have
32
We have
its
it."
The toppled stones of Tenochtidan and its sister cit\', Tlatebecame the building blocks of Mexico Cirs'. Over a period of
time the Spaniards broke up hand-hewn monoliths or tipped them
into place whole to form foundations, abutments, or other supports.
The\' dumped rubble and fill into Tenochtidan's extensive system of
canals, \\hich had made the cit\' a veritable Venice of the Americas.
The\- graduall\' drained Lake Tetzcoco and ruined most of the chinampas, fertile "floating garden" plots upon which farmers had raised
crops of com, squash, amaranth a highly productive, protein-rich
grain that was an important staple
beans, and chilies, and the flo\\'ers that had been ubiquitous in Aztec life and ceremonv. Thev even
banned the use of amaranth in the diet.
Meanwhile, church authorities waged a demolition campaign
lolco,
against
all
reli-
removed were mutilated. Over the remains of Motecuhzoma's onceglorious abode rose the edifice of the Spanish-colonial mint and the
National Palace, and atop the leveled precincts of the Great Temple,
\\here x\ztec priests had sacrificed thousands of
burgeoning colonial
cit\'
human
\'ictims, the
spread.
were
now
of the
fifth
at the
redoubt.
The horror
33
come
to pass.
^^
THMTREF ^O DESTINY
oFthemsel\'es.
learned
set
it
it
at school.
down
in
vears, thev
Bards recited
it
in \erse.
origin.
all
left
likelihcx^d they
the region
were
dri\'en
is
an\'bod\''s
out by
local
As the
was to be
fact; b\'
their capital
down by
And artists
guess. In
signaled by an eagle
Although there once were thousands of Aztec codino originals from the days before the Spanish con-
ces,
The
most of them.
Even so, among some of the Indians the codex tradition
Emerging from
oftheAztea and
heads
and
The
commalike marks flowing between the men in
to happen.
L*^-'
^^X
(above,
courtyard
surrounded by
to dwell
six stylized
\'illage
left)
man
mande drawn
feminine
AD
1 116),
Knife (corresponding to
noted by the square-framed glyph above the footprints
the year
1 Flint
The
first
stop
is
a \isit to the
h'^
~-^-
in the
Aztec pantheon,
leaf}'
tribal
picts a fishnet,
first
known
as the
on
up the
rear.
as
Repos-
'^f
hm
:>^^
-^JiJ ''.
Not
region of
idyllic beaut\'
lS\
No
doubt an Aztec
narrator,
would have
filled in
come
is
tribesmen gathered in a
ings.
They
vxeep at
circle to
The migrants
start out,
-^^4
?^-?-?^-.^2i-'
1^'
Sfe,
and to
sacrifice \ictims
captured
many
in skirmishes.
generations; the
tlill
Their
codex
-i
ples
to the city's
mark two
states,
Aztec heraldic
shield.
The
crossed blue
bands
THE BEGINNINGS
OF EMPIRE AT
TENOCHTITLAN
In their
come
by two
year of
Tenochtitlan,
AD
1325.
A stone-and-cactus name
glyph means Tenoch, the
capital's principal founder.
marked by
three dots.
The
Mendoza
emblazon the
(opposite).
fi-ontis-
Among the
down
signify
Aztec power.
most magnificent of all surviving codices, this document relates the Aztec stor\' year by year in 16
brilliantly detailed pages, from the cit\''s inception
in 1325 until the time of the Spanish conquest.
Probablv commissioned b\ the first viceroy of New
Spain, Don Antonio de Mendoza, after whom it is
named, it chronicles the reign of each Aztec ruler,
starting with the
cit\''s
priest
Four Reed
represents Te-
was rendered
is
in
Around
left
iffl
sequence
istence,
city's ex-
third
right.
walled
iS
JS
hill identifies
//trtorv
nutshell, this page follows the career of the Aztecs' first hereditary
monarch,
who became ruler in 1376 and reigned
21
\*n*vf>K^
for
years, as
glyphs.
is
His name,
emtMj^me.
<at
<^ifwnic*,:
/ y'-'*-'*'^"t'*"
"C>*^xKts jcA.ir^M.^^^,'
V?'/-
Traced here
is
Shield, which
Chimalpopoca, or Snwking
was marred
Iry
defeat.
Durint, his
who was
exe-
His death
'
.cooLx.^^
also
m^ny
^captives for
^igt^.y,t
-t^ci*(*'fe<rr-^,\
/
^'w(9>
'-%Kt.
PEOPLE
IN SEARCH
OF A
PAST
he villagers of Coatlinchan,
near the immense ghost cityJ of Teotihuacan,
Teotit
were distraught.
The
had decided
in
a 10th-
an crafisman, a
idol.
In a
last,
desperate bid to
at
statue
was taken to
its
honor
in
villagers
Mexico
sabotaged the
City.
Thousands
Lined the roadways to watch the great stone image of Mexico's oldest
had been
divine artisans.
And
It
poured.
Even
though the wet and dry seasons are well defmed in the Valley of
Mexico and every onlooker knew that the time of year was wrong for
rain, it fell in torrents along the route. Nor was this just a sudden
shower: In defiance of the calendar, the downpour continued
45
"
through the night. "People joked about the coincidence," recalled the
Mexican author Victor Alba, "but later, as TIaioc was being set in
place in the
museum
to feel
down
an astonishment not
far
from
superstitious awe."
ple
and
their heritage.
Few
is
still
matter;
al-
if
considered
him
emotional significance
rock. It
is
villagers
far
complex
beyond that of an antique hunk of carved
all,
may not
as scholars
it
was
Tlaloc.
from
Such wholesale
cultural borrowing did not bother the Aztecs, nor does it deter
modern Mexicans in their deep and sentimental identification with
scores that the Aztecs adopted
earlier cultures.
Museum
The 168-ton
it
had
lain un-
^.^^'^^^^piim^i^-
^^
''"^^ShBB^^B
=atidi
W^^^T
^^^^^^^^^^^1
IHBP^^
5019
^HH^^??^
:
H|^HUBJ|^RE^^N.
"*"^-
'vscf
iiijin!^Kll
C!?:i::i:i
The Aztecs
them whole,
in spite
of what
ar-
chaeologists might
also the
tribes
its
peoples. After
all, less
rulers
dust\',
Among
the
on
more than 50
Indian groups that contended for domination of the area in the 13th
centur\% the Aztecs stood out only for their talent for
slaughter
and for
this
mayhem and
minded
fer\^or
import a
to establish
prolific
it.
breeder with a
Colhuacan prince
who
good
pedigree.
They brought
in a
of the sons of the prince, led his men into a major battle and brought
home much plunder and many captives. Not content with creating a
new
He
de-
stroved tribal records that might have cast doubt on the nobilit\' of
the Aztecs' past and the preordained, godsent brilliance of their
ftiture.
A new,
glorious,
first
histor}-
emerged.
Motecuhzoma,
enlisted
allies and expanded violendy and dramaticallv all over the valley. The
resulting tribute, \\'rung from conquered peoples, formed the basis
lives
cit\'
of
own
The
subject
skills
47
AD
own
nothing
is
known
except that
it
lay
Of Azdan's
true location
it
militarism and imperialism associated with the sun, they ate vermin,
god through
site that
the
hearts cut
mouths of his
he had chosen
priests,
at the start
only
of time to be their
s.
when
know
their
capital.
this place
by a
Ac-
sign:
MILITARISTIC PEOPLE
Taking
his lead
who appropriated
I.V
the heritage
craftsmen of Mesoamerica.
"All that
now
exists,
is
their dis-
militaristic
warrior at right,
it
also includes
Among them
eftigv' at left,
human and
which com-
supernatural
characteristics.
peo-
'St^
skills
licose
[V
:^ -
where the
the serpent
is
and spreads
its
wings and
and
eats,
torn apart."
Wherever the Aztecs went they were rejected as vile and barbaric by the sedentar}' peoples thev encountered. By 1168 they had
reached the Valley of Mexico, skulking on its fringes. Feared by all,
they trudged from place to place. Twice in 20 years they occupied the
strategic hilltop heights of Chapultepec beside Lake Tetzcoco, and
twice their indignant neighbors threw them out.
By 1319, weary and discouraged, seemingly farther than ever
from Huitzilopochtli's promise of riches and supremacy, the\' straggled into noble Colhuacan and sought asylum. The Colhua, needing
mercenaries and fully aware of their uninvited guests' talent for
slaughter, decided to keep the Aztecs usefully at hand. With what
surely must have been a cruel snicker, they offered the coarse supof
To
it,
they
order
this:
his
Go
own
to the ruler as
He
commanded and
her, dress
some
Then he
gifts
as a
Then go
at the feet
of
room
49
on Achitomed."
They did so, and Achitomed accepted
lighted
priest
up with
who was
the
fire.
seated next to
'r
was
The king
filled
One
Tetzcoco.
ground,
bitter
elusive promises
by reeds
the\'
And then on
low
island
by the
surrounded
its
in triumph, the
bloodthirst)'^
spread across the Vallev of Mexico was about to begin. They v\'ould
build an empire based largely
on an
'
T:and
climbing
fast,
pardy
satis-
completelv
vealed the
wrong
full
It
onlv within
whom
so
little
they wanted, with no one to say them nay. In any case, they were
tidan
to
some of
belie\'e that
it
Here
again the truth about the site and the people who inhabited it would
have to wait for archaeolog)- to shed light on the Teotihuacanos and
their religious
basis.
much the Aztec upstarts revered these mysterious people of the coastal lowlands. Certainly the Aztecs owed them a large debt: Perhaps
without even knowing
it,
development of
50
Mesoamerican
Maya were
The
culture. It
Tula
workers
who found
posed
at first to
it
it
with thick
Tenochtitlan
lips
beheld
LaVenta
San Lorenzo
this
51
it
light:
and nose,
Tres Zapotcs
be an inverted iron
that this
The sugarcane
was
it
was
a special
kettle.
But
round, powerful,
plain to
all
who
mec
artists'
command
o\er their
civilization, the
Characterizing
much Olmec
sculpture
is
of the jungle. In
many such pieces the head also
displays a deep V-shaped cleft,
possibly inspired by a similar
groo\'e found in crocodiles and
toads, which the Olmecs apparjaguar, lord
in
animal form.
just a
little
common
to
many Olmec
works.
for years,
it
in a kind
be recognized
Mesoamerica's
as
until the
artistr\'
remained
earliest civilization.
The moment of
With
the discoN'en' of
objects, a per-
hostile in\'aders
However,
in
or,
1966,
Coe, exca\'ated
had been
svstematically
plausible explanation,
istic
burial
as part
place,
The only
as a frantic
response to attack.
may be bevond
solving.
way was
did,
clear for
its
And grow
planned
cit\'
Rome. Bv
manv
200,000
conception and
nothing
as
in the
like it existed
monumental grandeur of
its
53
of
buildings,
World. But
people are
New
to
its
HOUSEHOLD
Although Teotihuacan means
to the
overgrown
even
site
long
the eye. It
after\\
"city
is
is
less
who
sensed
No
one knows
what Teotihuacan was called in its heyday; no one knows what the
Teotihuacanos called themselves. Not until the past hundred years
have archaeologists been able to sketch, however roughly, the outdi\'ine, as if onl\'
lines
of its
and
rise
who made
umental
lay
The
beneath
it all.
and torpor gave litde clue that Teotihuacan had once been a crowded metropolis, the most
important marketplace and religious center in Mesoamerica. It had been a cit\' of colors, ablaze with fresh paint and
sparkling with reflected light, richh' decorated with murals
peak, Teotithuacan held sway over an
and
frescoes.
area
its
a region
about the
size
The
cit\^'s
ver\' location
was
inspired. Teotihuacan
It
it
val-
and the Gulf Coast, ensuring not onh' wide markets but
also subde power oser trade. And emotionallv it seems to
have been infused with a profound religious significance,
leys
reinforcing
its
By
Mexico
AD
54
Cit\'
suburb stum-
the
silence
At
....
fall.
GRAVES OF
TLATILCO
ines (below)
on top of
today
Moon
N(fc^
^^
have served
as well as a
the
The
Tlatilcoans, in fact,
imager\' that
some
scholars
on
plants.
as the
as a
priests
or public
officials,
immense structure.
Although it is not
clear
the result of
some
enues bisected
violent,
fier)'
it,
its
center
hill called
the
55
To
tombs and
tumuluses, covering a space of nine square miles; to the south and
southwest the hills of Tlaxcala, the villages of San Martin and San
Juan, the snow}' top of Iztaccihuad towering aboxe the Madacinga
Moon, and
the
the great
site.
ally
lakes."
tentative diggings at
peoples.
first
its
its
He was
ants.
some
light
aided in a
on the
lives
of these long-vanished
at the
Pyramid of the
monuments,
albeit
Batres pioneered
recklessly
exca^
an
56
worked obsidian, precious stones, beads, and the like, within the
circuit of ants' nests, which these busy insects had extracted from the
ground in digging their galleries; and now on the summit of the lesser
pyramid, I again came upon mv friends, and among the things I
picked out of their nests was a perfect earring of obsidian, ver\' small
and as thin as a sheet of paper."
Ithough Charnay's work was
A'
it
about
Leopoldo
it:
though,
as a
Batres.
said, Batres
"had
task, Batres
ruins
fell
cit\'
\'ictim to a
den chambers like those of the Great Pyramid in Egypt, Garcia Cubas
chopped a hole several thousand cubic yards in size into the Pyramid
of the Moon before conceding he was wrong.
Batres returned to Teotihuacan in 1905, determined to excavate the entire 738-foot-square, 20-stor\'-high Pvramid of the
in time for the centennial
57
of Mexican independence
in
Sun
Day
after day, year aft:er year, centur\' after centur\', the xegetation
rotted until the accumulated earth lay packed so deep that e\'en
it all
away. The
to join
him in exile.
Although professional archaeologists lamented
Batres's
58
*
under the direction of Manuel Gamio, a Mexican archaeologist with
(rare in
being
who
in the course
of several
ex-
on Mexican
Finding
mul-
and
many narrow
streets, Linne
proved that Teotihuacan
had been far more than just
5,000-square-yard palace.
But
as late as
1960
rounding Teotihuacan
re-
at.
And
at last
peeled
that
from a new Mexican government, the archaeologist Jorge Acosta, one of the assistants of
Ignacio Bernal, the overall project director, completed excavations of
the area around the 152-foot-high Pyramid of the Moon, the Avenue
of the Dead, and part of the plaza in front of the Pyramid of the Sun.
Later, Bernal joined Acosta to restore the Pyramid of the Moon
task made more historically accurate by the discovery of one cornerstone in its original position. This enabled Acosta and his team to
Supported by
a large appropriation
59
its
mysteries.
TEOTIHUACAN
M. H. de
word of
an unexpected bequest. The curator sent to investigate was dumbIn 1976, San Francisco's
Young Museum
received
struck at
its essentials.
Complementing the Mexican scientists' efforts was the painstaking work of Rene Millon, an archaeologist from the University of
Rochester. Convinced that Teotihuacan was even larger and more
complex than anyone had yet shown, Millon decided to dedicate his life to solving
THE LOOTED
MURALS OF
He
benefactor's house,
tables
devised a plan to
it
took
five
air
to the surround-
with several
it
craft activity.
from Oa-
xaca,
200
traces
And though Teotiwas far from the defenseless open city Batres and others had imagined it to be. Its
apartment compounds and narrow streets and the natural barriers of spiny nopal cactus in the surrounding countryside may well
have served to impede attackers.
Even afiier Millon's thoroughgoing study, other astonishing
faraway political and commercial
walls,
liaisons.
it
form
a 1 12-yard-long tunnel.
60
involves
dug randoml}'
into the
ruins
of the
colorfull\-
The
frescoes
decorated walls.
found few
bu)'ers.
and unappealingly
dirt\' and unwieldv. A few went to
museums; others were hawked in
markets or allowed to
It
somehow managed to
museum. In 1986,
ethical dilemma his
resolve the
To understand this extraordinar\' conclusion, it is necknow that caves had tremendous s\'mbohc importance in
a ca\e.
essan' to
to
moon. In this
it
itself,
of the origin of
Teotihuacan, though
enormous bubble of gas in la\a streaming from deep within the earth,
was the \er\' reason the P\Tamid of the Sun was built where it was.
Since the pvramid was the first major building in all of Teotihuacan,
it follows that the cirv itself was founded because of
not merely
in the
ac-
Out
onI\'
o\er
also fragile
village
if
rv
from
materials
\\'alls
ers
collector,
Even the
great
god
caves, for he ruled not onl\' the rains but also ca\'erns
at
dr\'
and
ri\'ers.
The
of a cult, whose members, perhaps, were the cit\''s founding fathers. Furthermore, there
-'-'-
^;i^^i
is
abun-
'
pyramid's construction.
why
its
ruins have to
about
its
end? CU-
cri-
longed drought.
Huge
quantities of
wood
may
graduall\' ha\e
61
terminal
crisis,
lacked the
flexibility^
citx'^s
leadership
it.
mav have
Perhaps, under
profound
its
undoing.
walls
civic
Its
morale too
brittle to
city's
demise
is
62
Mexican
archaeologists
and
temple
to
and
its
grand plaza.
acts
set
destroy
it
as a religious center.
particular
region.
cit\'
form of communitarian
living
before,
were
in the
three centuries
left in its
like planets
of
wake
a disordered world,
tribal states
place to a
wear
their
mong
those
who
states.
coalesced
own
at
Tenochtidan.
ruins are, in
Worse
self-
63
ar-
them beyond realit\\ In Aztec eyes the Toltecs were giants, their
capital of Tula a place of great wealth. Even cotton grew in colors,
exalt
crafts
were crude and shoddy compared with what had gone before.
Thanks to the Aztecs, ever\'one had heard of Tula; but none
it.
Desire Charnav,
64
sizes
pilasters,
Charnay was convinced he had indeed found Tula. But his betters in
the world of scholarship looked upon him as a wild romantic and
coolly ignored him. Not until the 1930s, when the Mexican anthropologist Wigberto Jimenez Moreno used old place names and geo-
cient Tula,
city
correct:
The Toltec
people, far
its
architec-
ift,**-
^a
less
e;1
tacles for
human
hearts.
which were
altars
or shrines. In their
in pits
life
obsidian goods
in
little
different
from elsewhere
i\
which oppression was a way of life and human sacrifice second nature, a far cry from the golden age of Aztec legend."
Tula's end came in a sudden and overwhelming cataclysm.
The temples were incinerated, the Serpent Wall toppled, the monuments methodically smashed. Famine and invasion by barbaric peoples from the north are considered to be the likeliest causes, but
^-
rtw"'
neither these nor any other single external factor seems sufficient to
j'-
s^'iP^y^^'^'"'
65
the seeds of
its
own
its
strength. It
Richard Diehl,
theorized that
when economic
"people
scorned as deities
is
a grave
and nothing
it.
Rivers, rivulets,
Chichimecs
loosely
translated as
known generally
last
whose
"the people
nobody knows."
of course, it was a face all the inhabitants of the Valley of
Mexico would soon know. They may not have been interested in the
face
Yet,
The
come regularly as
and
countiess finelv crafted artifacts. Pla\'ful terra-cotta figurines and ornate masks, such as the funerar\' piece
as
they fled from enraged Aztec warriors, but so distraught was the Spanish captain that he failed to
monuments
tell
city
his
in his subse-
ins, a
among
extensive ru-
67
its
its
van-
it
took
35
side, is
equal
Sid..
AWESOME
ABODE OF
THE GODS
shadow
two major temples, the Pyramid of the Sun
and the Pyramid of the
Moon, each of which was
temples,
'\
of the
it
lay in the
city's
The Pyramid of
the
Sun
huacan
fc.j
in
both
nificance. Priests
size
and
sig-
would have
From
its
MAPPING THE
REMAINS OF A
METROPOLIS
named Rene
He would
of"
define
More
was incontrovertible Teotihuacan had at one time been a flourishing metropolis with a population possibly as great as 200,000.
<i
This schematic
Dead, lined with shrines and palaces and surrounded by apartment confounds (small black rectangles). The much-larger map
developed by the archaeologists
DD
^Db
-|
dDd
co
nnta
o00n
oD
and
DD D^D^DDQ
Oa
city
6 Quetzalpapalotl Palace
7 Moon Pyramid
0oD
nnb
nn- Do
Drf
'-'oD
0^0 Do
D0""ri noD,
o = no[
oqD
O-OonQ D^DnQD
D n^QoaO
DacDDD"'-Lan
^oDoo'
2 Citadel
3 Feathered Serpent Temple
4 Great Compound
5 Sun Pyramid
on
nbDD
nrP"D
.oDoaoa,QDoa,D
DDVnDD"o^n^D"lna
a-'D^S ^DSD=D''
S
'^
o UoUUU
DodD d'^
o UoUUU
DodD Do
o UoUUU
DodD d o Uo
nnonnn
nnonnn
^nonnn
,DoOoooDonoao nooDo
o o g go
was divided.
o
aDoDDnDonDD
oo
"ob'cDc
which the
DDno'='l=ID
odDd
Q oD o
oD D
on
JToD Dn
DonODoonDDDor
nOD
Da
SDotlSODbDog'=QtlDDo
Uou
D
D
D?o
ono
o
Dn
Do
So
o5oDo
Dd
D'DO
J^
1Q^dSq1d6
n_ UoUULJoUoUULJoUnUun
noDDQ? dodDd^ nnonn isi
'-'_
D'
oD
,D^Db
"D
oDDDr
Do
Do DoD
0DDQDoDD
^D
d"o^
o D
o D o
QOD
DoD^
o
D
Dnn'S,i=iaDnDoDaD
o D
oD
no
nDD
n
oDD
Do0
a:
"do
,oDnnr
--wZ
HOUSING OF
The architecture of the apartment compound below, only
one of many such one-story
dwellings in the city, must have
HIGHER ORDER
as a
small temple.
The windowless
deal of privacy.
from the
keep
the inteand
helped
street
rior cool by day and warm by
night. Rooms surrounded a spacious patio that let in light and
air and had drains to carry away
exterior buffered noise
terra-cotta figurim
her ease
cfa woman at
m73
is
only four
deities.
This
high.
This brazier
lid,
believed to represent
god,
is
decorated top
is
L
B".
AT
The
elite li\'ed
well in Teotihua-
homes were
Many
lay
not
far
est.
former grandeur.
The Quctzalpapalotl
Pal-
Here,
in
1962, archaeologists
^
76
..i.
THE CENTER
OF GREATNESS
plex,
with
com-
its
^!
information on the
class
ruling
ered Serpent
Tem-
adel at lower
clues.
left)
for
Ornamented with
is
city's
faces,
by far the
most elabo-
monument. If heads of
rate religious
state
most
can
still
23S-
^1
GRIiMNESS AT THE
TEMPLE'S HEART
die secrets of the Feathered
Serpent Temple, a team of Mexican archaeologists set out to exca^ate along its southern edge
Hoping to fathom
spectacular find.
Deep
central burial.
The
ex-
exists,
or whether,
if it
fior-
tell.
a collar from which nine human upper jaws are suspended. Above this
necklace can be seen
a choker made of
shell.
"^
4r
^^^^
::#
79
g^m
i_
THE
TERRIBLE
SUSTENANCE
OF THE
GODS
Workmen
new
electric cable
ogists arrived,
its
torso of a woman
for jewelry
and
stre\\
n in
a circle
a serpent belt
almost
1 1 feet in
adorned with
legs,
and
diameter. Except
human
skull,
she was
A smiling skull,
embellished with
the
poca, omnipotent
od of the Aztecs.
When
his
time
rit-
rior
Under
an\'
sister
deit\'.
but what
made
more
was that it
occurred at the spot where el Templo Mayor, the Great Temple, principal shrine of the Aztec capital of Tenochtidan, had stood. Indeed,
the discover}' would launch one of the centurv^'s most fascinating
archaeological excavations (pa0es 108-123), in which large portions
of the Great Temple would emerge into davlight after being buried
major
find,
it
all
81
the
significant
By extension,
>il
of Mexico
vengeance on
his sister,
Coyolxauhqui. The
convinced that
ral-
kill
lied
approached to do
of their plans.
vengeful
their
other siblings
a mythical expression
of the
moon and
pieces
and threw
all
down
the mountainside.
placement
at the
bottom of the
stairs
ancient myth.
fate, for it
had served
a grue-
flat
down the bloody steps of the man-made mountain, the bodies landed
on
Driven by
fear
Aztecs performed
human
or since in history.
sacrifice
on
a scale
unknown
either before
Castillo
was an
of his friends,
whom
82
is
folding. It
the
of the
Still lying
Museum
who had
b\-
been
\Mien the Indians had gotten them "to a small square where
their accursed idols are kept," recounted Diaz in the breathless st\'le
of someone who has beheld horror and ne\er been able to forget it,
'^^e saw them place plumes on the head of manv of our men and with
ficed.
them
to dance before
Huitzilopochdi, and after thev had danced thev placed them on their
backs
on some
rather
chests
sawed open
the\'
as
their
and drew out their palpitating hearts and offered them to the
idols that
Indian butchers
the\'
who were
faces,
and prepared
off"
it
afterward
festivals
like
glove
when they
celebrated drunken orgies, and the flesh thev ate with chilies."
The
butcher\- that
out the
was
deit\'
manh- death
in
combat, or
sacrificial stone.
and
Warriors
women who
afterlife;
who carried
ritual
If ever there
his
as a captive offered
who
was the
in their eves
up
to the gods
died in battle or as
it
human
than a
on
the
sacrifices
deemed worthv of an
calleci
the
their gifts
the\'
reached
its
lowest
level,
thanking
on the
my brothers
manv
tell
of one
deaths of
83
wrote: "There
is
in war,
it!"
Another spoke
life.
lyrically
nothing
Far
of the
like
see
off^ I
the flowers-
it:
battlefield:
Mv
heart
"WTiere the
is
warriors tear each other and noble princes are smashed to pieces."
"Here
task.
is
a lone predator.
Thou
is
thy
referring,
place,
"War
84
mid su[gests
its
as a warrior or as a captive
on the
sacrificial stone:
of such
a
a death.
"May
god on behalf of a
his heart
warrior.
not
falter,"
"Mav he
desire,
may he long
for the
of the darkness."
Little
boys destined
and the weapons thev had been gi\en were entrusted to warriors for
ceremonial burial on
a battlefield.
moon and
The
a constant
of the
t:
whose nutritional
riches
The
result
was
enough food
fertile
to li\e on.
One modern
woven
the bottom.
cities in
men
produce
which
85
One
different
classes.
was to
groups of
effect
I
In a world of contlicang states, there was much to be gained,
as the Aztecs were to find out, by refining the art of warfare. Aztec
codices, Spanish accounts of the conquest, and archaeological evi-
was
likely to
fields:
the organi-
zation of its fighting force and the morale of its warriors. The Aztecs'
entire culture was effectively structured to maximize both of these.
The
was involved.
Soon
after
criteria
new
ruler
was
per-
a vital test
was
The
of his mettle.
a failure
and
his rep-
utation never recovered. His reign lasted only five years. Ac-
APPEASING AN APPETITE
FOR HEARTS AND BLOOD
The Aztecs
iggr'^C^ '^e^
they must
lar sacrifice
make
a simi-
in perfect balance.
most of their
Although
deities required
Huitzilopochdi.
It
was thought
do
battie
night
and would
fail
to rise as
The codex
illustration at left
down
the
whose blood
The heart
stairs.
him
him
to eat."
it is
is
of Tizoc, a massive
three
Anthropology' in Mexico
own
sparse victories.
Motecuhzoma
bishop's Palace in
(A
similar
made
attempt to subjugate
Aztecs
little
have been
rare. Instead,
on intimidation
The
fear
\\'ere
no longer
as the
such
pictured abo\'e.
were
flayed,
tents
wore the
20
days.
right
a fact the
Spanish conquistadors
nology-,
it
From
as ef-
of tech-
liable to
a regular part
come
skins for
start-
figure at
Anv
and peni-
The
of the region:
was also
drawn from
and the commoners \\'ho
both the
nobilirs'
had proved their valor in war. These full-time fighters had no other
commitments but warfare, as they were supported by the state largely
from the supply of tribute provided by conquered cities.
All boys receix'cd some militar}' training. At the age of about
10, their hair was shorn but for a lock on the nape of the neck as a
preliminary initiation into the sacred ranks of the warrior. When they
turned 15 they received weapons training, meeting every evening
with veterans who regaled them with tales of war and taught them the
requisite dances and chants. They were also given tasks designed to
toughen them, such as carr^ang logs from far- distant forests to the
temples, where these were fed to the eternal fires kept burning there.
Each boy had to retain his telltale tuft of hair until he had
participated in the capture of a prisoner. His first experience on the
battlefield was limited to carrying a warrior's shield and observing the action, but his second required that he par-
with
as
in
consumption:
ritualistic
The
right thigh
youngster
ically;
the
who
left
arm to the
no part was left.
and so on
until
Having proved
himself, the
let his
new
hair
he ran the
risk
was
And
friend
who had
during a
he
on
battle; giving
him one of
his
own
and
measuring eight and a halffeet in diameter, illustrates a series of military campaigns, in only one of which Tizoc himself
participated.
top
is
At
hearts from
human
sacrifices.
make
fit
inflicting
too
much
injur)'.
and to
Mutilated prisoners
aspiring warrior received special mantles, and thus his military' record
became
caelel, a
visible for
general
all
who
jewels
make
The
aristocratic
Order of the Eagle and the Jaguar Knights had supreme standing.
The tides the knights bore were proud ones, calling to mind the
supreme air and land predators of the Mesoamerican natural world.
'S\ing beater, a screamer" that could "gaze into, face, the sun," qualities
to emulate. The\-
as "cautious, wise,
proud," a
Young
nobles
defield received
the Aztec
who had
enhanced
its
stirring,
attacker.
distinguished themselves
on
the bat-
weapon
use of
that flinctioned
own house
ro\'al palace.
its
where the war council met to discuss military' matters in the presence of the ruler. The so-called Hall of the
Eagle Knights disco\ered as the temple was being excaxated
in the palace,
89
THE TRAPPINGS
AND PABLAPHERNALIA OF POWER
AZT^^^WiiirRIORS:
One wav
bloodthirst\'
gods a steady
wear
a lavishly
worked cloak
called an ehehcailacatzcozcatl
tinctive
new weapons,
capture
them on the
Warriors
who
battlefield.
brought them
st)'le.
He
number of men
seized in battle.
him
awarded
ments.
The
fighter
second prisoner received a mande trimmed in red. And in recognition of his having taken a
third captive, he
was
entitled to
also received
When
number of enemy
special insignia,
Dependittff on the
he became recog-
of general or
ser\'e as
an adviser
But
risk:
In
awk-
a fierce
would have been
awarded to a warrior who
shield, sporting
1*
coyote,
performed well in
^^-
battle.
m
m
^^^
1
1W.
Exceptional warriors, seen
below, earned distinctive
cuauhnochtecuhtli, or
'^m
'.^:^
4^ iiSh
differences
and
joyed
many
privileges.
As
in the
his children
could inherit
Gathering
at the cuauhcalli,
tribute. In
cubines, eat
oali,
human
flesh,
drink
public,
palace.
The
rare warrior
who
hum-
^1
in the
form of cannibalistic
feasts.
.-.vAi'AY-.
:-^^-
'^A
^."^.^S,
Shawn actual
m0^
Sun
an eagle(left) and
skin.
by a corridor to a courn^ard
widi two adjoining chambers. The rooms are furnished widi benches
decorated with carved reliefs of soldiers and serpents. In one of the
inner chambers, nvin processions converge on the can'ed image of a
zacatapayolliz balj of plaited grass into which bloodied spines from
the maguey plant, traditionally used for self-laceration, have been
inserted as an offering. Two enigmatic ceramic skeletal figures were
r-;ected
comprises an entrance
fearsome appearance the Eagle and Jaguar Knights must have presented. A 30-inch-high stone statue now in Mexico City's National
Museum of Anthropology shows a squatting figure, his head emergmaw. Even more
extraordinan,' are
two
on
either side
off.
figures in
was used
for
admired for
its
fierceness
named
or
The otontin
also
wore
a lock,
and
fell
dead or
wounded, the other had to fight on alone. They formed the shock
troops that won many famous victories.
Behind them the common soldiers were organized in bands of
20 that were in turn grouped into larger companies of either 200 or
400 men. Each urban district of Tenochtidan provided a number of
such companies, each one commanded by an officer chosen from the
ranks of those who had taken four or more captives. The companies
94
by tw^o other
had set up
cit}'-states in
for
who
northern hunters
ser\'ed as
among them
aggressive
army was
a splendid
bowmen.
'he Aztec
T!and
pared for
battle. In
response to a triple
terrif\ing sight as
it
pre-
ican warfare, the troops dressed for display as well as for effective
it
litde in the
effectix'e
prefer
Although
sewn to resemble
animal pelts or the features of gods or demons. Nobles and leading
warriors occasionally wore helmets that mimicked the heads of beasts
of prey. Virtually all combatants carried round shields, usuallv made
ered in multicolored feathers, sometimes
of cane or flame-hardened
wood
cle\'erlv
communications
manders to
fiinction. In the
locate indi\'idual
silver,
or gold, served a
vital
make
oft:en splendidly
ser\'ed as rallying
\'er\' visibilitx^
was to
was to be the
relative ease
The
offensive
carried included
bows up
to fn^e feet long, firing arrows tipped with sharpened flint or chipped
obsidian.
They wielded
95
slings
made from
maguey
'i%,^
shaped stones 300 yards or more and could stun a man, if not kill
him. Wooden darts, their tips fire-hardened, were flung from atlatls,
hooked spear- throwers whose use increased the force of the projectile by more than 50 percent. Lances longer than the soldiers who
used them were edged with blades of obsidian sharp enough to
shave with. There were clubs with heads of wood or
stone. Most formidable of all, however, were the clubs
made of wood but armed with glass-sharp obsidian
chips inserted into grooves along their cutting
for
two-handed
use; the
head
ofi^ a
Aztec eyes, and so they were the arms of the lower orders. By
way of contrast,
As
than the commoners and took more prisoners, thereby reinforcing their position at the top of the social tree.
The battles these warriors fought were for the most part
ferocious
in
plent\' ot
as they
lines.
would
clash,
and
hand-to-hand fighting would ensue. These tactics encouraged frontal fighting and explain the popularit)^ of
long thrusting weapons.
One of the
m^
served
known
as
tional, purpose.
abled warriors
to
An
and pink
it entirely.
shell
mosaic
sacrifice.
were not unknown to Mesoamerican armies. The importance of flanking was appreciated, and here the length of the x\ztec
Tactics
line
opponents
their
managed
to field
helpful. In ad-
After a
\'ictor\'
all were
Even the vouths took manv captives."
and the Aztecs lost few battles in the course
the winners
rareh'
If its leaders
\'ictors
and
its
destruction meant
97
interests, as
it
agreed to
in place, so
were normally
long as
its
leader
live birds,
blue parrots, snarling jaguars and wildcats, "great and small snakes,
that
came
in the course
been unearthed
of the excavation of the Great Temple and are now on
as tribute to the
Aztec capital
ha\'e
left
of
One
recovered
site,
however,
still
days.
The
conquered when the Aztecs decided to build there at the turn of the
16th century. The complex they constructed seems to have served
both
98
An
air
best- preserved
is
in the
form of a
and paws
decorated with an
is
a jaguar skin
is
carved,
its
head
On
who,
in the days
commanded
a faction
of the Aztecs'
of the people.
Malinalco.
on
to
from the
it is
the city."
Perhaps that
is
why,
area
were earth
in such a
deities believed to
of their own and filling it with all the symbolism of the empire's
militar\^
might. As the jaguar seat was the special preserve of the Aztec
ruler,
may even be
it
that occasionally he
came
in person to sit in
The
And no
allies
shows
plainly
enough
that they
were
conflicts, the
Dating to the
in the
most
ritualized
of
all
Mes-
Flower Wars.
earliest years
stylized
99
and a day was fixed in aJvancc ror the clash to begin. A large pyre of
paper and incense s r ablaze between the two armies signaled the
onset of hostilities. The nauire of the fighting was different from
other batdes, too; the fusillade of arrows, stones, and spears that
began other
conflicts
demonstrate prowess
was absent,
in
though
hand-to-hand combat.
this
militarv'
might, discouraging
need for
sacrificial victims.
Human
had
a part in
all
featured the
blood.
solar disk
could not
it
at the
hands
some
needs of two
Knights.
edifice,
The most
elaborate
with
its
restored conical
(right),
escaped destruction
it life.
One
RETREAT
WARRIORS'
CLIFFSIDE
relics survives
cylindrical
I
raculously,
intact in a
a large
nearby
village,
it
as evidence
glorious culture.
of
The
sun.
sacrificed, at
The ruler
endure pain that was expected of all Aztec males; the stoical indifference to suf-
The
normal instrument of bloodletting was a
maguey spine. The penitent would prick the
upper ear, tongue, penis, or some other fleshy
a youth's suitability for advancement.
it
on
bed of leaves.
priests.
rit-
slice their
might
state, for
if sufficient offerings
would provide
rain,
good
harvests,
sacrifice
and military
were not
deities
success.
a sufficiendy
102
one man's
killed, it
seems
A jaguar skull,
another
relic
of the
its teeth.
With
be-
afterlife.
to have been that of Tlacaelel, the adviser to three rulers of Tenochtitlan. In authorit\' at a time
rise,
with
sacri-
being called a
liar
for describing
it,
had the information from reliable Aztec sources. "Before dawn the
prisoners who were to be sacrificed were brought out and lined up
in four files," he reported. "One extended from the foot of the steps
to the pyramid all along the causeway that goes to Coyoacan and
Xochimilco; it was almost one league in length. Another extended
along the causewav of Guadalupe, and it \\'as as long the first. The
third went along the causeway of Tlacopan, and the fourth toward
the east as far as the shore of the lagoon." It took four days for all the
victims to be killed, and the streams of blood that ran down the
temple steps were so great "that when they reached bottom and
cooled the)' formed fat clots, enough to terrifs' one."
There were many different forms of human sacrifice, each
associated with a given deit}' or one of the many festivals that punctuated the Aztec year, and the \'ictims could be slaves as well as
captured warriors. Without doubt the most common t\^pe of sacrifice
was that in which the victim was held down while his still- pumping
heart was cut out, but it was by no means the onlv method. Some
unfortunates were decapitated. Still others became living targets,
shot through with arrows or adatl darts.
Perhaps the noblest form of human sacrifice was one that
involved gladiatorial combat, albeit of a lopsided kind. Known as the
Flaying of Men, it formed part of a ritual carried out in the spring,
the time of planting, and celebrated the rejmenation of life. The
prisoners, seized on the batdefield and brought back to Tenochtidan,
were carefiilly tended by their captors and treated almost as kinsmen,
as brethren in death, that they might honor the victors through the
dignit}' and bra\'er\' of their dying. Indeed, this relationship started
on the battlefield where, by tradition, the warrior was supposed to
say to his prisoner, "He is as my beloved son," and the prisoner in
turn was to reply, "He is as my beloved father."
103
The
rite
a land
by the Aztecs to be
The ceremony
deit\'
wearing paper loincloths, to be smeared all over with a chalky substance. Then their heads were covered with sticky latex, the juice of
the rubber tree, to
which turkey
feathers
milk\'-
onlv the lesser captives went to their deaths atop Xipe's temple;
dragged to the
sacrificial
One
while the victims' captors got to keep the rest except for the
The
warriors
now summoned
enormous
skull rack.
homes
they themselves might wind
their
Mindful that
to be
ruler,
many had
kinsmen to
their
but urged their relatives to each eat a small piece with a handful
the
more important
prisoners
rite
The
captives
had
hearts
lowed by
his entourage.
captive
Stripped to his
arms
rimmed \\^ith
a club
With
feathers in place
of
weapons he was
four of the mightiest Eagle and
these imitation
Jaguar Knights,
he was gi\en a drink of pulque, spiked, doubdess with a drug prepared from morning-glor\' seeds, and then he was set upon by his
adversaries
and
their superior
As he fought
known
his
weapons.
the
tin\^
open of seeds
priest
it
up
When
split-
at last the
then dipped a hollow cane into the pool of blood rising in the chest
Qzs'ws
and held
it
up so
somely clad
selves
into
a grass
ball,
sometimes placed in
(left).
men
cit\%
as to
The
second-da\^s
warrior's family,
and
as
rite also
upon
their heads."
the slaver
from eating the flesh, saying aloud, "Shall I perchance eat mv ver\^
self?" During the 20-day period in \\'hich he wore the skin, he and
those around him had to endure the stench it gave off. In the end, he
shed the crumbling, rotting suit, which was buried in a cave at the
foot of Xipe's temple, then cleansed himself deeplv, rubbing off any
lingering grease with cornmeal. The ceremonv over, the reborn
spring was joyouslv celebrated throughout the cit^^
105
When
the ap-
pointed day arrived, he had to say farewell to them and climb the
steps
step as he ascended.
his heart.
Then
down and
him and
cut out
Children were offered to Tlaloc, the god of rain and agricultural fertility.
The
victims were
bought from
considered propitious, were sought, and that the price paid was high.
Their
fate
entire nobility
Sk
r^^^'
a bundle
I
=^.^"^
if-'
:]^^^J
as the
-*r,,-
an enclosed
litter
him within
so that he
clouds and rain. "If they go along cr\ing," an Aztec document preserved in another chronicle records, "if their tears keep flowing,
their tears
keep
falling,
it
was
said,
indeed
it
will rain."
if
At Mount
Tlaloc the child was sacrificed by the priests to the wail of trumpets,
conch
shells,
the god;
Litde
if
and
flutes,
drought
and
its
might be
after the
killed.
to die even
Spanish conquest.
Meanwhile,
in
Tenochtidan
itself,
litter
WTien news came through that the mountain sacrifice had been accomplished, she was carried to a canoe and paddled
to a given spot out on the lake. There her throat was slit, so that her
blood flowed into the water, and her body was cast into the lake.
The saddest discover)' at the Great Temple was made in late
July 1980, on the northwest corner of the side of the pyramid dedicated to Tlaloc. Digging re\'ealed a cache containing stone vessels
Temple
precinct.
bearing Tlaloc's
effig)' laid
victims. E\'idence
contemplates his
an
and consume
time of their deaths. Half showed some signs of disease, raising the
poor health may have formed a disproportionate percentage of the victims; e\'idence from similar caches of
bones excavated at nearby Tlatelolco seems to confirm this fmding.
possibility' that children in
was not
It
left
to die miserablv.
One of the
107
cus-
to the merchant, to be
arately, in
an
olla,
la\'ish
consumed by
on
it.
status
Indeed
all
The cannibalism
become
it.
erned by
on
strict rules.
success.
Because
sacrificial
was gov-
in the
words
many
went stoicallv to
afterlife with the gods awaited
them. There are accounts of warriors captured in battle insisting on
being sacrificed even when offered their freedom, though whether
the motive was religious credulit)', the wish to displav manl\' indifIn
their deaths,
convinced a glorious
impossible to
shame of defeat
tell.
let
is
our glory.
e shall
conquer
all
of the Aztecs
or
at least that
is
god
what the
that was
And
not his only prophecy: "I will make you lords and kings
of ever\^ place in the world." In fulfillment of their
god-given destiny, the Aztecs designated the center of
their power with the utmost exactitude. At the intersection of the causeways leading to their island capital
of Tenochtitlan, they erected an imposing four-tiered
pyramid that the Spaniards would call el Templo Mayor,
or the Great Temple.
Like a spike through the fabric of existence, this
man-made mountain was seen as joining the everyday
terrestrial plane to the heavens above and the underworld below. Fittingly, it was a fearsome place. At its
base crawled immense stone snakes. Within the structure lay dark chambers stuffed with religious offerings
skulls.
When
would come
when workers
to light
laying electrical
surrounding
area.
They
only an outer
and
fertilit)'.
one version of the Aztec worldcenter built over the structures of earlier temples. Hidden in the spongy soil into which these had gradually
sunk was a prodigious record of Aztec belief written in
shell,
-^
>^
IHIHP^"*^^^^^
reeds,
skaw,
aiid
*"
^jSieirdeliverauBKeto
r^sh^
a shrine
long
rude structure
gra^^^^^
from
new
it
would
version enclosing
where worshipers, entering through four gates oriented to the four cardinal points, propitiated a multitude ofgods at as many as 78 temples and shrines.
a
^^XJ^
H IN
PYRAMIDS
top.
went during
its
200-year
history.
Five
and
rub-
The
over-
new
Stage
U (ca. 1428)
2
3
4
5
Stage
UI
(1431)
Stage
IV
(ca.
Stage
Stage
VI
6 Stage
Close by Mexico City's cathedral, the
Great Temple ruins embrace a 7,000stfuare-yard area. Sacrificical victims
(ca.
1454-1469)
1480)
(ca.
VU (ca.
1500)
1502-1520)
COM
The Aztecs
PIETY
the
.specially
V'l
once optimisti
All that the
gods could
i^^-
f^
go
tai;c
none more
die.
wandered through
\'ears
who had
before settling
down, had
Out of such
saw
state of
calamit)', thc\'
and
result in
catachsm. In
chilling, perhaps,
steam-
belicNcd
of its original
would help
e-n,
One
version of the
the
Great Temple
tact.
Stage II
^Si
r
.Wv^,
,->*
ih'
?aBfc">
vT- e
l^<^i^l^
::>
li
The
tli's
shown actual
size.
Breaking through
the floor beside the stone, the excavators fimnd several knives that
been
left
had
as religious offerings.
TEMPE
Dreadtiiind^ci
RETS
nvolaeities
who
resided
who supplied the rains that made the earth productixe, had his fierce side, too. He "sent hail and lightning and storms and danger on rivers and at sea,"
same chronicler.
The Great Temple embodies the gods' dual conmost prominently in their two
trol in many ways
said this
shrines,
but also
in associated sculptures,
such as
Numbers on this higihli^hted floor
plan note the places where the objects
in the photographs turned up during
(2),
and
(I),
the
Found
begun in 1431.
and fer-
^^
sent the
war god's
thought
to
may
brothers.
repre-
They are
^^^-
ft-^
-K^jT-
^v<S^.
'^'^.
^
'v'
-^S^
'^
1^
^..
>%.:^
/^"^
-iP^
'.^
*iasft^
Most extraordinary
found
is
this
yolxauhqui, the
the
sister
the centipedes
trans-
formed
bells decorate
her cheek,
and
in ac-
shells, as well as a
of corals.
Within the offertory' chambers, the
large array
e\'identl\'
articles
were
ritualistic s\'s-
is
no doubt, how-
were a kind of metaphoric language for the pillars of the Aztec world: images of
their gods, the spoils of war, and the natural abundance of the earth.
ever, that the gifts
it
11 multicolored
effigies
and limb
skulls, ribs,
when
'
i
it
r.
urnr.
'kf^
water that
brought forth the bounty of the soil.
carved from
an Aztec craftsman, honors Tlaloc, who held domother-of-pearl by
and
seas, lakes,
regions
sion, offerings
such
gifts
were intended to
him." The homage, whether paid to Huitzilocame from all the outlying
over
pochtli or to Tlaloc,
ever}'
right to hold
all
justif\'
^_,r-E=s
their
dominion
-^^
other groups.
ered
it
worn
as
a mask.
A COMPr
Around
tecs
the \cai
on their empire,
but difficultiesfin war and gov-
in the
wax
During
this
phase of rebuild-
side
of the pyramid.
One was
by stood
round
altar; near-
a large sculpture
deity thought to be
teotl
the old
fire
god
of
thought that
rijjht).
It is
may have
priests
\'ic-
Huehue(below).
a small,
'
^^x---
far
c^S^",.
^N>^*"
*>'.
fj.
Shown here
is
(2).
Stone
meant
with
on three
to recall the
HE
HTS
AGLE
b)'
the archaeologists'
found
ceremonies, as does a frieze depicting the eagle warriors in plumed headdresses and centering on a
spiked symbol for the personal bloodletting expected of them. In effig\', at least, members of the long-
ago
militar)'
order were
these heroic
guard
men
still
on hand when
archae-
dressed in
full
second chamber.
marcated
Tlaloc brazier
and
side, de-
Among
Hall of the
-^,
-^
As though
'#^
'5^
This
life-size
lifts
pottery figure,
made up
offive separate pieces, was once covered with painted stucco plumage.
m?l^m
mi
Wi^
^
^j^^lr-
"
>
'^KX*.-
'4p
THE GENTLER
SIDE OF
AZTEC LIFE
iven
"^R;,
some
rites
performed
death
sensibilities
one
that
at the
who
beating their
wooden clubs
Dancing and singing, they would then escort the sun to its zenith, where women who had died in childbirth
a battle of another
sort
would take over, transporting the fiery orb on a feathered lit-
But an even more blissfiil reward lay in store. After four years
as "companions of the sun," the souls of Aztec fighting men returned
hummingbirds, orioles, yelto earth, "changed into precious birds
low birds, and chalky butterflies. And here they came to suck honey
from the various flowers."
No image better conjures up the startling contradictions in-
may
be halltuino-
god of
music, poetry,
dance,
ing, raises
clutched rattles
into
companied himself
lives,
hummingbirds and
butterflies. In
many
125
sity for
bv a rigorous social
order and code of ethics. Theirs
was, in fact, a complex and diverse
cesses reined in
many
so
others
most
was
as in its
grandest and
its
moments.
Fundamental to the culture
horrific
a love
deserv^edly rank
At public and
private functions alike, Aztec
speakers engaged in elaborate rectheir rhetorical skills.
of historical events or
itations
leg-
from genera-
tion to generation; a
number of
ranging from
m\'ths
works of literature
poems
to
ha\'e sur\'i\'ed,
Catholicism
who had
Some
b\'
converts to
when
one of the old men chose to preach from the so-called Precepts of the
lengthy cataloging of ad\'ice and admonition intended to keep
the younger generation versed in proper behavior. But this would ha\'e
Elders, a
been
rare.
who
devoted
his life to
studying the Aztecs, has noted that public occasions could turn into
"positive tournaments
noble
women
of eloquence,"
^^'ith
speakers
not
just
men, but
126
and
including featherwork
comalong
baskets of multicolored
brings to
life
raising her
By
was
poetr}'
form of the
art
much
so that they
societ)',
would not
so
hes-
whose
verses
were
still
being sung
Not
unlike their
modern
artist:
create
Cuacuauhtzin:
will
seek, spring
heart
suffer
with
them on earth,
I,
not perish in
my hands! Where
might
songs? Such as
my
"Eagerly does
two
"lord of men,"
and huey tlatoani, "great speaker." Motecuhzoma II, like his predecessors, depended on militar\^ prowess as a basis of his power; vet his
traditionally bore
honorific
titles: tlcicatecuhtli,
up of state officials,
priests,
and warriors,
As
for the
adjacent c\t\
heart of this
clearly
made
127
market that surpassed any the invading Spaniards had ever seen.
From it rose a great din as people went about the daily business of
bartering. In his second letter back to his monarch, Charles V, Cortes
on at length about the place and all it held. Although he felt that
he had not done it justice, leaving out many items he could not
remember or had not been able to identify, his account captures a
sense of the astounding varietv' of goods. "There is also one square
ran
all
around,
where more than 60,000 people come each day to buy and sell, and
where ever\' kind of merchandise produced in these lands is found;
provisions as well as ornaments of gold and silver, lead, brass, copper,
unhewn
salt,
honey,
chili
as a delicacy.
peppers,
and
shoxpn
amid
its
sur-
insect
modem
A wide
sold.
found
and
quails,
stalls,
all
their needs.
At
Other booths sold decorated gourds, obsidian mirrors, and cosmetics. Cortes was impressed by the array of medicinal herbs and roots
market
at
booths of
artists' supplies,
painters as
may be found
is
much
greater
many
colors for
in Spain."
was noteworthy for its orderliness. Bemal Diaz, Cortes's soldierchronicler, was astonished not only at the overall spectacle but also
at "the method and regularity of everything." The square was divided
into separate shopping districts for each category of goods or services. All items were sold by quantity or by some other measure such
as length, but, as far as Cortes could see, never by weight. Coins and
paper money did not exist, but a few selected commodities served as
currency. The standard medium of exchange was cacao beans, although mantles or cloaks called cuachtli were also frequendy used.
One hundred cacao beans were the equivalent of one cuachtli and
129
both were enough to bay a dugout canoe or 100 sheets of bark paper.
Two cuachtli bought a load of cochineal, a red dye derived from an
insect. Still-more-expensive aiticles such as a warrior's costume and
shield, a feather cloak, or jewelry called for mantles, small copper ax
blades, or gold dust. Thirty
mandes purchased
a slave; 40,
one
who
all
is
people to see what they are selling and the measures they are using;
The name
and
arbiters
of
false."
group known
came from
stallkeepers
selves,
who
Hot Lands
nobility.
own
just
Yacate-
and
ritual
own
Ten
pochteca corpo-
who had
dis-
tinguished themselves
apprentices,
foreigners. Because
of the
of the traders would be armed; these were either the tecyaualouanime, "those who surround the enemy," or the even more fearcertain
some
130
battle
rightfiilly
of
cit\'-state
to
loft)'
He ruled
according
"tf^
killed
bv
unknown
god," and banned human sacrisingle deit\',"the
in-
Hiding from
last
'
J*
;
16th-century illustration
his father's
high
flowers, sandals,
ideals.
His
and long
f
?i'
"^^^-^.v^
and
raises his
men with
lip
'^00^^
^/f^
,.,*
people, Nezahualco-
'
fice there.
his ene-
two
belonged to him.
As ruler, NezahualcoNOtl
became a renowned poet; he
was also a patron of art and science and sponsored public recitals of \'erse. He built a temple
without idols dedicated to a
principles dexeloped
would reward
worthv citizens and
\'od
redress grievances.
THE QAikDEN
PARADISE OF
TETZCOTZINGO
At the toot of the Sacred
Hill of Terzcotzingo (far
right),
some
his capital,
built
villa.
six
miles east of
Nezahuaicoyotl
an elaborate country
Terracing the adjoin-
its
'>^-^*
dens, watered by
numerous
la)'.
reli-
at
all
Mount Tlaloc,
Although church
officials de-
.^-^
ing the
and
site, as
-.>*^
illustrations,
discovered clues
on
crest
and
agricultural deities.
Water pushed
and
three-foot-deep
staircase in the
i^
~M^-'^%^'
^^tm^nom
2Lt"'^.^4
^m
*^.
f^^
^rH;>
^f'!^~:
.-=?
"
QUEEN'S BATH
topographical
ritual baths
map
(circles)
canals (blue),^</ by
trail
an aqueduct. The
sites (squares),
including earth
and agri-
Tlaloc mask
and various historical monuments
cultural deities
(1),
(2),
(3).
caravan, they
might
communities to
On
would
that
would be traded
expected to
a day.
Due
carr\^
the corporation
be
30 to 40 miles
given to ceremony. The chiefs of
much
had
who would
as
little
fanfare,
making every
who
part}'
brief.
Bernardino de Sahagiin: "None entered the women's quarters, neither did any turn back or look to
one
side. If perchance
he had gone
Upon
their return,
their success. Arriving as they had left, under cover of darkness, they
would hurriedly stow all their goods away from pr\'ing e\'es before
daylight. If a trader was caught on the street before he had hidden
away his share, he would insist that the merchandise was not his but
belonged to another merchant whom he was helping. At all times,
authorities or aspiring
their
134
unobtrusively. Their
they had
little
word was
concern about
how things
functioned elsewhere.
Had
the conquest never occurred, they might one day have aspired to
political
to
grow
steadily richer
and pass on
satisfied
w:
arrived, the
one had
zoma
a clearer understanding
More
II.
common
than earlier
of their significance than Motecuhhe set himself above not only the
rulers,
noblemen
deference
shown
to
litter.
own
to be clean and to enter barefoot, with their eyes downcast, for they
were not allowed to look him in the face. And they had to make him
three obeisances, saying as they came toward him, 'Lord, my Lx)rd,
my great Lord!' Then when they had made their report, he would
dismiss them with a few words. They did not turn their backs as they
went
him and
left:
the room."
had
carrying
it
on
all
He
supposedly
bom of the
elite.
all
things, he insisted
135
priest.
was
originally
ruler.
ed by an elected
calpulli
cestral
were
could trace
its
and
doza.
In
its
and^uard
Codex Men-
ed
to
a town in
its
own
right.
was head-
A particular
IPTo)CQ)Co)(9)l
owned
farmland.
ys
^^yi
termined
how
his authority
abrogated by the
classes
city council.
calpulli
much of
slaves
^were
They farmed
its
of its temand causeways, and fashioned everything from its fabrics to its most exquisite artples, palaces,
attti*
J^i^vfcr/if^^
SnCs sHr^nfcliZsKa,
^tym
*^J
t/L
enamored of
artisans
its
tolteca, after
the ethnic
group that had spread through the \'alley before the Aztec ascendanc\' and were reserved by
the Aztecs for \\hat thev believed was their
artistic
The
achie\ement.
tolteca tended to
who
and who
sold
shields,
The Aztec attitude toward art, recorded in some of the texts produced after
the Spanish conquest, put a premium on realism and
w^lx of conveying
reli-
also
clarit\' as a
a monetar\'
societ)' that
economy. Saha-
its
shell as if
move,
it
its
were moving,
neck and
its
head
feet as if
it
with
and some of these precious objects have surDuring the excavation of the Great Temple in the early 1980s,
archaeologists unearthed delicate jade and greenstone figurines, no
doubt intended as offerings to \'arious gods. Craftsmen produced
for ceremonial items,
vi\ed.
hold
oali,
sumed during
or pulque, an alcoholic
maguey
plant that
was con-
certain rituals.
Many other forms of labor occupied the lives of average citizens. The women of practically ever)- house spent their days spinning, wea\'ing, and grinding com. The men worked as potters or
tanners, carpenters, builders,
and quarn^men,
of this
\'ast
middle
137
class could,
through
on
as \vq\[ as part-time
class divisions,
their
own efforts,
members
be ele\'ated
RELICS OF
A
VANISHED
GLORY
known
as
pa\' for it
through
them-
servitude, or thev
had
in a sense,
The
people
\'oluntarily sold
moral underpinnings.
vast majority'
who had
^-- 1 ornaments,
were voluntary
slaxes,
through
la-
^^
^?^
r^H5ll
jects that
and
as well as
hair
ob-
required bodily
intricate pieces,
ing of a
tall,
human
death.
in*U/.
ziness or
bad
luck.
Not
treated fairly.
surprisingly, a
ceremony attended an
up
it
his hberty;
indi-
called together,
and the
of mantles.
He
was allowed to remain free until he had gone through the payment,
which might take a year or more. Then he reported to the man who
had bought him perhaps a merchant seeking porters, or a nobleman
requiring farm labor or a household servant.
Except for the fact that he had to render ser\dce without pay,
a slave retained the rights he had had as a free man. He could own
goods and propert}' and even buy slaves of his own, if he could
somehow manage to acquire some collateral on the side. He could
marry another slave or even a free woman; in either case, his children
were born free. Some rose to positions of authority' as overseers of
estates or by marr\ing the widows of their masters. Women slaves
often became their owners' concubines. One Aztec ruler, Itzcoatl,
was the son of a slave woman.
Even bad slaves had certain protections. One who was dishonest or who failed to perform his duties had to be chastised three
its
place.
Once
the metal
times in front of witnesses before his master could get rid of him.
He
was then put in a wooden collar and taken to the slave dealers' section
of the market to be sold. Only after he had been thus sold off by three
different masters did he suffer a harsher fate:
purchased for
He
could then be
sacrifice.
was almost always a possibilit^^ If a slave was resourceful enough to have saved up his
original purchase price, he could buy back his freedom.
Often a master would indicate that his slaves were to be
released upon his death. Even the worst troublemakers were
given a chance. In one of the more curious Aztec customs, a slave
Regaining one's
about to be sold
freedom.
at the
None but
liberty
tr\^
to stop
him, and anyone interfering with his attempted flight would be put
into slaver\' himself. If the fiigitive could
a distance
of a
declared free
httle
on
he was
the spot.
139
I
paramount importance, and bLimptiousness was condemned. A civilized man was expected to walk quiedy, eat carefully, revere his
elders, and speak with gravity'.
Sahagiin gives perhaps the best depiction of this refined sena youth "slender like
sibilit}' in his sketch of the Aztec physical ideal
a reed; long and thin like a stout cane; well built; not of o\'erfed body,
CRIME AND
PUNISHMENT
ver)^
tall."
To enforce the
Women
known
as yello\\' earth,
One of the
cities.
me,
nor paint
it;
child:
vourself,
suggest
and anvone
committing theft or adulter}' ran
the risk of execution. The codices
certain circumstances,
mouth to look
want
be.
daughter on
\'ou
With
beautiful.
shameless
Makeup
warn against
creatures. If
The impression
is
right)
'^
people could
confirmed bv even
a brief
and the
penalt}', usually
sam-
and adulterers
.,
Guilt)' persons
\T^j
ment hv confessing
,*-
"J^
^,rw
station
Tlazolteotl. Curious'^^^^
iv:^P'm
// ^1
0-1
/.
^;'
t"-
^/
The
list
members of the
down
least that
nobilit\'
^^
^^
nJiU
//^^
ou
ou uu
of his house; a
was the
rule for
140
to
stor\',
who
portraying
order
e\'en,' \ice,
how
upright, orderh'
conduct so valued b\' Aztec societ\', courts meted out stem sen-
MO
M^uoou
^
^^.
tl^
ocal:
could
M'^r
as
iV*J
of
rrespective
I;.most
this,
they
all
selected a midwife.
When her time had come, the mother-to-be took a sweat bath
administered by the midwife and then was given an herbal beverage
had no
ground up opossum
tail was provided. The Codex Borbonicus, the largest, most detailed,
and most beautifijlly painted of the sur\'iving codices, shows that she
to help induce labor. If the drink
all
effect,
cr\'
in the
hope
that he
symbohc
Soon
girl's
0.
future prospects.
status
determine
endar (distinct from the regular 365-day solar calendar used for
ritual
num-
or a
sacrificial victim.
named on
if
that day.
141
birth,
during which
i?
MORE GODS
Chicomecoad
was just one of a
number of vegetation and fer-
for example,
(lower
whole
lot
left)
goddesses.
tilit)'
largely
through
ducted
at shrines
of the
divinities
whims
being met,
rituals
con-
and temples
Of the
The
remains a mystery.
He may
be
and
overlapped
^'^^tO^-
many deities
in their fiinctions;
rm
knowledge.
visit,
E
four,
began
at the
age of
when children were given simple tasks and lessons: boys to fetch
water, girls to learn the names and uses of household items. Later, in
ordinary families, boys were taught to fish and handle boats. Girls
learned to spin thread from
maguey
fiber
The
cuicacalli,
or houses of song,
which were attached to temples, were meant for children both of the
nobility and of the common classes. Boys and girls attended between
ages 12 and 15, not only learning to sing and dance for ritual purposes but also picking up details of their people's history and religious
night
beliefs.
were
of the
often
filled
deities.
vital
part
community.
Another type of school associated with the temples was the
mlmecac, literally "row of houses." It was run by priests and priestesses primarily for the boys of noble families, although some chroniclers indicate that the children of traders and even plebeians were
of their
role in the
one of Tenochtidan's
sev-
143
An Aztec couple
an
knot in
Codex Mendoza,
wedding garments in a
linking their
was to
raise a
new
afflicted
elders," ran
one
litany.
maimed, or one
who
has sinned.
they
Do not mock
Do not set a
bad example, or speak indiscreetlv, or interrupt the speech of another. If you are asked something, reply soberly and without affectation
or flatter}' or prejudice to others. Wherever you go, walk with a
peacehil
air,
faces or
improper gestures."
more
severe in the
hard
\\'ork,
much of it
physical
at the
caime-
this
womanseldom
covering and half exposed to the night air in rooms and quarters open
like
porches." But they also sang and danced and were permitted to
who
as auianime, a class
of cour-
The student
Sahagun condemned
warriors spent
little
time
at religious exercises.
women
By age
20, a
Matchmakers, usually
were necessary to satisfy the requirements of good manners, and before the arrangements were
bride's parents.
made
Repeated
visits
was consulted.
At midday on the day of the wedding, the bride's parents gave
an elaborate banquet two or three days in preparation and supplied
fmal, the girl's extended family
with luxury items to the fuU extent they could afford. The bride's face
earth, her
arms and
legs
feathers.
groom's home, with the bride carried piggyback by one of the matchmakers.
moment
mande
they were
to
among
other
officially
gar-
sumed, and the older celebrants were allowed to get drunk on octli.
The newlyweds eventually retired to the marriage chamber and
stayed there in prayer for four days before they were permitted to
On
and then blessed by a priest. For the young man, this might
be only the first of several marriages: A man in Aztec society could
cleansed,
to in-
dulge their appetite for extravagance. In addition to the special occasions of births and weddings, the
religious year
were
many
typically celebrated
'iiwr'
i*
^^^-K^-^^ f'
Jl^^^V^
chanting
all
the while.
Even the
ruler
beheading and
ritual sacrifice
Even
in their
of a young
young
lust)'
details
of the
rules
in the Florentine
nobility
enthusiasm. Injur\^ was a constant danger; the hard rubber ball often
from an earlier
on the Gulf Coast,
relief panel
of war on the
ball courts,
kill
ball
religious
The
character.
ball
game
corn.
ball courts
woman
of the national
For ail their austerit}^ in other matters, the Aztecs were wild
146
City
for gambling.
Nobles and
rich
is
in the springtime, so
is
come only
to
will
rich
is
our hearts
We
a flower.
spells
wizards. Signs and portents lurked around ever\' corner. Disaster was
on the wav if one saw a wolf crossing the road or a rabbit running into
a house. The night was filled with monsters and headless creatures
that pursued travelers.
his earthly fate
Most
the
would
pe-
re\'eal
with startling precision what the future held. Ingested during solemn
Five Flower, the god ofgambling, oversees fimr men playing patolli in this co-
which
may have
calendar
rituals,
they
were going to
wild beast;
produced extraordinary' visions. Sahagiin dewhich varied with the user: "Some saw that they
t\'pically
die,
master of
many
slaves.
by reason of
this
would be crushed."
played a role in
tions.
many of these
hallucina-
much
like
the Spaniards'
ference.
sins
slate clean,
but onlv
The prudent
citizen thus
tended to
once.
Sahagun was
The
priest set a
penance
them
cremated so they could prepare food for them along the way. The
poor, as always, had to take their chances, equipped for the journey
was said
that they suffered much on their way to the outer darkness. But in the
end, when the Spaniards triumphed, no one neither the powerfiil
nor the weak escaped the final death, the oblivion that overtook
It
live, this
J^
The
tailed
who
commanding
beauty.
rulers,
Of
and tremble
in
special occasions
bow
to their
at religious rites.
Textiles, featherwork,
stuffs
awe
On
festivals,
a handful
commonly found
account of life in the Valley of Mexico five cenThey have examined less perishable arti-
turies ago.
objects of
WORLD
food-
in
24
expert was able to determine the type of clothing prescribed for each Aztec class and occupation.
149
THE PLEASURES
AND SURPRISES OF
THE AZTEC TABLE
Motecuhzoma's cooks prepared
Mashed, boiled with com
meal,
many as 30
The elite sat
as
nutritious
fish,
Staples
Laying up a food
sels
with dried
supply,
com
women fill
ves-
com
water
and
which were
are
still
consid-
its
and a prepared
beans with a
chili
typical
dish,
menu
probably
or tomato sauce.
At an
plants
incised
I
A young woman
the other
back.
l^ed
every other
warp thread
rod
so the
soil,
a farmer drops
holes he has
mound.
He
made
stick to loosen
com
in
In production
all
mud
dredged up when necessary, chinampas yielded several crops annually. Extracting produce from every
foot of available earth led to a food surplus, freeing some workers to specialize in crafts or to labor
at public
works.
Kemek of com
were
clay griddle.
gBumes^isc.'.x''' raMiifinprinM
DRUMMING A LIVELY
BEAT AT FESTIVE
RITES AND FEASTS
rattles,
gongs, and
would jingle
as they
moved
The finger
suggest that
fate
sticks,
and
the hue-
turtle above
is
an
'''y\i
155
log.
FULFILLING THE
DEMAND FOR
BEAUTY AND STYLE
Rulers and nobles of the Valley of Mexico compet-
their
156
At the
and
a half high in the heart of
Mesoamerica, hunting
and fishing communities
natural basin a mile
appeared as eariv
1200-400
NEW WORLD
LATE PRECLASSIC:
400 BC-AD 100
CLASSIC:
AD
100-750
BC
as
com, wea\'ing
baskets,
mud-hut villages.
Civilization accelerated,
and
in
Olmec
in the
culture,
emerging
lowlands to the
had spread to
the \'alle\'. The Olmecs
were the first of a string
of regional civilizations,
OLMEC HEAD
"PRETTY LADY"
FEATHERED SERPENT
southeast,
described
on
the right.
groups of settlers
gradually created a
oamerican
lifest\'le
culminated in the
Mesthat
artistic
AD
villages
By
100, Teotihuacan dominated the Valley of Mexico,
spreading its influence throughout Mesoamerica. Occupying
eight square miles, it had a population that mav have increased
to 200,000 by
hiero-
communica-
of Olmec
rulers.
The
to the
cit\'
to be carved. This
Situated
mec
on the
of Olof the
outskirts
em
edge of the
ment
at
Cuicuilco developed as
a cultural center
At
its
AD 500 and
one of the largest cities of its era in the world. At its
heart lay a spectacular complex
of massive pyramids, which remain today as one of the hemisphere's splendors. One of these
mav ha\e been dedicated to
Quetzalcoad, meaning "feathranked
as
with militar\' themes. Surrounding the sacred center stood palaces containing beautiftil murals, as
apartment compounds.
Located near obsidian deposits, Teotihuacan developed and
controlled an important obsid-
ian industr\'.
Teotihuacan unchallenged.
Raw
stone was
cit\'
to be
throughout Mesoamerica.
Arti-
AD
750,
when much of
S^^^^t-
EARLY
LATE
POSTCLASSIC:
POSTCLASSIC:
EPICLASSIC:
AD
750-900
AD
TOLTEC WARRIOR
JAGUAR KNIGHT
The
Among
the
Tula, ah)out
frequent warfare.
As
vacuum developed,
power
lesser
whose buildings
is
shown
fragment above.
in the
AD
900-1250
mu-
the
new
settlers
whose
forebears
seminomadic Chichimecs
from the northwest, arrived in
the Valley of Mexico about
AD 1200. They brought along
a representation of their fear-
Upon
a five-
human
sacrifice.
Racks were
ficed
human
The
hearts.
Toltecs established a
nating
and
on
around
AD
1200.
fell
into ruin
di,
tribal
whom
human
sacrifice.
According to
them
1521
SPANISH HELMET
AZTEC EAGLE
some
AD
1250-1521
well-built housing.
EARLY
COLONIAL PERIOD:
to
gleaming
in startling contrast to
of the
literature, religion,
traditions of the
new
and
land.
Within a decade after the conquest, churchmen, still combating Aztec influences, found it
to better understand
set-
Spain's largest
cit\',
Seville.
so hard to crush,
it.
if
only
Ulti-
NOWLEDGMENTS
The
editors wish to
thank thefoliowinj
ir.
the prepn-
Haven, Connecticut; W.
New
xM. Fer-
og\-. Social
PICTURE CREDITS
The
volume are
listed below.
Credits from
to right
left
from
Bodleian Libran*', Oxford. 35: Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. 36-39: Enrique Franco Torrijos/National Insti-
ford. 44:
museum
Stuttgart,
Zabe. 6,
7:
London.
8:
background Michel
bv Tomas
J.
Background
Da\id Hiser, Photographers/Aspen/
National Institute of Anthropology'
and Histor)', Mexico; top right W. L.
Clements Librar\', Uni\ersit\' of MichBerkeley, 1984. 12, 13:
Werner Forman
Donato
Pineider, Florence/Biblioteca
by Saburo Sugivama
ogy'
Forman
Furst
Rene Percheron/Artephot/
National Institute of Anthropology'
and Histon', Mexico. 56: Smithsonian Institution, National Museum
of the American Indian neg.
and
pology'
Histon,',
Mexico
Scala,
Florence. 87:
Archive,
Werner Forman
London/Museum
fiir
tos
Film/Museum
Bodleian
fiir
\^6lkerkunde,
jos
&
160
Vienna
(4).
Libran*',
Oxford
.\nthropolog\'
n',
ogy'
(3).
124:
Rene Percheron/Artephot/National
r\',
b\'
Medicea Laurenziana,
Biblioteca
of Anthropolog}' and
Histon', Mexico
Debra Nagao/
National Institute of Anthropology'
aiid Histon', Mexico. 133: Richard
Townsend, An Institute of Chicago
art bv Time-Life Books. 136: Bodleian Libran', Oxford. 137: Werner
Forman Archixe/Museuni fiir
Volkerkunde, Hamburg. 138: Werner
Forman Archi\e, London photographed bv J. Oster/Musee de
&
Percheron/Artephot/National Institute
of Anthropolog)' and Histon-, Mexico. 144: Bodleian Libran', Oxford
photo bv Peter T. Furst. 145: Photo
b\' Peter T. Furst/National Institute of
Anthropology' and Histon', Mexico.
146, 147: John Carlson, Center for
Archaeoastronomv G. Dagli Orti,
Paris Scala, Florence/Biblioteca
Nazionale Centrale, Florence. 149:
Bodleian Libran', Oxford. 150:
Michel Zabe copied bv Donato Pineider, Florence/Biblioteca Medicea
THomme,
Salvador
Paris. 139:
photo
SMPK,
\ olkerkunde
Werner Forman
Flor-
fiir
Berlin. 152:
London
Archi\'e,
153: Copied bv
Donato
Pineider,
Eberhard Thiem,
Lotos Film, Kautbeuren. 154: Eberhard Thiem, Lotos Film, Kautbeuren;
Werner Forman Archi\'e/Museum fiir
Volkerkunde, Berlin. 155: G. Dagli
ana, Florence
Orti, Paris
ana, Florence
Bodleian Libran',
fur \'6lkerkunde
SMPK,
Berlin;
London/British
Museum.
156:
Mexico
Paul Breeden.
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Munich
Paris
INDEX
Numerals
tion
in italics indicate
an
illustra-
A
Acamapichdi: 42; name glyph of, 42
Achitomed: daughter's ritual slaving
by Aztecs, 49-50
death motif
work, 156, 157; frescoes at Quetzalpapalod Palace, 75; gold and silver
metalwork, 138-139, 156; illegal
trade in, 60-61; Olmec sculptures,
52, 53;
Aztec
Cortes, 20-21
Alba, Victor: 46
Alvarado, Pedro de: precipitates Aztec
uprising in Tenochtidan, 3
relic
discovered
at,
87
commoner
on
tures, 94,
122
137; guilds
for,
59,
60
excavadons at Tula, 65
Arellanos Melgarejo, Ramon: excavations at Tula, 65
154;
Catholic attacks
at,
Roman
45,48
Avenue of the Dead (Teotihuacan):
55, 56, 62, 69, map 71; excavations
81
Archbishop's Palace (Mexico City):
stone
in,
as
and animals,
113; ceremonial
emblem of
ethical
of
code
of,
number
32, 159; personal dignitv' and bearing of 139-140; poets, respect for,
164
126-127;
rise
to
power of
19, 34,
al ball
nobilit\',
on
um
zoma
huacan, 54, 55, 67; and Toltcc heritage, 45, 63-64, 66; tribute system
of 19, 97-98, 117; warfare, nature
and role of, 19, 31-32, 82, 83-89,
90-93, 94-100; warriors, training
and accouterments of 88-89, 9093, 94-95; warrior's pendant, 156;
weapons
rituals,
95-96; wedding
144, 145; at work, 152of, 89,
153
Aztlan: 19, 36; probable location of,
48
at
at
Teoti-
c
Cacaxtla: mural fragment from, 159
144
136
117
Chimalma (Reposing
129-130;
of 129, 149
11,
on Motecuh-
135
66
on
Indi-
32
Duran, Diego: on Aztec bureaucracy',
ans, 25,
136,
144
als,
icler
of Cortes, 21-23
tector of
Calpullec:
variety'
(cuachtlt),
35^3,
B
Batres,
of exchange
Shield):
and
codices
Heman:
on Tenochtitlan,
Covoacan: 103
CovoLxauhqui (deit\'): 99; stone relief
of 81,52-55, 109, 111, 115
Crime: Aztec punishments for, 140141, 156
Cuachtli: as medium of exchange,
129-130
Cuicacalli (temple schools): 143
Cuicuilco: 53, 158
Cuidahuac: death of, 25
D
Davies, Nigel:
on
fall
of Teotihuacan,
63
Department of Archaeolog)' and Anthropology' (Mexican): 59
Diaz, Portiri^o: 57, 58
165
101, 123
of,
143-145
El Tajin: relief panel
found
at,
146
on
Eagle Knights: 29, 91, 93; ehte nature of 89, 90, 92; in ritual combat, 105; sculpture of, 94, 100,
65
77
(deit\'): as god of gam147
Flaying of Men (sacrificial ritual):
103-105
Florentine Codex: 17, 22-25, 97, 107,
Five Flower
bling,
ball
latl,
Spain (Sahagiin): 18
Glyphs (Aztec pictographic system)
10, 18, 19, 34, 35, 36, 37, 41, 42,
43, 50, 97, 132; Olmec influence
126-127
^
Great Pyramid at ienochtitlan: 28
Great Temple of Tenochtitlan: end
vera):
excavations
110,777, 120
Giiemes Pacheco de Padilla, Juan Vicente: and discover)' of the Stone of
the Sun, 11
H
Hall of the Eagle Knights: 89, 94;
sculptures from, 122-123
Hidalgo: tribute from, 98
History of the Indies of New Spain (Duranj:
18
House of the
Huehueteotl
120, 121
Priests:
58
L
in,
map 51
food supply
ft-om,
ic
interpretations
de: astronom-
of the Stone of
on Aztec
skill as arti-
M
Malinalco: 98-99, 707;
100; temple
at,
relics
tions at Tula, 65
Mava: archaeological sites of, 16; language, 20-21; and Olmecs, 51, 53
Mendoza, Don Antonio de: as viceroy
of New Spain, 41
Mexica: 14
Mexico: access to sites in opened to
of Spanish
\icero\' in,
tage
I
Indians: tribes allied with Spaniards
against Aztecs, 15, 87, 99
Iczcoad: 139; efforts to create noble
histor\' for Aztecs,
47
56
of 45-47; government
Michoacan: 98
Micdan: endpaper, 148
Micdantecuhdi (deit\'): statue of, 722
Millon, Rene: excavations at Teotihuacan, 60, 62, 70
coyotzin)
156
61,
81
Montezuma:
protec-
in,
Mexico
Moctezuma:
coyotzin)
See
Motecuhzoma (Xo-
I:
N
(Aztec language): 17, 18, 20,
22, 126
Narvaez, Panfilo de: and Cortes,
31
National Museum of Anthropology
(Mexico Cit\'): 12, 15, 45, 46,
'
'
59, 87,
94
o
Oaxaca: 60
Obsidian: sources close to Teotihuacan, 54; trade in, 72, 98; uses of,
89, 96, 158
OctU: 92, 137, 156
game): 12,
146
Olmecs: 48, 50, 55, 63, 158; mask,
Ollantaliztli (ritual ball
146-147; court
for,
map
Patolli:
147
Pochteca: 130-135,
137
and code of ethi-
behavior, 126
98
also Octli
Morn-
60, 62, 75
P)Tamid of the Sun: comparison with
II
Motecuhzoma
II
See
Nahuad
Malinaixochid (deit\'): 99
Marina, Doiia: 20; warns Cortes of
Cholulan conspiracy', 2
Madatzinca: 37
Matos Moctezuma, Eduardo: excava-
cal interests
II: 9, 20,
41, 43; class consciousness of, 135;
and Cortes, 21-25, 30-31; death of,
31; incorrea variants of name, 14-
from,
93, 99
140, 141
Motecuhzoma (Xocovotzin)
Mount
150
Huitzilopochtli
Iztaccihuad:
legal code,
identifi-
166
and
sacrifice,
54,
at,
of, 142,
12
Quetzalpapalotl Palace: 74-75; excavations
at,
75
R
Religion: absolution, single opportunit}' for, 147-148; afterlife, Aztec
view of, end paper, 125, 148; animal sacrifice, 100-102; animals, supernatural powers attributed to, 28;
Aztec creation mxths, 100; Aztec
22, 23, 24, 28, 31, 32, 33, 34, 3637, 38, 41, 45, 46, 48, 49, 59, 61,
feasts,
San Juan: 56
San Lorenzo: map 51; excavations at,
53
San Martin: 56
Santa Cecilia Acatitlan: pvramid at,
142
Serpent Wall: 65
Slavery: Aztec system of: 138-139;
Spanish practice of 20, 138
Soustelle, Jacques: on Aztec rhetoric,
126
Spain: and conquest of Mexico, 9,
14-15, 30-32; Mexico gains independence from, 14; obliteration of
Aztec culture, 11, 17, 33, 34, 109,
132, 159
Stirling, Matthew W.: excavations at
Tres Zapotes, 53
Stone of the Sun (Calendar Stone):
11
Tabasco
relationship
tec
view of
life,
concern
for, 15;
Olmec
myxh of struggle
moon and
stars,
beliefs,
beliefs,
69
Roman
Co-
22
Sacrificial
of,
Tomb
of Time, 106
of, 55,
ing
in,
Moon,
ca\'e
found
at,
61,69
Teotihuacanos: 48, 50, 54, 63
Tepanecs: Aztecs serve as mercenaries
for,
40
11
at,
132-133
coast:
20
Tezcacoatl:
Telpochcalli (schools):
143-145
Temple of Malinalco:
93,
99
ways connecting
13, 24, 27, 103;
to mainland,
comparisons with
cit\'
37
Tezcatlipoca (deirv)
sacrificial
victims
86-87
Aztec general, 89; and
of human sacrifice, 103
Tlacaclel:
rites
46A7
on Aztec art,
137; on Aztec sensibilit)', 140; on
108, 109, 110-123, 125, 137; political organization of, 136; religious
center
Sorrow), 31;
Teomama: 37
167
of
25
and
art
objeas
Wars, 99-100
Tlazolteod (deit\'): as goddess of filth,
140, 141
Tochtepec: merchant headquarters at,
108
Toci
(deit)'):
statue of,
144
Tolteca:
159; archaeological snidy of, 6366; art and craftwork of, 44, 4S,
of Time: 106
Tonatiuh {deir\'): as sun god, 11, 33,
92
line
at,
51-53
True Histon' of the Conquest ofMexico
(Diaz del Castillo): 23
Tula: 63, 159; destruction of, 6566; excavations at, 64-66; housing
in, 65; P\Tamid of Quetzalcoad as
the Morning Star, 64; Serpent Wall
at, 65
Tula de Allende (Hidalgo): 64
Turquoise: Aztec trade in, 6; regard
for,
fertilit\' of,
49
Tomb
Tuxtia:
137
158
arrival at,
u
60
158-159
20
Xoloti
(deit\'): cover
ViUa Rica de
la
Yacatecuhdi (deitv):
Vera Cruz: 20
chants, 130,
as
patron of mer-
134
Young Museum:
See
M. H. de Young
Museum
64
can, 60-61
childbirth, support
and
ritu-
als
civilization in,
Women:
156
Olmec
of
X
Xipe Totec (deirv): and flaving rituals,
104-105; statue of, 57
Xiuhtecuhudi (dein): fire god, 107
Xochimilco: 42, 103; chinantpas at,
149, 152
Xochipilli (deit\'): statue of, 124
168
^^
PYRAMIDS
AT TEOTIHUACAN
TOLTEC W.\RRIOR
v-',^'
Teotihuacan
Tcnavuca
Tlacopan
Chap|l|^pec^
Colhuacvi
Cuicuilco
GRASSHOPPER
EAGLE KNIGHT
Teopanzolco
Malinalco
ilco
^^JL>
Cuemavaca
Popocatepetl
Chalcatzingo
15
I
25 miles
^!
''''%*
^^ CORTES
Veracruz
Pico de Orizaba
>?7^
%V".
OLMEC HEAD
T-i^
:'^-,M^M
ISBN 0-8094-9854-5