1.
Aztec
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The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica from the 14th to 16th centuries. The Nahuatl words aztecatl and aztecah mean people from Aztlan, a place for the Nahuatl-speaking culture of the time. Often the term Aztec refers exclusively to the Mexica people of Tenochtitlan, situated on an island in Lake Texcoco, who referred to themselves as Mēxihcah Tenochcah or Cōlhuah Mexihcah. From the 13th century, the Valley of Mexico was the heart of Aztec civilization, here the capital of the Aztec Triple Alliance, the Triple Alliance formed a tributary empire expanding its political hegemony far beyond the Valley of Mexico, conquering other city states throughout Mesoamerica. At its pinnacle, Aztec culture had rich and complex mythological and religious traditions, as well as achieving remarkable architectural and artistic accomplishments. Subsequently, the Spanish founded the new settlement of Mexico City on the site of the ruined Aztec capital, the term extends to further ethnic groups associated with the Aztec empire such as the Acolhua and Tepanec and others that were incorporated into the empire. In older usage the term was used about modern Nahuatl speaking ethnic groups. In recent usage these ethnic groups are referred to as the Nahua peoples. Linguistically the term Aztecan is still used about the branch of the Uto-Aztecan languages that includes the Nahuatl language and its closest relatives Pochutec, to the Aztecs themselves the word aztec was not an endonym for any particular ethnic group. Rather it was a term used to refer to several ethnic groups, not all of them Nahuatl speaking. In the Nahuatl language aztecatl means person from Aztlan and this usage has been the subject of debate in more recent years, but the term Aztec is still more common. For the same reason the notion of Aztec civilization is best understood as a horizon of a general Mesoamerican civilization. Particular to the Aztecs of Tenochtitlan was the Mexica patron God Huitzilopochtli, twin pyramids, the Aztec Empire was a tribute empire based in Tenochtitlan that extended its power throughout Mesoamerica in the late postclassic period. Soon Texcoco and Tlacopan became junior partners in the alliance, which was de facto led by the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, the empire extended its power by a combination of trade and military conquest. The political clout of the empire reached far south into Mesoamerica conquering cities as far south as Chiapas and Guatemala, the Nahua peoples began to migrate into Mesoamerica from northern Mexico in the 6th century. They populated central Mexico, dislocating speakers of Oto-Manguean languages as they spread their influence south. As the former nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples mixed with the civilizations of Mesoamerica, adopting religious and cultural practices. During the Postclassic period they rose to power at such sites as Tula, in the 12th century the Nahua power center was in Azcapotzalco, from where the Tepanecs dominated the valley of Mexico
2.
Aztec mythology
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Aztec mythology is the body or collection of myths of Aztec civilization of Central Mexico. The Aztecs were Nahuatl-speaking groups living in central Mexico and much of their mythology is similar to that of other Mesoamerican cultures, according to legend, the various groups who were to become the Aztecs arrived from the north into the Anahuac valley around Lake Texcoco. The location of this valley and lake of destination is clear – it is the heart of modern Mexico City –, there are different accounts of their origin. In the myth the ancestors of the Mexica/Aztec came from a place in the north called Aztlan, other accounts cite their origin in Chicomoztoc, the place of the seven caves, or at Tamoanchan. The Mexica/Aztec were said to be guided by their god Huitzilopochtli, at an island in Lake Texcoco, they saw an eagle holding a rattlesnake in its talons, perched on a nopal cactus. This vision fulfilled a prophecy telling them that they should found their new home on that spot, the Aztecs built their city of Tenochtitlan on that site, building a great artificial island, which today is in the center of Mexico City. This legendary vision is pictured on the Coat of Arms of Mexico, to the Aztec, the Toltec were the originators of all culture, Toltecayotl was a synonym for culture. Aztec legends identify the Toltecs and the cult of Quetzalcoatl with the city of Tollan. Because the Aztec adopted and combined several traditions with their own earlier traditions, coatlicue was the mother of Centzon Huitznahua, her sons, and Coyolxauhqui, her daughter. She found a ball filled with feathers and placed it in her waistband and her other children became suspicious as to the identity of the father and vowed to kill their mother. She gave birth on Mount Coatepec, pursued by her children, but the newborn Huitzilopochtli defeated most of his brothers and he also killed his half-sister Coyolxauhqui by tearing out her heart using a Xiuhcoatl and throwing her body down the mountain. Our age, the age, or fifth creation, began in the ancient city of Teotihuacan. According to the myth, all the gods had gathered to sacrifice themselves, although the world and the sun had already been created, it would only be through their sacrifice that the sun would be set into motion and time as well as history could begin. The handsomest and strongest of the gods, Tecuciztecatl, was supposed to sacrifice himself but when it time to self-immolate. Instead, Nanahuatl the smallest and humblest of the gods, who was covered in boils, sacrificed himself first. The sun was set into motion with his sacrifice and time began, humiliated by Nanahuatls sacrifice, Tecuciztecatl too leaped into the fire and became the moon. Water deities Tlaloc, rain god Chalchiuhtlicue, goddess of water, lakes, rivers, seas, streams, horizontal waters, storms, Xipe-Totec, god of force, lord of the seasons and rebirth, ruler of the East. Quetzalcoatl, god of the life, the light and wisdom, lord of the winds, Huitzilopochtli, god of the war, lord of the sun and fire, ruler of the South
3.
Aztec warfare
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The Aztec state was centered on political expansion and dominance of and exaction of tribute from other city states, and warfare was the basic dynamic force in Aztec politics. Thus, only specifically chosen men served in the military, the sacrifice of war captives was an important part of many of the Aztec religious festivals. Warfare was thus the driving force of both the Aztec economy and religion. There were two main objectives in Aztec warfare, the first objective was political, the subjugation of enemy city states in order to exact tribute and expand Aztec political hegemony. The second objective was religious and socioeconomic, the taking of captives to be sacrificed in religious ceremonies and these dual objectives also influenced the kind of warfare practiced by the Aztecs. Warriors were essential to Aztec life and culture, at birth, an Aztec boy would receive two symbols of being a warrior. A shield would be placed in his hand, and an arrow would be placed in his right. After a short ceremony the newly born boys umbilical cord, shield and these parts would symbol the rise of a warrior. Each shield and arrow would be specifically for that boy and would resemble his family. These birth rituals show the importance of culture to the Aztecs. As for girls, at birth their umbilical cord would be buried usually under the family fireplace, since all boys starting at age 15 were trained to become warriors Aztec society as a whole had no standing army. Therefore, warriors would be drafted to a campaign through a Tequital, outside of battle, many warriors were farmers and tradesmen. They would learn their trade from their father, warriors would be married by their early twenties and would be a vital part of Aztec daily life. They would work a certain trade usually passed on through family status, warriors would be lower class citizens, that when called upon would engage in battle. Being a warrior did, however, present a way to move up in Aztec society, the warriors life was a chance to change ones social status. If they were successful as a warrior they would be presented with gifts, if they reached the rank of Eagle or Jaguar warrior they would be considered as nobles. They would also become full-time warriors working for the city-state to protect merchants and they resembled the police force of Aztec society. Aztec culture valued appearance, and appearance defined people within society, warriors had a very distinct appearance
4.
Aztec codices
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Aztec codices are books written by pre-Columbian and colonial-era Aztecs. These codices provide some of the best primary sources for Aztec culture, the pre-Columbian codices mostly do not in fact use the codex form and are, or originally were, long folded sheets. They also differ from European books in that they mostly consist of images and pictograms, the colonial era codices not only contain Aztec pictograms, but also Classical Nahuatl, Spanish, and occasionally Latin. Some are entirely in Nahuatl without pictorial content, although there are very few surviving pre-conquest codices, the tlacuilo tradition endured the transition to colonial culture, scholars now have access to a body of around 500 colonial-era codices. Colonial-era Nahuatl language documentation is the texts of the New Philology. The Codex Borbonicus is a written by Aztec priests around the time of the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Like all pre-Columbian Aztec codices, it was pictorial in nature. Codex Bornobicus is held at the Library of the National Assembly of France, the Boturini Codex was painted by an unknown Aztec author some time between 1530 and 1541, roughly a decade after the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Pictorial in nature, it tells the story of the legendary Aztec journey from Aztlán to the Valley of Mexico, rather than employing separate pages, the author used one long sheet of amatl, or fig bark, accordion-folded into 21½ pages. There is a rip in the middle of the 22nd page, unlike many other Aztec codices, the drawings are not colored, but rather merely outlined with black ink. Also known as Tira de la Peregrinación, it is named one of its first European owners. It is now held in the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City, the Codex Mendoza is a pictorial document, with Spanish annotations and commentary, composed circa 1541. It is divided into three sections, a history of each Aztec ruler and their conquests, a list of the tribute paid by each province. It is held in the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford, the Florentine Codex is a set of 12 books created under the supervision of Bernardino de Sahagún between approximately 1540 and 1585. It is a copy of original materials which are now lost. Perhaps more than any source, the Florentine Codex has been the major source of Aztec life in the years before the Spanish conquest. Anderson published English translations of the Nahuatl text of the books in separate volumes. A full color, facsimile copy of the codex was published in three bound volumes in 1979
5.
Aztec Empire
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The Aztec Empire, or the Triple Alliance, began as an alliance of three Nahua altepetl city-states, Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan. The Triple Alliance was formed from the faction in a civil war fought between the city of Azcapotzalco and its former tributary provinces. Despite the initial conception of the empire as an alliance of three self-governed city-states, Tenochtitlan quickly became dominant militarily. By the time the Spanish arrived in 1519, the lands of the Alliance were effectively ruled from Tenochtitlan, the alliance waged wars of conquest and expanded rapidly after its formation. Aztec rule has been described by scholars as hegemonic or indirect, the Aztecs left rulers of conquered cities in power so long as they agreed to pay semi-annual tribute to the Alliance, as well as supply military forces when needed for the Aztec war efforts. In return, the imperial authority offered protection and political stability, the state religion of the empire was polytheistic, worshiping a diverse pantheon that included dozens of deities. Many had officially recognized cults large enough so that the deity was represented in the temple precinct of the capital Tenochtitlan. The imperial cult, specifically, was that of Huitzilopochtli, the distinctive warlike patron god of the Mexica, peoples in conquered provinces were allowed to retain and freely continue their own religious traditions, so long as they added the imperial god Huitzilopochtli to their local pantheons. The word Aztec in modern usage would not have used by the people themselves. The name comes from a Nahuatl word meaning people from Aztlan, for the purpose of this article, Aztec refers only to those cities that constituted or were subject to the Triple Alliance. For the broader use of the term, see the article on Aztec civilization, Nahua peoples descended from Chichimec peoples who migrated to central Mexico from the north in the early 13th century. According to the pictographic codices in which the Aztecs recorded their history, Early migrants settled the Basin of Mexico and surrounding lands by establishing a series of independent city-states. These early Nahua cities were ruled by petty kings called tlahtohqueh, most of the existing settlements, which had been established by other indigenous peoples before the Nahua migration, were assimilated into Nahua culture. These early city-states fought various small-scale wars with other, but due to shifting alliances. The Mexica were the last of Aztlan migrants to arrive in Central Mexico and they entered the Basin of Mexico around the year 1250 AD, and by then most of the good agricultural land had already been claimed. The Mexica persuaded the king of Culhuacan to allow them to settle in a relatively infertile patch of land called Chapultepec, the Mexica served as hired mercenaries for Culhuacan. After they served Culhuacan in battle, the appointed one of his daughters to rule over the Mexica. According to mythological native accounts, the Mexica instead sacrificed her by flaying her skin, when the king of Culhuacan learned of this, he attacked and used his army to drive the Mexica from Tizaapan by force
6.
Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
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The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was one of the most significant events in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Many of those on the Cortés expedition of 1519 had never seen combat before, in fact, Cortés had never commanded men in battle before. However, there was a generation of Spaniards who participated in expeditions in the Caribbean and Tierra Firme, learning strategy. The Spanish conquest of Mexico had antecedents with established practices, in their advance, the allies were tricked and ambushed several times by the people they encountered. When Cortés left Tenochtitlan to return to the coast and deal with the expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez, Alvarado allowed a significant Aztec feast to be celebrated in Tenochtitlan and on the pattern of the earlier massacre in Cholula, closed off the square and massacred the celebrating Aztec noblemen. The biography of Cortés by Francisco López de Gómara contains a description of the massacre, the Alvarado massacre at the Main Temple of Tenochtitlan precipitated rebellion by the population of the city. When the captured emperor Motecuhzoma II, now seen as a puppet of the invading Spaniards, attempted to calm the outraged populace. Cortés had returned to Tenochtitlan and his men fled the city during the Noche Triste in June,1520. The Spanish, Tlaxcalans and reinforcements returned a year later on August 13,1521 to a civilization that had wiped out by famine. This made it easier to conquer the remaining Aztecs, the fall of the Aztec Empire was the key event in the formation of the Spanish overseas empire, with New Spain, which later became Mexico, a major component. The Spanish conquerors could and did write accounts that narrated the conquest from the first landfalls in Mexico to the victory over the Mexica in Tenochtitlan on August 13,1521. Indigenous accounts are from particular native viewpoints and as the events had a impact on their polity. All accounts of the conquest, Spanish and indigenous alike, have biases, in general, Spanish accounts do not credit their indigenous allies support. Individual conquerors accounts exaggerate that individuals contribution to the conquest, downplaying other conquerors, indigenous allies accounts stress their loyalty to the Spanish and their particular aid as being key to the Spanish victory. Their accounts are similar to Spanish conquerors accounts contained in petitions for rewards and these were almost immediately published in Spain and later in other parts of Europe. Interestingly, Cortéss right-hand man, Pedro de Alvarado did not write at any length about his actions in the New World, two letters to Cortés about Alvarados campaigns in Guatemala are published in The Conquistadors. Rather than it being a petition for rewards for services, as many Spanish accounts were, the account was used by eighteenth-century Jesuit Francisco Javier Clavijero in his descriptions of the history of Mexico. On the indigenous side, the allies of Cortés, particularly the Tlaxcalans, wrote extensively about their services to the Spanish Crown in the conquest, the most important of these are the pictorial Lienzo de Tlaxcala and the Historia de Tlaxcala by Diego Muñoz Camargo
7.
La Noche Triste
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Cortés expedition arrived at Tenochtitlan, the Mexica capital, on November 8,1519, taking up residence in a specially designated compound in the city. Soon thereafter, suspecting treachery on the part of their hosts, the Spaniards took Moctezuma II, during the following 98 days, Cortés and his native allies, the Tlaxcaltecas, were increasingly unwelcome guests in the capital. In June 1520, news from the Gulf coast reached Cortés that a larger party of Spaniards had been sent by Governor Velázquez of Cuba to arrest Cortés for insubordination. Leaving Tenochtitlan in the care of his lieutenant, Pedro de Alvarado, Cortés marched to the coast. When Cortés told the soldiers about the riches of Tenochtitlan. Reinforced by Narvaezs men, Cortés headed back to Tenochtitlan, during Cortés absence, Pedro de Alvarado in Tenochtitlan obtained information that the Aztecs were about to attack him. In response, de Alvarado ordered a preemptive slaughter of Aztec nobles, in retaliation, the Aztecs laid siege to the Spanish compound, in which Moctezuma was still being held captive. By the time Cortés returned to Tenochtitlan in late June, the Aztecs had elected a new Hueyi Tlatoani named Cuitláhuac, Cortés ordered Moctezuma to address his people from a terrace in order to persuade them to stop fighting and to allow the Spaniards to leave the city in peace. The Aztecs, however, jeered at Moctezuma, and pelted him with stones, by Spanish accounts, he was killed in this assault by the Mexica people, though they claim he had been killed instead by the Spanish. With Moctezuma dead, Cortés and Alvarado knew they were in a precarious position, under constant attack, with gunpowder and food and water in short supply, Cortés decided to break out of the city by night. Since the Aztecs had damaged bridges on four of the eight causeways into the island city and this invitation would lead to the demise of many soldiers who, overburdened with treasure, found it impossible to navigate the causeways and other obstacles encountered on the way out of the city. On the night of 01 July 1520, his army left their compound and headed west. The causeway was apparently unguarded, and the Spaniards made their way out of their complex unnoticed, before reaching the causeway, they were noticed by Aztec warriors known as the Eagle Warriors, who sounded the alarm. First by a woman drawing water, and then by the priest of Huitzilopochtli from atop Templo Mayor, as the Spaniards and their native allies reached the causeway, hundreds of canoes appeared in the waters alongside to harry them. The Spaniards fought their way across the causeway in the rain, weighed down by gold and equipment, some of the soldiers lost their footing, fell into the lake, and drowned. Amid a vanguard of horsemen, Cortés pressed ahead and reached dry land at Tacuba, according to Bernal Díaz del Castillo, it was at this point that tears came to Cortés eyes, as he realized the extent of the debacle. Cortés, Alvarado and the strongest and most skilled of the men had managed to fight their way out of Tenochtitlan, Cortés himself had been injured in the fighting. All of the artillery had been lost, as had most of the horses, the sources are not in agreement as to the total number of casualties suffered by the expedition
8.
Aztec religion
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The Aztec religion is the Mesoamerican religion of the Aztecs. Like other Mesoamerican religions, it had elements of human sacrifice in connection with a number of religious festivals which were held according to patterns of the Aztec calendar. Aztec cosmology divides the world into thirteen heavens and nine earthly layers or netherworlds each level associated with a set of deities. The concept of Teotl is central to the Aztecs, the term is often translated as god, but may have held more abstract aspects of divinity or supernatural energy akin to the Polynesian concept of Mana. The many gods of the Aztecs can be grouped into complexes related to different themes, other deities, for example Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl, had roots in earlier civilizations of Mesoamerica and were worshiped by many cultures and by many names. Some gods embodied aspects of nature, a large group of gods were related to pulque, drunkenness, excess, fun and games. Other gods were associated with specific trades, many gods had multiple aspects with different names, where each name highlighted a specific function or trait of the god. Occasionally, two gods were conflated into one, and quite often deities transformed into one another within a single story. Aztec images sometimes combined attributes of several divinities, nicholson classed the gods into three groups according to their conceptual meaning in general Mesoamerican religion. The first group he calls the Celestial creativity – Divine Paternalism group, the second, the earth-mother gods, the third group, the War-Sacrifice-Sanguinary Nourishment group contained such gods as Ome Tochtli, Huitzilopochtli, Mictlantecutli and Mixcoatl. Instead of Nicholsons subtle classification in the following a more impressionist classification is presented, on the state level, religion was controlled by the Tlatoani and the high priests governing the main temples in the ceremonial precinct of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. For example, on the feast of Huey Tozoztli, the ruler himself ascended Mt. Tlaloc, throughout society, each level had their own rituals and deities and played their part in the larger rituals of the community. On the feast of Ochpaniztli, all participated in sweeping the streets. Huixachtlan, lit on the chest of a person by the high priests. The Tlatoani of Tenochtitlan was the head of the cult of Huitzilopochtli and he had special priestly duties in different rituals on the state level. However, the Aztec religious organization was not entirely under his authority, under these religious heads were many tiers of priests, priestesses, novices, nuns and monks who ran the cults of the various gods and goddesses. Sahagun reports that the priests had a strict training, and had to live very austere and ethical lives involving prolonged vigils, fasts. For instance, they often had to bleed themselves and undertake prescribed self-mortifications in the buildup to sacrificial rites, additionally, Sahagun refers to classes of religious specialists not affiliated with the established priesthood
9.
Aztec cuisine
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Aztec cuisine was the cuisine of the Aztec Empire and the Nahua peoples of the Valley of Mexico prior to European contact in 1519. The most important staple was corn, a crop that was so important to Aztec society that it played a part in their mythology. Just like wheat in much of Europe or rice in most of East Asia and it came in varieties that differed in color, texture, size and prestige, and was eaten as corn tortillas, tamales or ātōlli, maize gruel. The other constants of Aztec food were salt and chili peppers, the other major foods were beans and New World varieties of the grains amaranth, and chia. The combination of maize and these foods would have provided the average Aztec a very well-rounded diet without any significant deficiencies in vitamins or minerals. The cooking of maize grains in alkaline solutions, a process called nixtamalization, the elite took pride in not drinking pulque, a drink of commoners, and preferred drinks made from cacao, among the most prestigious luxuries available. Favored by rulers, warriors and nobles, they were flavored with peppers, honey. They also domesticated turkeys, duck and dogs as food and at times ate meat from wild animals such as deer. They ate various mushrooms and fungi, including the corn smut. Squash was very popular and came in different varieties. Squash seeds, fresh, dried or roasted, were especially popular, tomatoes, though different from the varieties common today, were often mixed with chili in sauces or as filling for tamales. Most sources describe two meals per day, though there is an account of laborers getting three meals, one at dawn, another one at around 9 in the morning and one at around 3 in the afternoon. This is similar to the custom in contemporary Europe, but it is unclear if intake of ātōlli, drinking a good amount of the thicker kinds of ātōlli could equal the calories in several corn tortillas, and ātōlli was consumed on a daily basis by most of the population. Many accounts exist of Aztec feasts and banquets and the ceremony that surrounded them, before a meal, servants presented fragrant tobacco tubes and sometimes also flowers with which the guests could rub their head, hands and neck. Before the meal would start each guest would drop a food on the ground as an offering to the god Tlaltecuhtli. As military prowess was highly praised among the Aztecs, table manners imitated the movement of warriors. The smoking tubes and flowers went from the hand of the servant to the right hand of the guest. This was an imitation of how a warrior received his atlatl darts, the flowers passed out bore different names depending on how they were handed out, sword flowers went from left hand to right and shield flowers went from right hand to left
10.
Aztec architecture
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Aztec architecture refers to pre-Columbian architecture of the Aztec civilization. Aztec cities often competed to construct the greatest temples in the Aztec empire, while doing so, instead of demolishing an old temple and building a new one at the site, they simply built over the old structure. Often, the temples were immense and were very proportioned, some temples have been found to have at least four or five layers. Houses were uniform throughout most of the empire, only varying in size, houses were built with logs and were not separated, thus resulting in one large room. The Aztecs would view craftsmanship and extraordinary work as something very valuable, the Aztecs would build their houses similar to mountains. They did this because they believed the mountains protected the rain coming in. The great city Tenochtitlan is an example of Aztec Architecture. It is split into four sides, each side having an architectural value, Tenochtitlan was riddled with houses and architectural values. The city had a grid surrounding the four sides, each side having a platform with stairs. The Great Temple was a temple with a wash basin at the top. The temple was 100-80m and was the biggest building in the Aztec city Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs dominated central Mexico in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. Their capital was Tenochtitlan on the shore of Lake Texcoco – the site of modern-day Mexico City, Aztec architectural sites include, Malinalco Tenayuca, Templo Mayor Bernal, I, Coe, M, et al. The Iconography of Middle American sculpture, new York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Aztec Architecture from the Think Quest Library Aztec Architecture from the University of Redlands
11.
Aztec calendar stone
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The stone is 358 centimetres in diameter and 98 centimetres thick, and it weighs about 24 tons. Shortly after the Spanish conquest, the sculpture was buried in the Zócalo. It was rediscovered on December 17,1790 during repairs on the Mexico City Cathedral, following its rediscovery, the calendar stone was mounted on an exterior wall of the Cathedral, where it remained until 1885. Most scholars think that the stone was carved some time between 1502 and 1521, though some believe that it is several decades older than that, the sculpted motifs that cover the surface of the stone refer to central components of the Mexica cosmogony. In the center of the monolith is the face of the deity, Tonatiuh, which appears inside the glyph for movement. The central figure is holding a human heart in each of his clawed hands. The four squares that surround the central deity represent the four previous suns or eras, each era ended with the destruction of the world and humanity, which were then recreated in the next era. The top right square represents 4 Jaguar, the day on which the first era ended, after having lasted 676 years, due to the appearance of monsters that devoured all of humanity. The top left square shows 4 Wind, the date on which, after 364 years, hurricane winds destroyed the earth, the bottom left square shows 4 Rain. This era lasted 312 years, before being destroyed by a rain of fire, the bottom right square represents 4 Water, an era that lasted 676 years and ended when the world was flooded and all the humans were turned into fish. Placed among these four squares are three additional dates,1 Flint,1 Rain, and 7 Monkey, and a Xiuhuitzolli, or rulers turquoise diadem, glyph. It has been suggested that these dates may have had historical and cosmic significance, and that the diadem may form part of the name of the Mexica ruler Moctezuma II. The exact purpose and meaning of the Calendar Stone are unclear, archaeologists and historians have proposed numerous theories, and it is likely that there are several aspects to its interpretation. The earliest interpretations of the stone relate to its use as a calendar, in 1792, two years after the stones unearthing, Mexican anthropologist Antonio de León y Gama wrote a treatise on the Aztec calendar using the stone as its basis. Some of the circles of glyphs are the glyphs for the days of the month, the four symbols included in the Ollin glyph represent the four past suns that the Mexica believed the earth had passed through. Another aspect of the stone is its religious significance, one theory is that the face at the center of the stone represents Tonatiuh, the Aztec deity of the sun. It is for this reason that the stone known as the Sun Stone. Richard Townsend proposed a different theory, claiming that the figure at the center of the stone represents Tlaltecuhtli, yet another characteristic of the stone is its possible geographic significance
12.
National Museum of Anthropology (Mexico)
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The National Museum of Anthropology is a national museum of Mexico. It is the largest and most visited museum in Mexico, the museum is managed by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, or INAH. Assessments of the museum vary, with one considering it a national treasure, the museum is the synthesis of an ideological, scientific, and political feat. Octavio Paz criticized the museums making the Mexica hall central, saying the exaltation and glorification of Mexico-Tenochtitlan transforms the Museum of Anthropology into a temple, the halls are ringed by gardens, many of which contain outdoor exhibits. The museum has 23 rooms for exhibits and covers an area of 79,700 square meters or 857,890 square feet, on August 25,1790, the Museum of Natural History was established by botanist José Longinos Martínez. During the 19th century, the museum was visited by internationally renowned scholars such as Alexander von Humboldt, in 1825, the first Mexican president, Guadalupe Victoria, advised by the historian Lucas Alamán, established the National Mexican Museum as an autonomous institution. In 1865, the Emperor Maximilian moved the museum to Calle de Moneda 13, in 1906, due to the growth of the museums collections, Justo Sierra divided the stock of the National Museum. The natural history collections were moved to the Chopo building, which was constructed specifically to shelter permanent expositions, the museum was renamed the National Museum of Archaeology, History and Ethnography, and was re-opened September 9,1910, in the presence of President Porfirio Díaz. By 1924 the stock of the museum had increased to 52,000 objects and had received more than 250,000 visitors, the remaining collection was renamed the National Museum of Anthropology, focusing on pre-Columbian Mexico and modern day Mexican ethnography. The construction of the museum building began in February 1963 in the Chapultepec park. The project was coordinated by architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, with assistance by Rafael Mijares Alcérreca, in front of the testimonies of those cultures, the Mexico of today pays tribute to the indigenous people of Mexico, in whose example we recognize characteristics of our national originality. It also has a model of the location and layout of the former Aztec capital Tenochtitlan and they are classified as North, West, Mayan, Gulf of Mexico, Oaxaca, Mexico, Toltec, and Teotihuacan. The permanent expositions at the first floor show the culture of Native American population of Mexico since the Spanish colonization, the museum also hosts visiting exhibits, generally focusing on other of the worlds great cultures. Past exhibits have focused on ancient Iran, Greece, China, Egypt, Russia, doris Heyden Felipe R. Solís Olguín, director 2000–2009 Aveleyra, Luis. Plantación y metas del nuevo Museo Nacional de Antropología, artes de México, época 1, año 12, no. El Museo Nacional de Antropología de México, el Museo Nacional de Arquelogía, Historia, y Etnografía. Mexico, Imprenta del Museo Nacional de Arquelogía, Historia, y Etnografía 1924, Historia de los Museos de México. Mexico, Fomento Cultural del Banco Nacional de México 1987, the Creation of the Museo Nacional de Antropología of Mexico and its scientific, educational, and political purposes
13.
Mexico City
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Mexico City, or City of Mexico, is the capital and most populous city of Mexico. As an alpha global city, Mexico City is one of the most important financial centers in the Americas and it is located in the Valley of Mexico, a large valley in the high plateaus at the center of Mexico, at an altitude of 2,240 metres. The city consists of sixteen municipalities, the 2009 estimated population for the city proper was approximately 8.84 million people, with a land area of 1,485 square kilometres. The Greater Mexico City has a domestic product of US$411 billion in 2011. The city was responsible for generating 15. 8% of Mexicos Gross Domestic Product, as a stand-alone country, in 2013, Mexico City would be the fifth-largest economy in Latin America—five times as large as Costa Ricas and about the same size as Perus. Mexico’s capital is both the oldest capital city in the Americas and one of two founded by Amerindians, the other being Quito. In 1524, the municipality of Mexico City was established, known as México Tenochtitlán, Mexico City served as the political, administrative and financial center of a major part of the Spanish colonial empire. After independence from Spain was achieved, the district was created in 1824. Ever since, the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution has controlled both of them, in recent years, the local government has passed a wave of liberal policies, such as abortion on request, a limited form of euthanasia, no-fault divorce, and same-sex marriage. On January 29,2016, it ceased to be called the Federal District and is now in transition to become the countrys 32nd federal entity, giving it a level of autonomy comparable to that of a state. Because of a clause in the Mexican Constitution, however, as the seat of the powers of the federation, it can never become a state, the city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan was founded by the Mexica people in 1325. According to legend, the Mexicas principal god, Huitzilopochtli indicated the site where they were to build their home by presenting an eagle perched on a cactus with a snake in its beak. Between 1325 and 1521, Tenochtitlan grew in size and strength, eventually dominating the other city-states around Lake Texcoco, when the Spaniards arrived, the Aztec Empire had reached much of Mesoamerica, touching both the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. After landing in Veracruz, Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés advanced upon Tenochtitlan with the aid of many of the native peoples. Cortés put Moctezuma under house arrest, hoping to rule through him, the Aztecs thought the Spaniards were permanently gone, and they elected a new king, Cuitláhuac, but he soon died, the next king was Cuauhtémoc. Cortés began a siege of Tenochtitlan in May 1521, for three months, the city suffered from the lack of food and water as well as the spread of smallpox brought by the Europeans. Cortés and his allies landed their forces in the south of the island, the Spaniards practically razed Tenochtitlan during the final siege of the conquest. Cortés first settled in Coyoacán, but decided to rebuild the Aztec site to erase all traces of the old order and he did not establish a territory under his own personal rule, but remained loyal to the Spanish crown
14.
Calendar
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A calendar is a system of organizing days for social, religious, commercial or administrative purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months, a date is the designation of a single, specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a record of such a system. A calendar can also mean a list of planned events, such as a calendar or a partly or fully chronological list of documents. Periods in a calendar are usually, though not necessarily, synchronized with the cycle of the sun or the moon. The most common type of calendar was the lunisolar calendar. Latin calendarium meant account book, register, the Latin term was adopted in Old French as calendier and from there in Middle English as calender by the 13th century. The course of the Sun and the Moon are the most evident forms of timekeeping, nevertheless, the Roman calendar contained very ancient remnants of a pre-Etruscan 10-month solar year. The first recorded calendars date to the Bronze Age, dependent on the development of writing in the Ancient Near East, a larger number of calendar systems of the Ancient Near East becomes accessible in the Iron Age, based on the Babylonian calendar. This includes the calendar of the Persian Empire, which in turn gave rise to the Zoroastrian calendar as well as the Hebrew calendar, calendars in antiquity were lunisolar, depending on the introduction of intercalary months to align the solar and the lunar years. This was mostly based on observation, but there may have been attempts to model the pattern of intercalation algorithmically. The Roman calendar was reformed by Julius Caesar in 45 BC, the Julian calendar was no longer dependent on the observation of the new moon but simply followed an algorithm of introducing a leap day every four years. This created a dissociation of the month from the lunation. The Islamic calendar is based on the prohibition of intercalation by Muhammad and this resulted in an observationally based lunar calendar that shifts relative to the seasons of the solar year. The first calendar reform of the modern era was the Gregorian calendar. Such ideas are mooted from time to time but have failed to gain traction because of the loss of continuity, massive upheaval in implementation, a full calendar system has a different calendar date for every day. Thus the week cycle is by not a full calendar system. The simplest calendar system just counts time periods from a reference date and this applies for the Julian day or Unix Time
15.
Pre-Columbian era
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For this reason the alternative terms of Precontact Americas, Pre-Colonial Americas or Prehistoric Americas are also in use. In areas of Latin America the term used is Pre-Hispanic. Other civilizations were contemporary with the period and were described in European historical accounts of the time. A few, such as the Maya civilization, had their own written records, because many Christian Europeans of the time viewed such texts as heretical, men like Diego de Landa destroyed many texts in pyres, even while seeking to preserve native histories. Only a few documents have survived in their original languages, while others were transcribed or dictated into Spanish, giving modern historians glimpses of ancient culture. Indigenous American cultures continue to evolve after the pre-Columbian era, many of these peoples and their descendants continue traditional practices, while evolving and adapting new cultural practices and technologies into their lives. Now, the study of pre-Columbian cultures is most often based on scientific. Asian nomads are thought to have entered the Americas via the Bering Land Bridge, now the Bering Strait, genetic evidence found in Amerindians maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA supports the theory of multiple genetic populations migrating from Asia. Over the course of millennia, Paleo-Indians spread throughout North and South America, exactly when the first group of people migrated into the Americas is the subject of much debate. One of the earliest identifiable cultures was the Clovis culture, with sites dating from some 13,000 years ago, however, older sites dating back to 20,000 years ago have been claimed. Some genetic studies estimate the colonization of the Americas dates from between 40,000 and 13,000 years ago, the chronology of migration models is currently divided into two general approaches. The first is the short chronology theory with the first movement beyond Alaska into the New World occurring no earlier than 14, 000–17,000 years ago, followed by successive waves of immigrants. The second belief is the long chronology theory, which proposes that the first group of people entered the hemisphere at an earlier date, possibly 50. In that case, the Eskimo peoples would have arrived separately and at a later date, probably no more than 2,000 years ago. The North American climate was unstable as the ice age receded and it finally stabilized by about 10,000 years ago, climatic conditions were then very similar to todays. Within this timeframe, roughly pertaining to the Archaic Period, numerous archaeological cultures have been identified, the unstable climate led to widespread migration, with early Paleo-Indians soon spreading throughout the Americas, diversifying into many hundreds of culturally distinct tribes. The paleo-indians were hunter-gatherers, likely characterized by small, mobile bands consisting of approximately 20 to 50 members of an extended family and these groups moved from place to place as preferred resources were depleted and new supplies were sought. During much of the Paleo-Indian period, bands are thought to have subsisted primarily through hunting now-extinct giant land animals such as mastodon, Paleo-Indian groups carried a variety of tools
16.
Mexico
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Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in the southern half of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometers, Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area, Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city. Other metropolises include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colonys Mexican War of Independence. The tumultuous post-independence period was characterized by instability and many political changes. The Mexican–American War led to the cession of the extensive northern borderlands, one-third of its territory. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, the dictatorship was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the countrys current political system. Mexico has the fifteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity, the Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, especially the United States. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts. By 2050, Mexico could become the fifth or seventh largest economy. The country is considered both a power and middle power, and is often identified as an emerging global power. Due to its culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas. Mexico is a country, ranking fourth in the world by biodiversity. In 2015 it was the 9th most visited country in the world, Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus and the Pacific Alliance. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica and this became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result. After New Spain won independence from Spain, representatives decided to name the new country after its capital and this was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan
17.
Mesoamerican calendars
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Mesoamerican calendars are the calendrical systems devised and used by the pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica. Besides keeping time, Mesoamerican calendars were used in religious observances and social rituals. The existence of Mesoamerican calendars is known as early as ca.500 BCE, with the essentials already appearing fully defined and these calendars are still used today in the Guatemalan highlands, Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico. Among the various systems in use, two were particularly central and widespread across Mesoamerica. Common to all recorded Mesoamerican cultures, and the most important, was the 260-day calendar, apparently the earliest Mesoamerican calendar to be developed, it was known by a variety of local terms, and its named components and the glyphs used to depict them were similarly culture-specific. However, it is clear that this calendar functioned in essentially the same way across cultures, the second of the major calendars was one representing a 365-day period approximating the tropical year, known sometimes as the vague year. Because it was an approximation, over time the seasons and the tropical year gradually wandered with respect to this calendar. There is little evidence to suggest that the ancient Mesoamericans used any intercalary days to bring their calendar back into alignment. However, there is evidence to show Mesoamericans were aware of this gradual shifting and these two 260- and 365-day calendars could also be synchronised to generate the Calendar Round, a period of 18980 days or approximately 52 years. The completion and observance of this Calendar Round sequence was of significance to a number of Mesoamerican cultures. Most commonly, five such cycles in a modified vigesimal count were used. The use of Mesoamerican calendrics is one of the traits that Paul Kirchoff used in his original formulation to define Mesoamerica as a culture area. Therefore, the use of Mesoamerican calendars is specific to Mesoamerica and is not found outside its boundaries, in the 260-day cycle 20 day names pairs with 13 day numbers, totalling a cycle of 260 days. This cycle was used for purposes to foretell lucky and unlucky days. The date of birth was used to give names to both humans and gods in many Mesoamerican cultures, some cultures used only the calendar name whereas others combined it with a given name. Each day sign was presided over by a god and many had associations with natural phenomena. The exact origin of the 260-day count is not known, one theory is that the calendar came from mathematical operations based on the numbers thirteen and twenty, which were important numbers to the Maya. The numbers multiplied together equal 260, another theory is that the 260-day period came from the length of human pregnancy
18.
Mesoamerica
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It is one of six areas in the world where ancient civilization arose independently, and the second in the Americas along with Norte Chico in present-day northern coastal Peru. As a cultural area, Mesoamerica is defined by a mosaic of cultural traits developed and shared by its indigenous cultures, while Mesoamerican civilization did know of the wheel and basic metallurgy, neither of these technologies became culturally important. Among the earliest complex civilizations was the Olmec culture, which inhabited the Gulf coast of Mexico and extended inland, frequent contact and cultural interchange between the early Olmec and other cultures in Chiapas, Guatemala and Oaxaca laid the basis for the Mesoamerican cultural area. All this was facilitated by considerable regional communications in ancient Mesoamerica and this Formative period saw the spread of distinct religious and symbolic traditions, as well as artistic and architectural complexes. In the subsequent Preclassic period, complex urban polities began to develop among the Maya, with the rise of such as El Mirador, Calakmul and Tikal. Mesoamerica is one of three regions of the world where writing is known to have independently developed. Upon the collapse of Teotihuacán around AD600, competition between several important political centers in central Mexico, such as Xochicalco and Cholula, ensued. During the early period, Central Mexico was dominated by the Toltec culture, Oaxaca by the Mixtec. Towards the end of the period, the Aztecs of Central Mexico built a tributary empire covering most of central Mesoamerica. The distinct Mesoamerican cultural tradition ended with the Spanish conquest in the 16th century, over the next centuries, Mesoamerican indigenous cultures were gradually subjected to Spanish colonial rule. The exact geographic extent of Mesoamerica has varied through time, as the civilization extended North and South from its heartland in southern Mexico, Mesoamerica is recognized as a near-prototypical cultural area, and the term is now fully integrated in the standard terminology of pre-Columbian anthropological studies. Conversely, the sister terms Aridoamerica and Oasisamerica, which refer to northern Mexico, 10° and 22° northern latitude, Mesoamerica possesses a complex combination of ecological systems, topographic zones, and environmental contexts. A main distinction groups these different niches into two categories, the lowlands and the altiplanos, or highlands. In the low-lying regions, sub-tropical and tropical climates are most common, as is true for most of the coastline along the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. The highlands show much more diversity, ranging from dry tropical to cold mountainous climates. The rainfall varies from the dry Oaxaca and north Yucatan to the humid southern Pacific, several distinct sub-regions within Mesoamerica are defined by a convergence of geographic and cultural attributes. These sub-regions are more conceptual than culturally meaningful, and the demarcation of their limits is not rigid, the Maya area, for example, can be divided into two general groups, the lowlands and highlands. The lowlands are further divided into the southern and northern Maya lowlands, the southern Maya lowlands are generally regarded as encompassing northern Guatemala, southern Campeche and Quintana Roo in Mexico, and Belize
19.
Xiuhpohualli
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The Xiuhpohualli Nahuatl pronunciation, ) was a 365-day calendar used by the Aztecs and other pre-Columbian Nahua peoples in central Mexico. It was composed of eighteen 20-day months, called veintenas or metztli with a separate 5 day period at the end of the called the nemontemi. Whatever name that was used for periods in pre-Columbian times is unknown. Through Spanish usage, the 20 day period of the Aztec calendar has become known as a veintena. The days of the year were counted twenty by twenty, the Maya civilization version of the xiuhpohualli is known as the haab, and 20-days period was the uinal. The Maya equivalent of nemontemi is Wayeb, in common with other Mesoamerican cultures the Aztecs also used a separate 260-day calendar. The Maya equivalent of the tonalpohualli is the tzolkin, together, these calendars would coincide once every 52 years, the so-called calendar round, which was initiated by a New Fire ceremony. Aztec years were named for the last day of the 18th month according to the 260-day calendar the tonalpohualli, the first year of the Aztec calendar round was called 2 Acatl and the last 1 Tochtli. Each 20-day period started on a Cipactli day of the tonalpohualli for which a festival was held, the eighteen veintena are listed below. The dates in the chart are from the eyewitnesses, Diego Durán. Each wrote what they learned from Nahua informants, sahagúns date precedes the Duráns observations by several decades and is believed to be more recent to the Aztec surrender to the Spanish. Both are shown to emphasize the fact that the beginning of the Native new year became non-uniform as a result of an absence of the force of Tenochtitlan after the Mexica defeat. For many centuries scholars had tried to reconstruct the Calendar, the latest and more accepted version was proposed by professor Rafael Tena, based on the studies of Sahagún, Durán and Alfonso Caso. His correlation confirms that the year started on February 13th using the old Julian calendar or February 23rd of the current Gregorian calendar. Aztec calendar Tianquiztli Miller, Mary, Karl Taube, the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya
20.
Tonalpohualli
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The tonalpohualli Nahuatl pronunciation, a Nahuatl word meaning count of days, is an Aztec version of the 260-day calendar in use in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. This calendar is neither solar nor lunar, but rather consists of 20, each trecena is ruled by a different deity. The basis of the tonalpohualli, is unknown, the other major Aztec calendar, the xiuhpohualli, is a 365-day year, based on 18 months of 20 days and five nameless days. A xiuhpohualli was designated by the name of its first tonalpohualli day, for example, Hernán Cortés met Moctezuma II on the day 8 Wind in the year 1 Reed. The xiuhpohualli and the tonalpohualli would coincide approximately every 52 years, note that the symbols are arranged counterclockwise around the calendar stone
21.
Maya calendar
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The Maya calendar is a system of calendars used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and in many modern communities in the Guatemalan highlands, Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico. The essentials of the Maya calendar are based upon a system which had been in use throughout the region. It shares many aspects with calendars employed by other earlier Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Zapotec and Olmec, the Maya calendar consists of several cycles or counts of different lengths. The 260-day count is known to scholars as the Tzolkin, or Tzolkin, the Tzolkin was combined with a 365-day vague solar year known as the Haab to form a synchronized cycle lasting for 52 Haab, called the Calendar Round. The Calendar Round is still in use by groups in the Guatemalan highlands. A different calendar was used to longer periods of time. It is a count of days since a mythological starting-point, the GMT correlation was chosen by John Eric Sydney Thompson in 1935 on the basis of earlier correlations by Joseph Goodman in 1905, Juan Martínez Hernández in 1926 and Thompson himself in 1927. By its linear nature, the Long Count was capable of being extended to refer to any date far into the past or future and this calendar involved the use of a positional notation system, in which each position signified an increasing multiple of the number of days. The Maya numeral system was vigesimal, and each unit of a given position represented 20 times the unit of the position which preceded it. An important exception was made for the place value, which instead represented 18 ×20, or 360 days. It should be noted however that the cycles of the Long Count are independent of the solar year, less-prevalent or poorly understood cycles, combinations and calendar progressions were also tracked. An 819-day Count is attested in a few inscriptions, repeating sets of 9 days associated with different groups of deities, animals, and other significant concepts are also known. The tzolkin is the commonly employed by Mayanist researchers for the Maya Sacred Round or 260-day calendar. The word tzolkin is a neologism coined in Yucatec Maya, to mean count of days, the various names of this calendar as used by precolumbian Maya peoples are still debated by scholars. The Aztec calendar equivalent was called Tonalpohualli, in the Nahuatl language, the tzolkin calendar combines twenty day names with the thirteen day numbers to produce 260 unique days. It is used to determine the time of religious and ceremonial events, Each successive day is numbered from 1 up to 13 and then starting again at 1. Separately from this, every day is given a name in sequence from a list of 20 day names, Some systems started the count with 1 Imix, followed by 2 Ik,3 Akbal, etc. up to 13 Ben. The day numbers then start again at 1 while the sequence continues onwards, so the next days in the sequence are 1 Ix,2 Men,3 Kib,4 Kaban,5 Etznab,6 Kawak
22.
Mixtec
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The Mixtec region and the Mixtec peoples are traditionally divided into three groups, two based on their original economic caste and one based on the region they settled. High Mixtecs or mixteco alto were of the class and generally richer. In recent times, a reversal or equalizing has been seen. The third group is Coastal Mixtecs mixteco de la costa whose language is related to that of the Low Mixtecs, they currently inhabit the Pacific slope of Oaxaca. The Mixtec languages form a branch of the Otomanguean language family. In pre-Columbian times, a number of Mixtecan city states competed with each other, like the rest of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, the Mixtec were conquered by the Spanish invaders and their indigenous allies in the 16th century. Pre-Columbia Mixtecs numbered around 1.5 million, today there are approximately 800,000 Mixtec people in Mexico, and there are also large populations in the United States. The term Mixtec comes from the Nahuatl word mixtecah, cloud people, there are many names that the Mixtecs have for naming themselves, ñuù savi, nayívi savi, ñuù davi, nayivi davi. etc. This all denominations can be translated as people of the rain, the historic homeland of Mixtec people is La Mixteca, called in Mixtec language Ñuu Savi, Ñuu Djau, Ñuu Davi, etc. depending on the local variant. They call their language saan davi, daan davi or tuun savi, in pre-Columbian times, the Mixtec were one of the major civilizations of Mesoamerica. Important ancient centres of the Mixtec include the ancient capital of Tilantongo, as well as the sites of Achiutla, Cuilapan, Huajuapan, Mitla, Tlaxiaco, Tututepec, Juxtlahuaca, the Mixtec also made major constructions at the ancient city of Monte Albán. The work of Mixtec artisans who produced work in stone, wood, according to West, the Mixtec of Oaxaca. were the foremost goldsmiths of Mesoamerica, which included the lost-wax casting of gold and its alloys. At the height of the Aztec Empire, many Mixtecs paid tribute to the Aztecs and they put up resistance to Spanish rule until they were subdued by the Spanish and their central Mexican allies led by Pedro de Alvarado. Mixtecs have migrated to parts of both Mexico and the United States. In recent years a large exodus of indigenous peoples from Oaxaca, such as the Zapotec, as of 2011, an estimated 150,000 Mixteco people were living in California, and 25,000 to 30,000 in New York City. Large Mixtec communities exist in the cities of Tijuana, Baja California, San Diego, California and Tucson. Mixtec communities are generally described as trans-national or trans-border because of their ability to maintain, there is considerable documentation in the Mixtec native language for the colonial era, which has been studied as part of the New Philology. There is considerable Mixtec documentation for land issues, but sparse for market activity, long distance trade existed in the prehispanic era and continued in indigenous hands in the early colonial
23.
Codex Magliabechiano
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The Codex Magliabechiano is a pictorial Aztec codex created during the mid-16th century, in the early Spanish colonial period. It is representative of a set of codices known collectively as the Magliabechiano Group, others in the group include the Codex Tudela and the Codex Ixtlilxochitl. The Codex Magliabechiano is primarily a religious document and its 92 pages are almost a glossary of cosmological and religious elements. They depict in turn the 20 day-names of the tonalpohualli the 18 monthly feasts, and they also show various deities, indigenous religious rites, costumes, and cosmological beliefs. The Codex Magliabechiano is based on an earlier unknown codex, which is assumed to have been the prototype for the Magliabechiano Group and it is named after Antonio Magliabechi, a 17th-century Italian manuscript collector, and is held in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence, Italy. It was created on European paper, with drawings and Spanish language text on both sides of each page, some of the images are included below. SVG renderings Full pages of icons Icons Other images Carrasco, David, the Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures, The Civilizations of Mexico and Central America. Complete color facsimiles of the manuscript in the National Central Library in Florence Codex Magliabechiano Codex Magliabecchiano
24.
Nahuatl
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Nahuatl, known historically as Aztec, is a language or group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by an estimated 1.5 million Nahua peoples, all Nahuan languages are indigenous to Mesoamerica. Nahuatl has been spoken in central Mexico since at least the seventh century CE and it was the language of the Aztecs who dominated what is now central Mexico during the Late Postclassic period of Mesoamerican history. This early literary language based on the Tenochtitlan variety has been labeled Classical Nahuatl, today, Nahuan languages are spoken in scattered communities, mostly in rural areas throughout central Mexico and along the coastline. There are considerable differences among varieties, and some are mutually unintelligible, Huasteca Nahuatl, with over one million speakers, is the most-spoken variety. They have all been subject to varying degrees of influence from Spanish, No modern Nahuan languages are identical to Classical Nahuatl, but those spoken in and around the Valley of Mexico are generally more closely related to it than those on the periphery. Nahuan languages exhibit a complex morphology characterized by polysynthesis and agglutination, through a very long period of coexistence with the other indigenous Mesoamerican languages, they have absorbed many influences, coming to form part of the Mesoamerican language area. Many words from Nahuatl have been borrowed into Spanish, and since diffused into hundreds of other languages, most of these loanwords denote things indigenous to central Mexico which the Spanish heard mentioned for the first time by their Nahuatl names. English words of Nahuatl origin include avocado, chayote, chili, chocolate, atlatl, coyote, peyote, axolotl, as a language label, the term Nahuatl encompasses a group of closely related languages or divergent dialects within the Nahuan branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family. The Mexican Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas recognize 30 different individual varieties within the language group labeled Nahuatl, the Ethnologue recognizes 28 varieties with separate ISO codes. Sometimes the label also is used to include the Pipil language of El Salvador, within Mexico the question of whether to consider individual varieties to be languages or dialects of a single language is highly political. This article focuses on describing the history of the group. For details on individual varieties or subgroups, see the individual articles, in the past, the branch of Uto-Aztecan to which Nahuatl belongs has been called Aztecan. From the 1990s onward, the alternative designation Nahuan has been used as a replacement especially in Spanish-language publications. The Nahuan branch of Uto-Aztecan is widely accepted as having two divisions, General Aztec and Pochutec, General Aztec encompasses the Nahuatl and Pipil languages. Pochutec is a scantily attested language, which became extinct in the 20th century, other researchers have argued that Pochutec should be considered a divergent variant of the western periphery. Nahuatl denotes at least Classical Nahuatl together with related languages spoken in Mexico. The inclusion of Pipil into the group is debated, current subclassification of Nahuatl rests on research by Canger, Canger and Lastra de Suárez
25.
Ehecatl
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Ehecatl is a pre-Columbian deity associated with the wind, who features in Aztec mythology and the mythologies of other cultures from the central Mexico region of Mesoamerica. He is most usually interpreted as the aspect of the Feathered Serpent deity as a god of wind, Ehecatl also figures prominently as one of the creator gods and culture heroes in the mythical creation accounts documented for pre-Columbian central Mexican cultures. Since the wind blows in all directions, Ehecatl was associated with all the cardinal directions and his temple was built as a cylinder in order to reduce the air resistance, and was sometimes portrayed with two protruding masks through which the wind blew
26.
Tlaloc
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For the fictional character from the Legends of Dune books, see Titan #Tlaloc. Tlaloc was part of the pantheon of gods in Aztec religion, as supreme god of the rain, Tlaloc was also by extension a god of earthly fertility and of water. Tlaloc is also associated with caves, springs, and mountains and his animal forms include herons and water-dwelling creatures such as amphibians, snails, and possibly sea creatures, particularly shellfish. The Mexican marigold, Tagetes lucida, known to the Aztecs as yauhtli, was another important symbol of the god, the cult of Tlaloc is one of the oldest and most universal in ancient Mexico. An underground Tlaloc shrine has been found at Teotihuacan, in Aztec cosmology, the four corners of the universe are marked by the four Tlalocs which both hold up the sky and function as the frame for the passing of time. Tlaloc was the patron of the Calendar day Mazātl, in Aztec mythology, Tlaloc was the lord of the third sun which was destroyed by fire. Additionally, Tlaloc is thought to be one of the deities of the trecena of 1 Quiahuitl. Trecenas are the thirteen-day periods into which the 260-day calendar is divided, the first day of each trecena dictates the augury, or omen, and the patron deity or deities associated with the trecena. In the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, one of the two shrines on top of the Great Temple was dedicated to Tlaloc, the high priest who was in charge of the Tlaloc shrine was called Quetzalcoatl Tlaloc Tlamacazqui. It was the northernmost side of temple that was dedicated to Tlaloc. In this area, a bowl was kept in which sacrificial hearts placed on certain occasions, here the Aztec ruler came and conducted important ceremonies once a year, and throughout the year pilgrims offered precious stones and figures at the shrine. Many of the offerings found here also related to water and the sea, in Aztec iconography, Tlaloc is usually depicted with goggle eyes and fangs. He is most often coupled with lightning, maize, and water in visual representations and this differs from the Maya version of Tlaloc, however, as the Maya version shows no specific relation to jaguars. The inhabitants of Teotihuacan thought of thunder as the rumblings of the jaguar and it is likely that this god was given these associations because he is also known as the provider among the Aztecs. Offerings dedicated to Tlaloc in Tenochtitlan were known to include several jaguar skulls, jaguars were considered the ultimate sacrificial animal due to their value. Tlalocs impersonators often wore the mask and heron-feather headdress, usually carrying a cornstalk or a symbolic lightning bolt wand. Along with this, Tlaloc is manifested in the form of boulders at shrine-sites, in Coatlinchan, a colossal statue weighing 168 tons was found that was thought to represent Tlaloc. However, one believes that the statue may not have been Tlaloc at all
27.
Trecena
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A trecena is a 13-day period used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican calendars. The 260-day calendar was divided into 20 trecenas, trecena is derived from the Spanish chroniclers and translates to a group of thirteen in the same way that a dozen relates to the number twelve. It is associated with the Aztecs, but is called different names in the calendars of the Maya, Zapotec, Mixtec, many surviving Mesoamerican codices, such as Codex Borbonicus, are divinitory calendars, based on the 260-day year, with each page representing one trecena. Aztec calendar Maya calendar Tonalpohualli Katun
28.
Spanish language
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Spanish —also called Castilian —is a Romance language that originated in the Castile region of Spain, with hundreds of millions of native speakers around the world. It is usually considered the worlds second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese and it is one of the few languages to use inverted question and exclamation marks. Spanish is a part of the Ibero-Romance group of languages, which evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. Beginning in the early 16th century, Spanish was taken to the colonies of the Spanish Empire, most notably to the Americas, as well as territories in Africa, Oceania, around 75% of modern Spanish is derived from Latin. Greek has also contributed substantially to Spanish vocabulary, especially through Latin, Spanish vocabulary has been in contact from an early date with Arabic, having developed during the Al-Andalus era in the Iberian Peninsula. With around 8% of its vocabulary being Arabic in origin, this language is the second most important influence after Latin and it has also been influenced by Basque as well as by neighboring Ibero-Romance languages. It also adopted words from languages such as Gothic language from the Visigoths in which many Spanish names and surnames have a Visigothic origin. Spanish is one of the six languages of the United Nations. It is the language in the world by the number of people who speak it as a mother tongue, after Mandarin Chinese. It is estimated more than 437 million people speak Spanish as a native language. Spanish is the official or national language in Spain, Equatorial Guinea, speakers in the Americas total some 418 million. In the European Union, Spanish is the tongue of 8% of the population. Spanish is the most popular second language learned in the United States, in 2011 it was estimated by the American Community Survey that of the 55 million Hispanic United States residents who are five years of age and over,38 million speak Spanish at home. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses the term castellano to define the language of the whole Spanish State in contrast to las demás lenguas españolas. Article III reads as follows, El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado, las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades Autónomas. Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State, the other Spanish languages as well shall be official in their respective Autonomous Communities. The Spanish Royal Academy, on the hand, currently uses the term español in its publications. Two etymologies for español have been suggested, the Spanish Royal Academy Dictionary derives the term from the Provençal word espaignol, and that in turn from the Medieval Latin word Hispaniolus, from—or pertaining to—Hispania
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Ometeotl
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Ometeotl is a name sometimes used to refer to the pair of Mexica Energies Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl. In the philosophies of the Anawak people, this energy, the creator of all creation, is known as Ometeotl, ome translates as two or dual in the native language of Nahuatl and teotl translates as cosmic energy. The existence of such a concept and its significance is a matter of dispute among scholars of Mesoamerican religion, multiple Nahuatl sources, notably the Florentine Codex, name the highest level of heaven Ōmeyōcān or place of duality. The Historia de los mexicanos por sus pinturas names the inhabitants of the uppermost heaven Tonacatecuhtli, sahagún concurs that these are epithets of in ōmetēuctli in ōmecihuātl, giving as another name of ōmeyōcān in tōnacātēuctli īchān. There is some evidence that these two gods were considered aspects of a single being, as when a singer in Cantares Mexicanos asks where he can go given that ōme ihcac yehhuān Dios. As a result of references, many scholars interpret the rare name ōmeteōtl as Dual God or Lord of the Duality. Other scholars however, notably Richard Haly, argue that there was no Ōmeteōtl, Ōmetēuctli, instead, he claims, the names should be interpreted using the Nahuatl language root omi, rather than ōme. Haly further contends that Omitecuhtli was another name for Tonacatecuhtli and Mictlantecuhtli and he argues that, of the five sources used by León-Portilla to argue in favor of the existence of a single creator god among the Aztecs, none contains a clear reference to a god of duality. First, León-Portilla cites the Franciscan friar Juan de Torquemada, who affirms in his chronicle that the Indians wanted the divine Nature shared by two gods. In his translation of the Cantares Mexicanos León-Portilla introduces a reference to the God of duality where it is not explicitly found in the original text, Haly argues that León-Portilla erroneously unites stands dual with the Spanish loanword Dios to invent this dual deity. Another example given by Leon-Portilla is from the Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca, ay ōmeteōtl ya tēyōcoyani, literally two-god, creator of humanity. Haly, reading the interjection ay as part of a longer ayōmeteōtl, the Codex Ríos has a representation of a god labelled hometeule - iconographic analysis shows the deity hometeule to be identical to Tonacatecuhtli
30.
Quetzalcoatl
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Quetzalcoatl forms part of Mesoamerican literature and is a deity whose name comes from the Nahuatl language and means feathered serpent. The worship of a serpent is first documented in Teotihuacan in the first century BC or first century AD. That period lies within the Late Preclassic to Early Classic period of Mesoamerican chronology, in the Postclassic period, the worship of the feathered serpent deity was based in the primary Mexican religious center of Cholula. It is in period that the deity is known to have been named Quetzalcoatl by his Nahua followers. In the Maya area, he was approximately equivalent to Kukulkan and Gukumatz, Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec god of wind and learning, wears around his neck the wind breastplate ehecailacocozcatl, the spirally voluted wind jewel made of a conch shell. In codex drawings, Quetzalcoatl and Xolotl were both pictured as wearing an ehecailacocozcatl around each of their necks. There has additionally been at least one major cache of offerings with knives and idols adorned with the symbols of more than one god, some of which were adorned with wind jewels. It is a matter of debate among historians to which degree, or whether at all. He was also the god of the Aztec priesthood, of learning. Quetzalcoatl was one of several important gods in the Aztec pantheon, along with the gods Tlaloc, Tezcatlipoca, two other gods represented by the planet Venus are Quetzalcoatls ally Tlaloc who is the god of rain, and Quetzalcoatls twin and psychopomp, who is named Xolotl. Animals thought to represent Quetzalcoatl include resplendent quetzals, rattlesnakes, crows, in his form as Ehecatl he is the wind, and is represented by spider monkeys, ducks, and the wind itself. In his form as the star, Venus, he is also depicted as a harpy eagle. In Mazatec legends, the astrologer deity Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, who is represented by Venus. A feathered serpent deity has been worshiped by many different ethno-political groups in Mesoamerican history, the existence of such worship can be seen through studies of iconography of different Mesoamerican cultures, in which serpent motifs are frequent. This depiction is believed to have made around 900 BC. The first culture to use the symbol of a serpent as an important religious. At temples such as the aptly named Quetzalcoatl temple in the Ciudadela complex, feathered serpents figure prominently, the earliest depictions of the feathered serpent deity were fully zoomorphic, depicting the serpent as an actual snake, but already among the Classic Maya the deity began acquiring human features. Feathered serpent iconography is prominent at all of these sites, Cholula is known to have remained the most important center of worship to Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec/Nahua version of the feathered serpent deity, in the post-classic period
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Itztlacoliuhqui
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In Aztec mythology, Itztlacoliuhqui is the god of frost. He also represents matter in its lifeless state, the Nahuatl name Itztlacoliuhqui is usually translated into English as Curved Obsidian Blade. J. Richard Andrews contends that this is a mistranslation, in the Aztec calendar, Itztlacoliuhqui is the lord of the thirteen days from 1 Lizard to 13 Vulture. The preceding thirteen days are ruled over by Patecatl, and the following thirteen by Tlazolteotl, the creation of this god appeared in the Aztec myth of creation. Tonatiuh, the sun god, demanded obedience and sacrifice from the gods before he will move. Enraged at his arrogance, the god of dawn and the planet Venus, Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, however, the dart misses its mark, and the sun throws his own back at the morning star, piercing the Lord of Dawn through the head. At this moment, Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli is transformed into the god of obsidian stone and coldness, Itztlacoliuhqui is a part of a holy trinity of birth, life, and death. He takes the place of death in this particular trinity, birth is taken by Tezcatlipoca and life by Itzpapalotl, Itztlacoliuhquis female counterpart. Itztlacoliuhquis iconography depicts a straw broom in his hand, symbolizing the function of this wintry death deity as the cleaner of the way for new life to emerge thereafter, februus Deities and personifications of seasons List of death deities Andrews, J. Richard
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Tepeyollotl
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In Aztec mythology, Tepēyōllōtl Nahuatl pronunciation, was the god of earthquakes, echoes and jaguars. He is the god of the Eighth Hour of the Night, in the calendar, Tepeyollotl rules over both the third day, Calli, and the third trecena, 1-Mazatl. He is the eighth Lord of the Night, the word is derived as a compound of the Nahuatl words tepētl, and yōllōtl. Tepeyollotl is usually depicted as cross-eyed holding the white staff with green feathers. Sometimes Tezcatlipoca wore Tepeyollotl for a skin or disguise to trick other gods into not knowing who he was
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Tlazolteotl
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In Aztec mythology, Tlazolteotl is a goddess of purification, steam bath, midwives, filth, and a patroness of adulterers. In Nahuatl, the word tlazolli can refer to vice and diseases, thus, Tlazolteotl was a goddess of filth, vice, and sexual misdeeds. However, she was a goddess as well, who forgave sins and cured diseases caused by misdeeds. Her dual nature is seen in her epithets, Tlaelquani and Tlazolmiquiztli, under the designation of Ixcuinan she was thought to be plural in number and four sisters of different ages by the names Tiacapan, Teicu, Tlaco and Xocotzin. Her son was Centeotl and she was known as Toci. She presides over the 13th trecena of the sacred 260-day year, another son is Yum-Kax, the Maya maize god. Tlazolteotl may have originally been a Huaxtec goddess from the Gulf Coast and it is said that when a man confessed before Tlazolteotl everything was revealed. Confession to Tlazolteotl would be done through a priest but, unlike the Christian practice, according to Aztec belief, it was Tlazolteotl who inspired vicious desires, and who likewise forgave and cleaned away the defilement of sin. She was also thought to cause disease, especially sexually transmitted disease and it was said that Tlazolteotl and her companions would afflict people with disease if they indulged themselves in forbidden love. The uncleanliness was considered both on a physical and moral level, and could be cured by steam bath, a rite of purification, or calling upon Tlazolteteo, the goddesses of love and desires. Tlazolteotl was called Goddess of Dirt and Eater of Ordure, with her nature of goddess of dirt. Her dirt-eating symbolized the ingestion of the sin of those who confessed and she was depicted with ochre colored symbols of divine excrement around her mouth and nose. She had the function of creating harmony again in the community, Tlazolteotl was one of the primary Aztec deities celebrated in the festival of Ochpaniztli that was held September 2–21 to recognize the harvest season. The ceremonies conducted during this timeframe included ritual cleaning, sweeping, and repairing, as well as the casting of corn seed, dances, Centeotl Xochiquetzal Xochipilli Tezcatlipoca Soustelle, J. O. Anderson and Charles Dibble, Monographs of the school of American research, parts Salt Lake City, University of Utah Press Townsend, R. F. The Aztecs Revised Edition, Thames & Hudson Ltd, London
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Huehuecoyotl
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In Aztec mythology, Huehuecóyotl is the auspicious god of music, dance, mischief and song of Pre-Columbian Mexico. The name Very old coyote conveyed positive meanings for the Aztec populace, coyotes were an Aztec symbol of astuteness and worldly-wisdom, pragmatism and male beauty and youthfulness. The prefix huehue which in Nahuatl means very old was attached to gods in Aztec mythology that were revered for their old age, wisdom, philosophical insights, although often appearing in stories as male, Huehuecóyotl can be gender changing, as many of the offspring of Tezcatlipoca. He can be associated with indulgence, male sexuality, good luck, as all Aztec deities, Huehuecóyotl was dualistic in his exercise of good and evil. He was perceived as a god, depictions of his dark side include a coyote appearance with black or yellow feathers. In most depictions of Huehuecóyotl, he is followed by a drummer or groups of humans that appear to be friendly to him. A great party-giver, he also was alleged to foment wars between humans to relieve his boredom and he is a part of the Tezcatlipoca family of the Mexica gods, and has their shapeshifting powers. Those who had indications of evil fates from other gods would sometimes appeal to Huehuecóyotl to mitigate or reverse their fate, Huehuecóyotl shares many characteristics with the trickster Coyote of the North American tribes, including storytelling and choral singing. The fourth day of the thirteen day Mexican week belonged to Huehuecóyotl and he was the only friend to Xolotl who is the god of twins, sickness and deformity and accompanies the dead to Mictlan. Their association is born from the nature of both gods. Karl Young, The Continuum of Life in Codex Borbonicus
35.
Xipe Totec
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Xipe Totec was also known by various other names, including Tlatlauhca, Tlatlauhqui Tezcatlipoca and Youalahuan. The Tlaxcaltecs and the Huexotzincas worshipped a version of the deity under the name of Camaxtli, and the god has been identified with Yopi, the female equivalent of Xipe Totec was the goddess Xilonen-Chicomecoatl. Xipe Totec connected agricultural renewal with warfare and he flayed himself to give food to humanity, symbolic of the way maize seeds lose their outer layer before germination and of snakes shedding their skin. Without his skin, he was depicted as a golden god, Xipe Totec was believed by the Aztecs to be the god that invented war. His insignia included the pointed cap and rattle staff, which was the war attire for the Mexica emperor and he had a temple called Yopico within the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan. Xipe Totec is associated with pimples, inflammation and eye diseases and this deity is of uncertain origin. Xipe Totec was widely worshipped in central Mexico at the time of the Spanish Conquest, representations of the god have been found as far away as Mayapan in the Yucatán Peninsula. The worship of Xipe Totec was common along the Gulf Coast during the Early Postclassic, the deity probably became an important Aztec god as a result of the Aztec conquest of the Gulf Coast in the middle of the fifteenth century. Xipe Totec appears in codices with his right hand upraised and his left hand extending towards the front, Xipe Totec is represented wearing flayed human skin, usually with the flayed skin of the hands falling loose from the wrists. His hands are bent in a position that appears to hold a ceremonial object. His body is painted yellow on one side and tan on the other. His mouth, lips, neck, hands and legs are sometimes painted red, in some cases, some parts of the human skin covering is painted yellowish-gray. The eyes are not visible, the mouth is open and the ears are perforated and he frequently had vertical stripes running down from his forehead to his chin, running across the eyes. He was sometimes depicted with a shield and carrying a container filled with seeds. One Xipe Totec sculpture was carved from rock, and portrays a man standing on a small pedestal. The chest has an incision, made in order to extract the heart of the victim before flaying and it is likely that sculptures of Xipe Totec were ritually dressed in the flayed skin of sacrificial victims and wore sandals. The worshippers of Xipe Totec emerging from the rotting, flayed skin after twenty days symbolised rebirth and the renewal of the seasons, the casting off of the old and the growth of new vegetation. New vegetation was represented by putting on the new skin of a flayed captive because it symbolized the vegetation the earth puts on when the rain comes, the living god lay concealed underneath the superficial veneer of death, ready to burst forth like a germinating seed
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Chalchiuhtlicue
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Chalchiuhtlicue was an Aztec goddess of water, rivers, seas, streams, storms, and baptism, related to another water god, Chalchiuhtlatonal. Reputedly universally revered at the time of the Spanish conquest, she was an important deity figure in the Postclassic Aztec realm of central Mexico, Chalchiuhtlicue was also patroness of childbirth. She was also called Matlalcueitl by the Tlaxcalans, enemies of the Aztecs, chalchiuitlicues name literally means Jade her skirt, but it is usually translated as she of the jade skirt. She was also known as Matlalcueitl Owner of the green skirt and this goddess was the wife of the rain god, Tlaloc. Like other water deities, she was associated with serpents. She was the mother of Tecciztecatl, an Aztec moon god and he was called he who comes from the land of the sea-slug shell because of the similarity between the moon and the slug. Tecciztecatl was portrayed as an old man who carries a white seashell on his back. Most legends of Chalchiuhtlicue say that she was married to the god of rain. In some myths she was his sister, Chalchiuhtlicue helped Tlaloc rule the kingdom of Tlalocan. She built a bridge linking heaven and earth and those who were in Chalchiuhtlicues good graces were allowed to traverse it, the other residents of the earth were turned into fish so they wouldnt drown. Chalchiuhtlicue used the flood as an act of purification of human kind, because of this flood we are believed to live in the Fifth World. In some myths, Chalchiuhtlicue was wife of Xiuhtecuhtli, senior deity of the Aztec pantheon, according to Aztec legend, Chalchiuhtlicue at one point devoured the sun and moon. In 2008, archaeologists led by Saburo Sugiyama found a tomb containing important evidence that may define and examine an active period in Teotihuacán history. Teotihuacán was the largest city in Mesoamerica with over 100,000 residents and it is here that the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon were built. The Pyramid of the Sun was built for Tlaloc and the Pyramid of the Moon built for Chalchiuhtlicue, the tomb that Saburo Sugiyama found was dedicated to Chalchiuhtlicue. It housed a human male sacrifice along with a wolf, jaguar, puma, serpent, bird, skeletons. Among some of these artifacts were large greenstone and obsidian figurines, ceremonial knives, the archaeologists also found frescos of former religions painted in red and green, some referred to agricultural and natural rain cycles. When looking underneath the Pyramid of the Moon, a Chalchiuhtlicue statue was found and has since moved to El Museo Nacional de Antropologia in Mexico City. Also found underneath the pyramid were many tombs containing ornaments of birds, for the Aztecs, Chalchiuhtlicue was the water goddess who was a personification of youthful beauty and ardor
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Itzpapalotl
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She is the mother of Mixcoatl and is particularly associated with the moth Rothschildia orizaba from the family Saturniidae. Some of her associations are birds and fire, itzpapalotls name can either mean obsidian butterfly or clawed butterfly, the latter meaning seems most likely. Its quite possible that clawed butterfly refers to the bat and in some instances Itzpapalotl is depicted with bat wings, however, she can also appear with clear butterfly or eagle attributes. Her wings are obsidian or tecpatl knife tipped and she could appear in the form of a beautiful, seductive woman or terrible goddess with a skeletal head and butterfly wings supplied with stone blades. Although the identity remains inconclusive, the Zapotec deity named Goddess 2J by Alfonso Caso, in many instances Goddess 2J, whose image is found on ceramic urns, is identified with bats. In folklore, bats are called black butterflies. Itzpapalotl is the patron of the day and associated with the stars Cozcuauhtli, the Trecena 1 House is one of the five western trecena dates dedicated to the cihuateteo, or women who had died in childbirth. Not only was Itzpapalotl considered one of the cihuateteo herself, but she was one of the tzitzimime. As the legend goes, Itzpapalotl fell from heaven along with Tzitzimime and several other such as scorpions. Itzpapalotl wore a cloak so that no one could see her. At some times, she was said to have dressed up like a lady of the Mexican Court, caking her face with white powder and her fingers tapered into the claws of a jaguar, and her toes into eagles claws. According to the Manuscript of 1558, section VII, Itzpapalotl was one of two divine 2-headed doe-deers who temporarily transformed themselves into women in order to seduce men, Itzpapalotl approached the two cloud serpents named Xiuhnel and Mimich, who transformed themselves into men. To Xiuhnel, Itzpapalotl said Drink, Xiuhnel, Xiuhnel drank the blood and then immediately lay down with her. Devoured him, tore open his breast, descended into a thorny barrel cactus, fell into it, and the woman fell down after him. Orizaba the Moth Fairy, a villain in Elena of Avalor, was inspired by Itzpapalotl
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Tonatiuh
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In Aztec mythology, Tonatiuh was the sun god. The Aztec people considered him the leader of Tollan, heaven and he was also known as the fifth sun, because the Aztecs believed that he was the sun that took over when the fourth sun was expelled from the sky. Aztec theology held that each sun was a god with its own cosmic era, according to the Aztec creation myth, the god demanded human sacrifice as tribute and without it would refuse to move through the sky. The Aztecs were fascinated by the sun and carefully observed it, many of todays remaining Aztec monuments have structures aligned with the sun. In the Aztec calendar, Tonatiuh is the lord of the thirteen days from 1 Death to 13 Flint, the preceding thirteen days are ruled over by Chalchiuhtlicue, and the following thirteen by Tlaloc. Aztec calendar stone Pedro de Alvarado Windows to The Universe page on Tonatiuh
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Xolotl
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In Aztec mythology, Xolotl was the god with associations to both lightning and death. He was associated with the sunset and would guard the Sun as it traveled through the underworld every night and this deity and a dog were believed to lead the soul on its journey to the underworld. He was commonly depicted as a monstrous dog, Xolotl was the god of fire and lightning. He was also god of twins, monsters, misfortune, sickness, Xolotl is the canine brother and twin of Quetzalcoatl, the pair being sons of the virgin Coatlicue. He is the personification of Venus, the evening star. He is the god of monstrosities who wears the spirally-twisted wind jewel. His job was to protect the sun from the dangers of the underworld, as a double of Quetzalcoatl, he carries his conch-like ehecailacacozcatl or wind jewel. In a sense, this re-creation of life is reacted every night when Xolotl guides the sun through the underworld, in the tonalpohualli, Xolotl rules over day Ollin and over trecena 1-Cozcacuauhtli. His empty eye sockets are explained by the legend says that in Teotihuacan the gods had decided to sacrifice themselves for the newly created sun. Xolotl withdrew from this sacrifice and wept so much his eyes out of their sockets. According to the creation recounted in the Florentine Codex, after the Fifth Sun was initially created, Ehecatl consequently began slaying all other gods to induce the newly created Sun into movement. Xolotl, however, was unwilling to die in order to give movement to the new Sun, Xolotl transformed himself into a young maize plant with two stalks, a doubled maguey plant, and an amphibious animal. Xolotl is thus a master transformer, in the end, Ehecatl nevertheless succeeded in finding and killing Xolotl. In art, Xolotl was typically depicted as a dog-headed man, an incense burner in the form of a skeletal canine depicts Xolotl. As a psychopomp, Xolotl would guide the dead on their journey to Mictlan and his two spirit animal forms are the Xoloitzcuintli dog and the water salamander species known as the Axolotl. Dogs were often victims of sacrifice, so that they could accompany their master on his voyage through Mictlan. Their main duty was to help their owners cross a deep river, Xoloitzcuintli is the official name of the Mexican Hairless Dog, a pre-Columbian canine breed from Mesoamerica dating back to over 3500 years ago. This is one of many dog breeds in the Americas
40.
Chalchiuhtotolin
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In Aztec mythology, Chalchiuhtotolin /tʃɑːltʃjuːtoʊtoʊlin/ was a god of disease and plague. Chalchihuihtotolin, the Jewelled Fowl, Tezcatlipocas nagual, Chalchihuihtotolin is a symbol of powerful sorcery. Tezcatlipoca can tempt humans into self-destruction, but when he takes his form he can also cleanse them of contamination, absolve them of guilt. In the tonalpohualli, Chalchihuihtotolin rules over day Tecpatl and over trecena 1-Atl, the preceding thirteen days are ruled over by Xolotl. Chalchihuihtotolin has an evil side to him. Another depiction of Chalchiuhtotolins evil side includes the sharp silver of his talons and his nahual, of course, is a turkey in which he terrorizes villages, bringing disease and sickness
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Chantico
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In Aztec mythology, Chantico was the goddess of fires in the family hearth and volcanoes. She broke a fast by eating paprika with roasted fish, and was turned into a dog by Tonacatecuhtli as punishment because paprika is a food in such fast breaking customs. She also wears a crown of poisonous cactus spikes, and takes the form of a red serpent, Chantico is the goddess of precious things and is very defensive of her possessions. There are many Aztec legends as to what she does to people who take her things
42.
Xiuhtecuhtli
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In Aztec mythology, Xiuhtecuhtli, was the god of fire, day and heat. He was the lord of volcanoes, the personification of life after death, warmth in cold, light in darkness and he was also named Cuezaltzin and Ixcozauhqui, and is sometimes considered to be the same as Huehueteotl, although Xiuhtecuhtli is usually shown as a young deity. Xiuhtecuhtli-Huehueteotl was one of the oldest and most revered of the indigenous pantheon, the cult of the God of Fire, of the Year, and of Turquoise perhaps began as far back as the middle Preclassic period. Turquoise was the equivalent of fire for Aztec priests. A small fire was kept alive at the sacred center of every Aztec home in honor of Xiuhtecuhtli. The Nahuatl word xihuitl means year as well as turquoise and fire, the Lord of the Year concept came from the Aztec belief that Xiuhtecuhtli was the North Star. In the 260-day ritual calendar, the deity was the patron of the day Atl, Xiuhtecuhtli was also one of the nine Lords of the Night and ruled the first hour of the night, named Cipactli. Scholars have long emphasized that this fire deity also has aquatic qualities, Xiuhtecuhtli dwelt inside an enclosure of turquoise stones, fortifying himself with turquoise bird water. He is the god of fire in relation to the cardinal directions, Xiuhtecuhtli was the patron god of the Aztec emperors, who were regarded as his living embodiment at their enthronement. The deity was one of the patron gods of the pochteca merchant class. Statuettes of the deity from the temple depict a male with his arms crossed. A sacred fire was kept burning in the temples of Xiuhtecuhtli. In gratitude for the gift of fire, the first mouthful of food from each meal was flung into the hearth, xiuhtecuhtlis face is painted with black and red pigment. On his head he has a paper crown painted with different colors, on top of the crown there are sprays of green feathers, like flames from a fire. He has feather tufts to each side, like pendants, toward his ears, on his back he has plumage resembling a dragons head, made of yellow feathers with marine conch shells. He has copper bells tied to the insteps of his feet, in his left hand he holds a shield with five greenstones, called chalchihuites, placed in the form of a cross on a thin gold plate that covered almost all the shield. In his right hand he has a kind of scepter that was a gold plate with a hole in the middle. Xiuhtecuhtli is closely associated with warriors and with rulership, and was considered a solar god
43.
Xochiquetzal
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In pre-Hispanic Maya culture, a similar figure is Goddess I. The name Xōchiquetzal is a compound of xōchitl and quetzalli, in Classical Nahuatl morphology, the first element in a compound modifies the second, and thus the goddess name can literally be taken to mean “flower precious feather”, or ”flower quetzal feather”. Her alternative name, Ichpōchtli, corresponds to a usage of ichpōchtli. By connotation, Xochiquetzal is also representative of human desire, pleasure and she was followed by a retinue consisting of birds and butterflies. Worshippers wore animal and flower masks at a festival, held in her honor every eight years and her twin was Xochipilli and her husband was Tlaloc, until Tezcatlipoca kidnapped her and she was forced to marry him. At one point, she was married to Centeotl and Xiuhtecuhtli. By Mixcoatl, she was the mother of Quetzalcoatl, Ichpōchtli is an alternative form of Xochiquetzal representative of beauty, sex, crafts, fertility, dance, music, singing, weaving, magic, and love spells. Anthropologist Hugo Nutini identifies her with the Virgin of Ocotlan in his article on patron saints in Tlaxcala, ahuiateteo Ahwahnee Xochicuicatl cuecuechtli Xochipilli Description of the deity on Azteccalendar. com
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Mictlantecuhtli
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Mictlantecuhtli, in Aztec mythology, was a god of the dead and the king of Mictlan, the lowest and northernmost section of the underworld. He was one of the gods of the Aztecs and was the most prominent of several gods and goddesses of death. The worship of Mictlantecuhtli sometimes involved ritual cannibalism, with human flesh being consumed in, two life-size clay statues of Mictlantecuhtli were found marking the entrances to the House of Eagles to the north of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan. Mictlantecuhtli was 6 foot tall, and was depicted as a skeleton or a person wearing a toothy skull. Although his head was typically a skull, his eye sockets did contain eyeballs and his headdress was shown decorated with owl feathers and paper banners, and he wore a necklace of human eyeballs, while his earspools were made from human bones. He was not the only Aztec god to be depicted in this fashion, as other deities had skulls for heads or else wore clothing or decorations that incorporated bones. In the Aztec world, skeletal imagery was a symbol of fertility, health and abundance and he was often depicted wearing sandals as a symbol of his high rank as Lord of Mictlan. His arms were frequently depicted raised in a gesture, showing that he was ready to tear apart the dead as they entered his presence. In the Aztec codices Mictlantecuhtli is often depicted with his jaw open to receive the stars that descend into him during the daytime. His wife was Mictecacihuatl, and together they were said to dwell in a house in Mictlan. Mictlantecuhtli was associated with spiders, owls, bats, the hour, and the northern compass direction, known as Mictlampa. Mictlantecuhtli and his wife were the opposites and complements of Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, mictlanteculhtli was the god of the day sign Itzcuintli, one of the 20 such signs recognised in the Aztec calendar, and was regarded as supplying the souls of those who were born on that day. He was seen as the source of souls for those born on the day of the 13-day week and was the fifth of the nine Night Gods of the Aztecs. He was also the secondary Week God for the week of the twenty-week cycle of the calendar, joining the sun god Tonatiuh to symbolise the dichotomy of light. In the Colonial Codex Vaticanus 3738, Mictlantecuhtli is labelled in Spanish as the lord of the underworld, Tzitzimitl, in Aztec mythology, after Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca created the world, they put their creation in order and placed Mictlantecuhtli and his wife, Mictecacihuatl, in the underworld. According to Aztec legend, the twin gods Quetzalcoatl and Xolotl were sent by the gods to steal the bones of the previous generation of gods from Mictlantecuhtli. The god of the sought to block Quetzalcoatls escape with the bones and, although he failed, he forced Quetzalcoatl to drop the bones. The shattered bones were collected by Quetzalcoatl and carried back to the land of the living, when a person died, they were interred with grave goods, which they carried with them on the long and dangerous journey to the underworld
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