Aztecs Fact Cards

The Aztecs were a very artistic civilisation. A lot of their art featured animals or their gods. Every Aztec child went to school. There were separate schools for nobles and commoners. www.teachingideas.co.uk © Images: © ThinkStock The Aztecs never called themselves Aztecs. Instead, they called themselves Mexica. The Aztecs believed in hundreds of gods and goddesses who governed different aspects of their lives. www.teachingideas.co.uk © Images: © ThinkStock The main Aztec language was called N'ahuatl. It was written in pictures and symbols and only highly educated priests and scribes could read and write it. The Aztecs had two calendars. One of these told them when religious festivals were (Tonalpohualli) and the other helped them to keep track of the seasons (Xiuhpohualli). www.teachingideas.co.uk © Images: © ThinkStock The Tonalpohualli calendar had 260 days and the Xiuhpohualli calendar had 365 days! In 1790 a huge circular calendar stone was found in Mexico City. It is 3.7 metres in diameter and weighs 25 tons! www.teachingideas.co.uk © Images: © ThinkStock Aztec slaves were usually treated well and protected by laws. If someone was very poor, they could sell themselves as a slave but people also became slaves as a punishment. Aztec men could have more than one wife. Only the frst wife had a grand wedding ceremony though! www.teachingideas.co.uk © Images: © ThinkStock The Aztecs sacrifced animals and humans. It is estimated that thousands of people were sacrifced every year to pay a blood-debt to the gods. Different gods demanded different types of sacrifce. For example, people sacrifced to the fre god (Huehueteotl) were burned alive. www.teachingideas.co.uk © Images: © ThinkStock The Spanish conquistadors brought smallpox to the Aztec civilization and because they had no immunity to it, the disease spread quickly and killed many people. The Aztecs liked to play a ball game. The object of the game was to get a heavy rubber ball through a stone hoop. www.teachingideas.co.uk © Images: © ThinkStock The Aztecs built their ball courts as part of their religious buildings and sometimes the losers of a game became human sacrifces. In the Aztec creation story, fve gods created the world; Ometecuhtli, Huizilopochtli, Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca and Xipe Totec. www.teachingideas.co.uk © Images: © ThinkStock When the Aztecs conquered the Mayan people, they made the Mayans pay tax in cocoa because the Aztecs could not grow their own. The Aztecs’ staple foods were maize, beans, squashes, fruit and vegetables. They also fshed and hunted with bows and arrows. www.teachingideas.co.uk © Images: © ThinkStock Wealthy Aztecs drank hot chocolate (chocolatl) favoured with chilli peppers and spices and sweetened with honey. Cocoa beans were used as currency by the Aztecs and forgers made counterfeit (fake) ones from wax or dough. www.teachingideas.co.uk © Images: © ThinkStock www.teachingideas.co.uk © Images: © ThinkStock.

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FFP/Celebrate Text.Qdoc
FFP-CelebrateCYMK.doc:FFP/CelebrateCYMK_TXT 12/3/08 10:40 AM Page i CELEBRATE NATIVE AMERICA! An Aztec Book of Days FFP-CelebrateCYMK.doc:FFP/CelebrateCYMK_TXT 12/3/08 10:40 AM Page ii FFP-CelebrateCYMK.doc:FFP/CelebrateCYMK_TXT 12/3/08 10:40 AM Page iii CELEBRATE NATIVE AMERICA! An Aztec Book of Days Five Flower Press Santa Fe, New Mexico BY RICHARD BALTHAZAR FFP-CelebrateCYMK.doc:FFP/CelebrateCYMK_TXT 12/3/08 10:40 AM Page iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Front cover illustration: Sincere gratitude to Ernesto Torres for his incisive and insightful editing, to John HUITZILOPOCHTLI Cole for his artistry in processing and assembling the illustrations, and to the Uni- Hummingbird of the South versity of New Mexico Library for access to editions of several Aztec codices. The Aztec god of war. Publisher’s Cataloging in Publication (Prepared by Quality Books Inc.) Balthazar, Richard. Celebrate native America! : an Aztec book of days / Richard Balthazar. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-9632661-1-X 1. Aztec—Calendar. 2. Indians of Mexico—Calendar. 3. Aztecs—Religion and mythology. 4. Indians of Mexico—Religion and mythology. I. Title. II. Title: Aztec book of days. F1219.76.C35B38 1993 972.018 QB193–20421 ©1993, Richard Balthazar. All rights reserved. Printed in Korea. Design/Typography: John Cole Graphic Designer, Cerrillos, New Mexico U.S.A. Software used to produce this publication: Quark XPress 3.1, Adobe Streamline 2.0 and Adobe Illustrator 3.0. Typeface: Adobe Cochin. Printed on acid free paper. FFP-CelebrateCYMK.doc:FFP/CelebrateCYMK_TXT
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God of the Month: Tlaloc
God of the Month: Tlaloc Tlaloc, lord of celestial waters, lightning flashes and hail, patron of land workers, was one of the oldest and most important deities in the Aztec pantheon. Archaeological evidence indicates that he was worshipped in Mesoamerica before the Aztecs even settled in Mexico's central highlands in the 13th century AD. Ceramics depicting a water deity accompanied by serpentine lightning bolts date back to the 1st Tlaloc shown with a jaguar helm. Codex Vaticanus B. century BC in Veracruz, Eastern Mexico. Tlaloc's antiquity as a god is only rivalled by Xiuhtecuhtli the fire lord (also Huehueteotl, old god) whose appearance in history is marked around the last few centuries BC. Tlaloc's main purpose was to send rain to nourish the growing corn and crops. He was able to delay rains or send forth harmful hail, therefore it was very important for the Aztecs to pray to him, and secure his favour for the following agricultural cycle. Read on and discover how crying children, lepers, drowned people, moun- taintops and caves were all important parts of the symbolism surrounding this powerful ancient god... Starting at the very beginning: Tlaloc in Watery Deaths Tamoanchan. Right at the beginning of the world, before the gods were sent down to live on Earth as mortal beings, they Aztecs who died from one of a list of the fol- lived in Tamoanchan, a paradise created by the divine lowing illnesses or incidents were thought to Tlaloc vase. being Ometeotl for his deity children. be sent to the 'earthly paradise' of Tlalocan.
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Las Representaciones De Xipe Tótec En La Frontera Sur Mesoamericana
Mencos, Elisa 2010 Las representaciones de Xipe Totec en la frontera sur Mesoamericana. En XXIII Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2009 (editado por B. Arroyo, A. Linares y L. Paiz), pp.1259- 1266. Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología, Guatemala (versión digital). 94 LAS REPRESENTACIONES DE XIPE TOTEC EN LA FRONTERA SUR MESOAMERICANA Elisa Mencos Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala PALABRAS CLAVE Iconografía, deidad, Xipe Totec, sacrificio ABSTRACT THE REPRESENTATIONS OF XIPE TOTEC IN THE SOUTHERN MESOAMERICAN BORDER Xipe Tótec is a god with origins in Preclassic times. Its cult expanded throughout the Classic period, and into the Postclassic, where it was lost with the arrival of the conquistadors. It is of special importance, since it is considered the god of spring, fertility, the renewal of vegetation, fertilizing rain, and goldsmiths. It is a multifaceted god, whose images have been found throughout the southern Mesoamerican border, the product of migrations by cultural groups to this area. The present work is focused on the compilation of representations of Xipe Tótec found in the Maya Lowlands, the South Coast of Guatemala, and El Salvador. Durante el Período Postclásico, tanto en el Área Maya como en el resto de Mesoamérica, la frecuencia de sacrificios humanos fue mayor, de acuerdo a la evidencia encontrada en los distintos sitios de esta época. La religión justificó el poder político y las guerras, dando como resultado las guerras rituales para obtener cautivos para el sacrificio, mientras que se continuaba rindiendo culto a diversos dioses. Existió un número superior de divinidades en tiempos pasados, debido a la llegada de los toltecas a la zona.
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Contexts of Offerings and Ritual Maize in the Pictographic Record in Central Mexico
Contexts of offerings and ritual maize in the pictographic record in Central Mexico NATALIA MORAGAS SEGURA and ELENA MAZZETTO he objective of this article is an initial enquiry into the evidence and classification of the Tofferings of maize in Central Mexico from the Classic period to early colonial times. In order to achieve this goal, we will analyse the presence of maize in Central Mexico according to the evidence found in mural paintings and some pictographic codices. Two Mesoamerican cultures will be considered to achieve our analysis: the Teotihuacan and Mexico-Tenochtitlan. Maize was instru- mental in the performance of daily rituals and in the diet of these ancient Mesoamerican cultures and the cereal also had sacred connotations in pre-Hispanic, colonial and contemporary narratives. We suggest this by reading the iconographic and symbolic representations of corn in the form of seeds and pods, or as an ingredient in cooked foods which are represented in the mural paintings of Teotihuacan as well as some codices of the post-Classic Nahua tradition. These methodological enquiries reveal evidence of a cultural continuity in Central Mexico as a contrasting perspective on the archaeological and ethno-historical period. Introductory remarks In 1943, Paul Kirchhoff coined the term ‘Mesoamerica’ as a cultural concept to refer to the development of complex societies (Kirchhoff 1943, Flannery 1968) in the region. This concept defines a variable geographical area but also emphasizes the cultural traits that were shared by a number of different indig enous cultures. The geographical area covers Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica.
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The Museum of the Templo Mayor Photo by José Ignacio González Manterola González José by Photo Ignacio
The Museum of the Templo Mayor The Museum of the Templo Mayor, designed by architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, was created to display more than 7,000 objects found in excavations which took place between 1978 and 1982 at the site of what was once the main temple of the Mexicas. Inaugurated on October 12th, 1987, the museum recreates the duality of life and death, water and war, agriculture and tribute, symbols of Tlaloc and Huitzilopochtli, deities to whom the Main Temple of Tenochtitlan was dedicated. View of the facade of the Eagle Warrior. Photo by Luis Antonio Zavala Antonio Luis by Photo Warrior. Eagle Museum of the Templo Mayor Photo by José Ignacio González Manterola González José by Photo Ignacio Tlaltecuhtli A few steps from the museum foyer lies the imposing relief of Tlaltecuhtli, the Earth goddess of the Mexicas. A monolith weighing almost 12 tons that was originally placed at the foot of the Main Temple was discovered in October 2006 on the property of the Nava Chávez estate, on the corner of Guatemala and Argentina Streets. Thanks to 3 years of arduous and detailed restoration work, the visitor can see the impressive representation of this deity in its original polychrome. Historical Background This room presents a panorama of the research developed about the Mexica culture since the first archeological discoveries in 1790 until the present time. A model at the entrance to the room illustrates the places where the most important pre-Hispanic pieces were found in the main square of Mexico City. ROOM 1 ROOM The visitor can see objects found in the first excavations of the Main Temple from the beginning of the 20th century until the Templo Mayor Project, initiated in 1978 as a result of the discovery of the great circular sculpture of the goddess Coyolxauhqui.
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Aztec Art & Architecture
AZTEC ART By MANUEL AGUILAR-MORENO, Ph.D. PHOTOGRAPHY: FERNANDO GONZÁLEZ Y GONZÁLEZ AND MANUEL AGUILAR-MORENO, Ph.D. DRAWINGS: LLUVIA ARRAS, FONDA PORTALES, ANNELYS PÉREZ AND RICHARD PERRY. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION THE AZTEC ARTISTS AND CRAFTSMEN Tolteca MONUMENTAL STONE SCULPTURE Ocelotl-Cuahxicalli Cuauhtli-Cuauhxicalli Dedication Stone Stone of the Warriors Bench Relief Teocalli of the Sacred War (Temple Stone) The Sun Stone The Stones of Tizoc and Motecuhzoma I Portrait of Motecuhzoma II Spiral Snail Shell (Caracol) Tlaltecuhtli (Earth God) Tlaltecuhtli del Metro (Earth God) Coatlicue Coatlicue of Coxcatlan Cihuacoatl Xiuhtecuhtli-Huitzilopochtli Coyolxauhqui Relief Head of Coyolxauhqui Xochipilli (God of Flowers) Feathered Serpent Xiuhcoatl (Fire Serpent Head) The Early Chacmool in the Tlaloc Shrine Tlaloc-Chacmool Chicomecoatl Huehueteotl Cihuateotl (Deified Woman) Altar of the Planet Venus Altar of Itzpaopalotl (Obsidian Butterfly) Ahuitzotl Box Tepetlacalli (Stone Box) with Figure Drawing Blood and Zacatapayolli Stone Box of Motecuhzoma II Head of an Eagle Warrior Jaguar Warrior Atlantean Warriors Feathered Coyote The Acolman Cross (Colonial Period, 1550) TERRACOTTA SCULPTURE Eagle Warrior Mictlantecuhtli Xipec Totec CERAMICS Vessel with a Mask of Tlaloc Funerary Urn with Image of God Tezcatlipoca Flutes WOOD ART Huehuetl (Vertical Drum) of Malinalco Teponaztli (Horizontal Drum) of Feline Teponaztli (Horizontal Drum) With Effigy of a Warrior Tlaloc FEATHER WORK The Headdress of Motecuhzoma II Feathered Fan Ahuitzotl Shield Chalice Cover Christ the Savior LAPIDARY ARTS Turquoise Mask Double-Headed Serpent Pectoral Sacrificial Knife Knife with an Image of a Face GOLD WORK FIGURES BIBLIOGRAPHY INTRODUCTION A main function of Aztec Art was to express religious and mythical concepts to legitimize the power of the State.
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The Temple of Quetzalcoatl and the Cult of Sacred War at Teotihuacan
CHAPTER 7 TheTempleofQuetzalcoatlandthe Cultof Sacred Warat Teotihuacan The Temple of Quetzalcoatl at Teotihuacan has been the source of startling archaeological discoveries since the early portion of this century. Beginning in 1918, excavations by Manuel Gamio revealed an elaborate and beautifully preserved facade underlying later construc- tion. Although excavations were performed intermittently during the subsequent decades, some of the most important discoveries have occurred during the last several years. Recent investigations have revealed mass dedicatory burials in the foundations of the Temple of Quetzalcoatl (Sugiyama 1989a; Cabrera Castro et al. 1988); at the time of this writing, more than eighty individuals have been discovered interred in the foundations of the pyramid. Sugiyama (1989a) persuasively argues that many of the individuals appear to be either war- riors or dressed in the office of war. The archaeological investigations by Cabrera, Sugiyama, and Cowgill are ongoing, and to comment extensively on the implications of their work would be both premature and presumptuous. Nonetheless, the recent excavations have placed an entirely new light on the significance of the Temple of Quetzalcoatl and its remarkable sculptural format. In this study, I will be concerned with the iconographic meaning of the Temple of Quetzalcoatl facade. In recent work, I noted that the temple facade represents serpents passing through a facade of circular mirrors (Taube 1986, 1988e). Two forms of serpents are present, Quetzalcoatl and an ancestral form of the Xiuhcoatl. In this respect, the Temple of Quetzalcoatl facade may be compared to the Postclassic wind temple of Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl, which also appears To cite this chapter: with mirrors and serpents (Taube 1986).
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I PASS BY, I WALK and DANCE GUIDED by HARMONIOUS COUNTING Mathematical Theory of the Universe Origin and the Order of the C
I PASS BY, I WALK AND DANCE GUIDED BY HARMONIOUS COUNTING Mathematical theory of the Universe origin and the order of the corn account, within the Dance of the Anahuac Nation. Everardo Lara González FOREWORD This work continues the first research initiated in 1987 and published in 1993, under the name Mathematics and Symbolism in the Native dance of Mexico. I consider that, since that year, I was involved in the very first intuition of math within the traditional dance of the Anahuac. This mathematical intuition arose through the teachings generously transmitted by two persons, outstanding in their own specific areas of study: Engineer David Esparza Hidalgo, with regard to the mathematical knowledge of the Nepohualtzintzin, who devoted himself for more than thirty years of his life to the research of the Mesoamerican calculating system, as well as the contribution of the general captain of the Mesoamerican Dance, Ignacio Cortés, founder of the Tenoch group and one of the sponsors of the process for getting away from syncretism within this discipline and who, within his rehearsals of the traditional dance, suggested the presence of numbers within the rhythmic process. Afterwards, Master Cruz Hernández Ibarra, captain of the traditional dance belonging to the Mesa del Santo Niño de Atocha, kindly accepted to give information by means of interviews which were videotaped; in those interviews he teaches us about the symbolisms of certain steps within the different dances. Hernández Ibarra learned directly from Captains Gabriel Osorio and Carmelo Morales, from the zone of Guanajuato. Master Cruz’ trajectory in the traditional dance dates back to 1946 and he considers that nobody is the exclusive owner of knowledge; therefore, this must be spread towards childhood and youth as well.
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404 OLD GODS Tectural Elements Or Could Be Protected Inside Ums, Stone Privileges
404 OLD GODS tectural elements or could be protected inside ums, stone privileges. Among the last was the right to become inebri- boxes, or chambers. Generally, the offerings included ma- ated on pulque, a fermented beverage believed to have a terials of all types, nearly always evoking powerful sym- "cold" nature. The elderly were greatly admired and re- bolism: minerals (rock crystal, quartz, green stones, cin- vered because they had accumulated authority, wisdom, nabar, stalactiteslstalagmites),plants (flowers,seeds, spines), and the capacity for transmitting their knowledge; how- animals, and human beings. They also contained semi- ever, they were also feared for their internal "fire." In fact, precious and finished objects of ceramic, stone, metal, according to sixteenth-century Nahua concepts, the el- shell, bone, textile, wood, and other materials. Orna- derly had received the influences of the fifty-two possible ments, vessels, divine images, and instruments of sacri- combinations of the four year bearers (House, Rabbit, fice and autosacrifice were quite common. Reed, Flint Knife) and their thirteen numerical coeffi- In the majority of cases, the gifts were not deposited cients. As a consequence, their tonalli and teyolia (the ani- haphazardly; rather, the faithful followed a strict ritual mistic entities lodged in the head and the heart) had been order prescribed by liturgy. Therefore, Mesoamerican of- invigorated to the extreme with powerful energy of a hot ferings were true symbolic complexes-that communicated nature. Therefore, the elderly were called chicahuac and a message through principies of spatial distribution. For pipinqui, terms that mean "strong, robust," a clear allu- example, objects were arranged horizontally according to sion to their unusual animistic strength.
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Sociopolitical Aspects of the Aztec Feast of Toxcatl
Power, Performance and Propaganda – Sociopolitical Aspects of the Aztec Feast of Toxcatl zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades eingereicht am Fachbereich Fachbereich Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften der Freien Universität Berlin im 2012 vorgelegt von Izabela Wilkosz Berlin 2014 1 1. Gutachterin: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Ingrid Kummels 2. Gutachter: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Stefan Rinke Tag der Disputation: 28.11.2012 2 Contents CHAPTER 1 .......................................................................................................................................... 7 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 7 1.0. General introduction ................................................................................................................ 7 2.0. Methodology .......................................................................................................................... 11 3.0. Further research questions .................................................................................................... 15 4.0. Tezcatlipoca and Huitzilopochtli............................................................................................. 19 5.0. Ixiptla ...................................................................................................................................... 23 6.0. Terminology ............................................................................................................................ 25 CHAPTER
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Collecting in Corozal: Late Postclassic Maya Effigy Censers from Belize In
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Teotihuacan in Mexico-Tenochtitlan S.Pdf
ThePARIJournal A quarterly publication of the Ancient Cultures Institute Volume XIX, No. 3, Winter 2019 Teotihuacanin Mexico-Tenochtitlan: In This Issue: Recent Discoveries, New Insights LEONARDO LÓPEZ LUJÁN Teotihuacan in Mexico- MICHELLE DE ANDA ROGEL Tenochtitlan: Recent Discoveries, New Insights Recovering Time Tlatelolco, for example, a diverse array of evidence reflecting this phenomenon by Historical sources inform us of the has been discovered since the beginning Leonardo López Luján deep fascination that Late Postclassic of the twentieth century (Batres 1902:16- and Michelle De Anda (1325–1521 CE) Mesoamerican societies ex- 26, 47-49; Guilliem 2012:196; Gussinyer Rogel perienced toward the material vestiges of 1969:35, 1970a:9-11, 1970b; Matos 1965; PAGES 1-26 civilizations that preceded them. Several Navarrete and Crespo 1971; Nicholson documents from Central Mexico report 1971:Figs. 31-32; Olmedo 2002:27-54) and that the Mexica often visited the ruins of especially since 1978, with the initiation Marc Zender Editor Teotihuacan, Xochicalco, and Tula—all of the Templo Mayor Project’s explora- [email protected] mighty capitals that had succumbed ages tions by Mexico’s National Institute of before and were completely abandoned Anthropology and History (INAH). These Joel Skidmore by the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries discoveries in the historic center of Mexico Associate Editor (Benavente 1971:78; Castañeda 1986:235- City have led to numerous publications [email protected] 336; Historia de los mexicanos por sus pinturas that analyze the political, religious, and 1965:60; Sahagún 1950-1982:Book 10:165, artistic motivations for recovering the The PARI Journal Book 11:221, 2000:1:63).
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