Mexico LIFE IN THE PROVINCES OF THE AZTEC The lives of the Aztec common EMPIRE people were far richer and more complex than the official histories would have us believe By Michael E. Smith COPYRIGHT 2005 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC. Noble's MARKET PLAZA in the 15th-century Aztec town of Cuexcomate compound teemed with vendors, buyers and artisans. Here commoners could trade craft goods made in their homes—mainly textiles—for salt and painted pottery imported from the Valley of Mexico and other Public areas, obsidian blades from regions hundreds of kilometers away, plaza and needles and other bronze objects from western Mexico. Local produce and goods such as woven mats, baskets, corn-grinding 0 25 50 meters tools and tortilla griddles were also displayed and traded. A map of the center of the modern dig site at Cuexcomate (left) indicates the location of the temple pyramid, a noble family’s compound and Commoner's house commoners’ dwellings. The reconstruction below depicts Temple these as well as other buildings and more distant pyramid terraced fields and rural dwellings. North COPYRIGHT 2005 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC. n 1519, when Hernán Cortés led the early Az tec period (1150–1350 buried under later settlements. The few his army into Tenoch tit lán in the C.E.) to nearly one million in the late surviving sites were small, unassuming Valley of Mexico, that Aztec city Aztec period (1350–1519 C.E.). Similar peasant villages. Most archaeologists was the capital of a far-flung tribu- patterns of growth occurred in other working in Mesoamerica bypassed Az- I tary empire. The emperor Motecuhzoma parts of Aztec territory as well. tec sites on their way to the spectacular sat atop a complex social and political The Aztec population explosion jungle ruins of Classic-period Maya hierarchy, and the Aztec populace owed placed a heavy stress on the environ- civilization. Aztec sites were deemed ei- allegiance and tribute to nobles at sev- ment of central Mexico. New villages ther too difficult to excavate or too eral levels. Below the emperor were the and towns sprung up everywhere, and small to bother with. This neglect came kings of subject city-states. The Aztec all available land was cultivated, often to an abrupt end in 1978, when the dominion employed a policy of indirect at considerable labor expense. Wher- Mexican government mounted an ex- rule, and imperial authorities supported ever possible, farmers built dams and tensive excavation of the Great Temple local dynasties so long as they delivered canals to irrigate cropland; they also of Te nochtitlán. Situated in the middle their quarterly tribute payments on built terraced stone walls on hillsides to of Mexico City today, this magnificent time. Officials recorded these payments make new fields; and they drained the structure, and the richness of the offer- in documents such as the Codex Men- swamps outside Tenochtitlán to create ings associated with it, awakened a new doza [see “The Codex Mendoza,” by raised fields (chinampas), one of the interest in Aztec society. Unfortunately, Pa tricia Rieff Anawalt and Frances F. most highly productive agricultural these excavations did not provide much Berdan; Scientific American, June systems of the ancient world. These in- new information about the commoners 1992]. Local nobles, who lived in both tensive farming practic es transformed or life in the provinces. urban and rural areas, were subjects of the central Mexican countryside into a To address these issues, my wife, their city-state king. At the bottom of managed landscape of cultivation. Cynthia Heath-Smith, and I embarked the hierarchy were the commoners, What were the effects of tribute ex- on archaeological projects at rural and whose tribute payments supported all traction, population growth and agri- urban sites in the modern Mexican these nobles. cultural intensification on the Aztec state of Morelos. Located just south of Aztec commoners must have had a common people? Did these processes the Valley of Mexico, this was the first heavy tribute obligation. How were leave people impoverished and power- area outside the valley to be conquered they able to meet their payments? First less, or did they allow commoners to when the Aztecs began their military of all, there were millions of common- prosper and thrive? Few of the avail- expansion in the 1430s. ers, so the tribute burden was spread able written accounts have information We first excavated two rural sites— over a large population. During the on conditions beyond the imperial cap- Capilco and Cuexcomate—southwest 1970s, surveys of patterns of settlement ital, and thus it is up to archaeologists of the modern city of Cuernavaca. Lat- turned up the startling discovery that to study these questions. er we turned to the Az tec city of Yaute- the Aztec period witnessed one of the Until recently, no major archaeolog- pec in north-central Mo relos. By exca- major population explosions of antiq- ical excavations had been carried out at vating the houses of both rich and poor, uity. The number of people in the Val- Aztec sites. Most Aztec cities and towns we have found that provincial society NARASHIMA TOMO ); ley of Mexico, the heartland of the Az- either were destroyed during the Span- was far more complex than previously map tec Empire, increased from 175,000 in ish Conquest or were occupied and then thought. Aztec peasants were not sim- ple farmers whose lives were dominated MICHAEL E. SMITH is a professor in the department of anthropology at the University at by the need to pay tribute to their elite Albany, New York. Born in the Philippine Islands, he received his undergraduate degree from overlords. Commoners living in both Brandeis University and, in 1983, his doctorate in anthropology from the University of Il- rural and urban areas of the provinces : MICHAEL E. SMITH ( linois. Before joining the faculty at the University at Albany, Smith taught at Loyola Univer- made heavy use of a thriving marketing sity in Chi ca go. His research focuses on the archaeology and ethnohistory of postclassic system. They exchanged craft goods THE AUTHOR central Mexico. The excavations described in this article were funded principally by the produced in their homes for a variety of preceding pages preceding National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. foreign goods, and most of this eco- 92 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MYSTERIES OF THE ANCIENT ONES COPYRIGHT 2005 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC. TYPICAL PEASANT HOUSE was small (roughly 15 to 25 square meters) and probably had two doors and no windows. Many activities, such as the ubiquitous weaving, took place in patios between the dwellings. Houses were furnished with mats and baskets; a simple shrine with two or three figurines and an with 21 houses, and Cuexcomate a town was founded and both settlements grew incense burner adorned one wall. The absence with more than 150 structures, includ- rapidly. The residents of these commu- of hearths is puzzling; quite possibly cooking ing temples, storehouses and ritual nities could not support themselves us- was done, as it is in traditional villages today, dumps. Houses at these sites were small ing rainfall agriculture alone, so they in a lean-to against the back of the house. (with a mean area of 15 square meters) had to intensify their agricultural prac- and built of adobe brick walls supported tices. Farmers built terraces on slopes nomic activity was accomplished out- on stone foundations. We excavated test and in ravines to create additional, side imperial control and ignored by pits in 29 houses selected at random. We more productive plots in which they early writers on the Aztecs. then chose 10 of these for more complete grew maize, beans and cotton. Houses clearing of architecture and associated at these sites were not packed very Peasant Life deposits. These excavations allowed us closely together, and open areas were archaeologists have found that to refine the Aztec chronology by split- probably devoted to farming. excavations of houses and associated ting the late Aztec period into two sub- Cotton was an important crop in remains often provide the best data on periods—late Aztec A (1350–1440) and this part of the Aztec Empire, and ancient social and economic patterns. late Aztec B (1440–1519)—to yield a household production of cotton textiles Capilco and Cuexcomate were good ex- more detailed analysis. soon became the major craft. Every ex- amples because traces of house walls Capilco was founded by a few peas- cavated house yielded large quantities were visible above the ground, and we ant families in the early Aztec period. of ceramic artifacts used in the hand did not have to waste time trying to find The population explosion began in the spinning of cotton. Beadlike spindle TOMO NARASHIMA NARASHIMA TOMO buried structures. Capilco was a village late Aztec A period, when Cuexcomate whorls provided weights for the twirl- www.sciam.com Updated from the September 1997 issue 93 COPYRIGHT 2005 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC. ing wooden spindle, and small bowls many decorated foreign pots. About 10 the inhabitants of these rural sites to the with tripod supports were designed to percent of all ceramic vessels excavated rest of the Aztec Empire and beyond. control the spindle. Documentary from these sites had been imported These excavations also revealed sources state that all Aztec women, from the Valley of Mexico and other something of the non economic life of from the lowest slave to the highest no- areas. These vessels did not have any Aztec peasants. For example, every blewoman, spun and wove cloth. Cot- functional superiority to the wares house contained a variety of incense ton textiles had two economic func- made locally, and people must have burners and small ceramic figurines in tions beyond use as clothing.