![]() ![]() Bottom left: Labret* (a type of plug inserted through a piercing below the lower lip) of a Serpent with articulated tongue, an Aztec gold ornament from the XIII to early XVI century (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). ![]() Top right: Aztec mask of Quetzalcoatl in turquoise mosaic, early XVI century (British Museum, London). (National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City). Top left: An Aztec Warrior’s teponaztli* or slit drum carved in wood, ca. And endowed with an unusual capacity to assimilate foreign cultures, they adapted diverse expressions and artistic techniques into a fantastic artistic synthesis while at the same time they erased cultural boundaries so that, at the arrival of the Spanish conquerors, the fame of Mexico-Tenochtitlán had almost completely eclipsed the memory of other splendid older Mesoamerican cultures. Confident in their glorious destiny, in less than a century they dominated a considerable territory channeling all the wealth of the nearby country towards its beautiful capital. Then, around 1428 by means of an alliance with two riverside towns (the Acolhuas and the Tepanecs mentioned before) known as the Aztec Triple Alliance, the Aztecs began to display their exceptional warrior abilities and their desire to triumph at all costs for they considered themselves as the “people of the Sun”, the people chosen by their tribal god Huitzilopochtli, god of the sun and war. The largest Aztec market of Tenochtitlan was located in the neighboring town of Tlatelolco, here is depicted in a reconstruction at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. With unlimited tenacity, they transformed these marshy islets into one of the most extraordinary cities of pre-Columbian America: Mexico-Tenochtitlan, a unique lacustrine city with ingenious “ chinampas*” or floating islands, different networks of canals and roads, dykes and aqueducts, an unparalleled market (the ancient Tlatelolco’s market), and an imposing ceremonial center, whose main pyramid had a double temple (Templo Mayor, which occupied what is today the Historic Center of Mexico City) built following the style of those of the Chichimeca peoples: one dedicated to Tláloc and one to Huitzilopochtli. The Aztecs settled definitively in 1325 in some islets of what it was the lake Texcoco in the valley of Mexico. Bottom: a snake in the platform of the Templo Mayor ruins. Top right: the Altar of the toads of the Templo Mayor, the toads were symbols of water. Top left: remains of the Templo Mayor in Mexico City’s Zocalo (the city’s main square). The temple was destroyed by the Spanish in 1521 and was replaced by a cathedral. The temple was dedicated to two gods, Huitzilopochtli (god of war) and Tlaloc (god of rain and agriculture) each of which had a shrine at the top of the pyramid with separate staircases. The Templo Mayor was one of the main temples of Tenochtitlan, its architectural style is representative of the late Postclassic period of Mesoamerica. Remains of the Templo Mayor (“Main Temple”) of Tenochtitlan, today downtown Mexico city. The modern use of the word “Aztec” was coined in 1810 by Alexander von Humboldt to refer to all the people related to the Mexica state and the Triple Alliance. These “people from Aztlan” included the Mexica people of Tenochtitlan (nowadays the location of Mexico City) from an island in Lake Texcoco, and its two principal allied city-states, the Acolhuas (also from Texcoco) and the Tepanecs of Tlacopan, who together with the Mexica formed the Aztec Triple Alliance that controlled what is known as the “Aztec Empire”. In the Nahuatl language, “ aztecatl” means “person from Aztlan”. The word “Aztec” is used to refer to several ethnic groups that claim heritage from their mythic place of origin called Aztlan. Tribe of humble and dark nomadic origins, the Aztec people included some ethnic groups of central Mexico who particularly spoke the Nahuatl language and who ruled large extensions of Mesoamerica between the XIV and the XV centuries. Today the ruins of Tenochtitlan are located in Mexico City’s downtown. At its peak, Tenochtitlan was the largest city in the Pre-Columbian Americas. Tenochtitlan was founded on June 20, 1325, and soon became the capital of the Aztec Empire during the XV century, until it was captured by Spanish Conquistadores in 1521. This city-state was located on an island in Lake Texcoco (Valley of Mexico). Aztec Art : Reconstruction of the ceremonial center of Mexico-Tenochtitlan (top) and the Templo Mayor (bottom). ![]()
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