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Terms / Concepts

• forensic anthropologists

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Notes

• ritual war
  
  
  • the skilled Aztec warrior was judged by his ability to take captives unmarked and in perfect condition
    
    
  • 1487 -- thousands of prisoners were sacrificed at the inauguration of a new church on Lake Texcoco
    
    
    • continued for four days
      
      
  • by 1502 "the bloody empire extended from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean"
    
    
  • the maintenance of their empire required no garrisons or occupation forces
    
    
  • The Spanish made war in a new way
    
    
    • they did not take prisoners
    • they were not interested in prisoners for sacrifice, just elimination
    • They joined forces with the enemies of the Aztec
      • esp. the Tlaxcalans
        
        

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• tzompantli (Aztec skull rack)
  
  
  • skulls in Mesoamerica generally represent death and the promise of resurrection

  

  Tzompantli, or skull rack

  
  
  

• in 1519 the Indian population = 20,000,000
  
  
  • by 1608 it had declined to about 1,000,000
    
    
• disease brought in by the Spanish eventually killed many more than war
  
  
• The Aztec calendar predicted the return of a fair-skinned God at year "One Reed" (1519)
  
  

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• The Aztec had more than 1000 gods
  
  
  • they represented birth, death and rebirth
  • many were decorated with skulls and snakes
  • earthquakes and volcanoes reminded the Aztecs that the gods controlled this world
  • every night the earth goddess devoured the sun
  • only human blood offering would bring it back


Aztec goddess



• religious syncretism
  
  

• Dia de los Muertos
  • the skull is not a mecabre representation, but a fact of life, representing death and the promise of resurrection

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Cultures

• Aztecs
  
  
  • capital = Tenochtitlán



Tenochtitlán

• Toltecs
  
  

• capital = Tula, Hidalgo

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Sites / Locations

• Teotihuacán (Teotihuacanos)
  
  
  • was abandoned more than 500 years before the arrival of the Aztecs
    
    
  • Aztec mythology was built around this mysterious city
    
    
• Tula, Hidalgo (Toltecs)
  
  
• Lake Texcoco
  
  
• Tenochtitlán (Aztec)
  
  
  • "The Venice of the Americas"
    
    
  • in the early 1500s = 300,000 people
    
    
    • four times the size of London of Henry VIII
      
      
  • "One of the most spectacular cities on earth."
    
    
    
Zultepec

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Individuals

• Mochtezuma II
• Quetzalcoatl
• Hernán Cortez

Cortés attacking Tenochtitlán

Map of the Aztec Empire

Cortes' Route into Mexico
(larger map)

Cortés attacking Tenochtitlán

Aztec Sunstone Calendar

Aztec "Calendar"

Aztec legendary eagle