Aztecs: Culture, History & Discoveries

[ramonmercado]

An altar, funeral pot and incense burnes found buried, hidden from the Conquistadors.

Archaeologists in Mexico have uncovered an altar dating back to the 16th Century near Plaza Garibaldi, the square in Mexico City famed for its mariachi musicians.

The altar dates back to the time after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán. Experts say it was located in a courtyard inside a home of an Aztec family, who would have used it to honour their dead.
It contains a pot with human ashes.

IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS Image caption, The pot containing human ashes was one of the items found at the altar

The original discovery was made in August but only announced by Mexico's National Institute for Anthropology and History (Inah) on Tuesday, after archaeologists had spent three months studying the site.

The altar dates is thought to date back to the period between 1521, when Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés defeated the Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlán, and 1610. The battle of Tenochtitlán is seen as the beginning of the end of the Aztec empire, which in its heyday ruled over the central Mexican highlands.

The archaeologists behind the discovery say that the inhabitants of the house would have held a ritual "to bear witness to the ending of a cycle of their lives and of their civilisation" at the altar.

IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS Image caption, Anthropomorphic figures were also among the items uncovered

Archaeologist Mara Becerra says that the altar was found four metres (13ft) below ground, underneath several layers of adobe mud. According to Ms Becerra, the inhabitants of the house wanted to hide it from the prying eyes of the Spanish conquistadors. She believes they were Mexica, the indigenous people who lived in the Valley of Mexico and who founded the Aztec empire. The altar contained a pot with human ashes and 13 intricately decorated incense burners.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-59489046

 

[SimonBurchell]

An altar, funeral pot and incense burnes found buried, hidden from the Conquistadors.

Archaeologists in Mexico have uncovered an altar dating back to the 16th Century near Plaza Garibaldi, the square in Mexico City famed for its mariachi musicians.

The altar dates back to the time after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán. Experts say it was located in a courtyard inside a home of an Aztec family, who would have used it to honour their dead.
It contains a pot with human ashes.

IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS Image caption, The pot containing human ashes was one of the items found at the altar

The original discovery was made in August but only announced by Mexico's National Institute for Anthropology and History (Inah) on Tuesday, after archaeologists had spent three months studying the site.

The altar dates is thought to date back to the period between 1521, when Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés defeated the Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlán, and 1610. The battle of Tenochtitlán is seen as the beginning of the end of the Aztec empire, which in its heyday ruled over the central Mexican highlands.

The archaeologists behind the discovery say that the inhabitants of the house would have held a ritual "to bear witness to the ending of a cycle of their lives and of their civilisation" at the altar.

IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS Image caption, Anthropomorphic figures were also among the items uncovered

Archaeologist Mara Becerra says that the altar was found four metres (13ft) below ground, underneath several layers of adobe mud. According to Ms Becerra, the inhabitants of the house wanted to hide it from the prying eyes of the Spanish conquistadors. She believes they were Mexica, the indigenous people who lived in the Valley of Mexico and who founded the Aztec empire. The altar contained a pot with human ashes and 13 intricately decorated incense burners.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-59489046

OK, I'm being a little picky, but not Teotihuacan - perhaps it would be better off at Mexican & Central American Archaeology Finds?

 

[ramonmercado]

OK, I'm being a little picky, but not Teotihuacan - perhaps it would be better off at Mexican & Central American Archaeology Finds?

There's specific Thread about Teotihuacan so imho it belongs there. There are specific Threads about quite a few archaeological sites and artifacts.

 

[SimonBurchell]

My point is that the discovery is with regard to Tenochtitlan, not Teotihuacan...

 

[ramonmercado]

My point is that the discovery is with regard to Tenochtitlan, not Teotihuacan...

Aaaarrrggghhh! Shift it to the silly mistakes thread!

Mea culpa. Time to don my spectacles.

 

[EnolaGaia]

My point is that the discovery is with regard to Tenochtitlan, not Teotihuacan...

Right - Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztecs. Today's posts have now been moved into the Aztecs thread.

 

[EnolaGaia]

Recently reported research has finally determined how the Aztecs used astronomical (sun-related) observations to accurately track the seasons and manage their productive agricultural activities.

Aztec Science: Precise Solar Observations Fed Millions in Ancient Mexico

Without clocks or modern tools, ancient Mexicans watched the sun to maintain a farming calendar that precisely tracked seasons and even adjusted for leap years.

Before the Spanish arrival in 1519, the Basin of Mexico’s agricultural system fed a population that was extraordinarily large for the time. Whereas Seville, the largest urban center in Spain, had a population of fewer than 50,000, the Basin, now known as Mexico City, was home to as many as 3 million people.

To feed so many people in a region with a dry spring and summer monsoons required advanced understanding of when seasonal variations in weather would arrive. Planting too early, or too late, could have proved disastrous. The failure of any calendar to adjust for leap-year fluctuations could also have led to crop failure.

Though colonial chroniclers documented the use of a calendar, it was not previously understood how the Mexica, or Aztecs, were able to achieve such accuracy. New University of California, Riverside (UCR) research demonstrates how they did it. They used the mountains of the Basin as a solar observatory, keeping track of the sunrise against the peaks of the Sierra Nevada mountains. ...

“We concluded they must have stood at a single spot, looking eastwards from one day to another, to tell the time of year by watching the rising sun,” said Exequiel Ezcurra, distinguished UCR professor of ecology who led the research.

To find that spot, the researchers studied Mexica manuscripts. These ancient texts referred to Mount Tlaloc, which lies east of the Basin. The research team explored the high mountains around the Basin and a temple at the mountain’s summit. Using astronomical computer models, they confirmed that a long causeway structure at the temple aligns with the rising sun on Feb. 24, the first day of the Aztec new year.

“Our hypothesis is that they used the whole Valley of Mexico. Their working instrument was the Basin itself. When the sun rose at a landmark point behind the Sierras, they knew it was time to start planting,” Ezcurra said. ...

FULL STORY: https://scitechdaily.com/aztec-science-precise-solar-observations-fed-millions-in-ancient-mexico/

PUBLISHED RESEARCH REPORT: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2215615119

 

[ramonmercado]

What did the snake head symbolise?

Earthquake reveals giant Aztec snakehead beneath Mexico City university​

Researchers are conserving a rare snakehead from the Aztecs that still retains its painted colors from hundreds of years ago.

A magnitude-7.6 earthquake revealed a giant Aztec snake sculpture in Mexico City. (Image credit: LANCIC;UNAM)

An earthquake last year revealed a big surprise beneath a law school in modern-day Mexico City: a giant, colorful snakehead from the Aztec Empire.

The snakehead dates back more than 500 years, to when the Aztecs controlled the area, which at the time was part of the flourishing capital of Tenochtitlan. The sculpture was discovered after a magnitude-7.6 earthquake struck Mexico City on Sept. 19, 2022; the seismic event caused damage and changes in the topography, revealing the snakehead beneath a building that was part of a law school at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said in a Spanish-language statement.
The Aztecs built temples and pyramids and worshipped a number of deities, including Quetzalcoatl, who was often depicted as a snake. However, it's unclear if this sculpture depicts him, the archaeologists said.


The sculpted snake is 5.9 feet (1.8 meters) long, 2.8 feet (0.85 m) wide and 3.3 feet (1 m) high, and it weighs about 1.3 tons (1.2 metric tons), the INAH said. Several colors — including red, blue, black and white — are preserved on the sculpture.

The more than 500-year-old snake has painted scales. (Image credit: LANCIC;UNAM)

Color was preserved on about 80% of the sculpture's surface. To keep it preserved, an INAH team lifted the snakehead out of the ground with a crane and constructed a humidity chamber around the sculpture. This chamber allows the sculpture to lose humidity gradually, with its color being preserved, María Barajas Rocha, a conservationist with the INAH who worked extensively on the sculpture, said in the statement.

https://www.livescience.com/archaeo...ztec-snakehead-beneath-mexico-city-university

 

[ramonmercado]

Interesting codices document Aztec culture and history.

Centuries-old codices from what is now Mexico hold a wealth of knowledge about the Aztecs in their native language, including details about the founding of their capital, their conquests and their fall to the Spanish, according to Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).

The Mexican government recently bought three illustrated codices, known as the Codices of San Andrés Tetepilco, from a private family that had passed down the Aztec documents for generations, the Spanish newspaper El País reported.

The Aztecs ruled over a large area of Mexico during the 15th and 16th centuries. Their capital was at Tenochtitlán, in what is now Mexico City. Between 1519 and 1521, a Spanish force conquered the Aztecs and established Spanish rule over the area. Codices written in the Indigenous Nahuatl language and Spanish continued to be produced into the early 17th century.

One of the newly purchased codices describes the founding of Tenochtitlán around 1300 and the lords who ruled it in pre-Hispanic times, INAH representatives said in a translated statement. The codex also describes the Aztec conquest of the city of Tetepilco around 1440 and how that city's ruler swore vassalage to the Aztecs. It even details the arrival of the Spanish in 1519 and their rule up to the year 1611, the statement said. The Spanish continued to rule Mexico until 1821.

The centuries-old codices still contain traces of color, largely from plants, charcoal, ocher and indigo. (Image credit: ©SC, INAH, BNAH)
The codices were owned by a Mexico City family, who requested anonymity. When scientists at Metropolitan Autonomous University in Mexico City examined the codices, they found that two of the sheets were written on amate, or bark paper, and that the codices' inks were made from plants, charcoal and indigo, creating the colors red, yellow ochre, black and blue. After the documents' authenticity was confirmed, the government negotiated with the family and purchased the three codices for 9.5 million pesos (about $570,000), the statement said. ...

https://www.livescience.com/archaeo...eir-capital-conquests-and-fall-to-the-spanish