Fig. 58. Pottery Plates from Cholula with Decorations in Several Colors. The pottery of Cholula ranks high in design and color.
Fig. 58. Pottery Plates from Cholula with Decorations in Several Colors. The pottery of Cholula ranks high in design and color.
(a) Partial View of the Great Pyramid at Cholula which rises from the Level Plain in Three Broad Terraces. A Spanish church has been built upon the top of this pyramid and a roadway leads up the badly eroded mound.
(a) Partial View of the Great Pyramid at Cholula which rises from the Level Plain in Three Broad Terraces. A Spanish church has been built upon the top of this pyramid and a roadway leads up the badly eroded mound.
(b) A View at La Quemada. Cylindrical columns built up of slabs of stone supported the roofs of some of the structures. The use of columns was characteristic of late Toltecan times.
(b) A View at La Quemada. Cylindrical columns built up of slabs of stone supported the roofs of some of the structures. The use of columns was characteristic of late Toltecan times.
Unlike the other Toltecan cities Cholula was still inhabited and a place of religions importance when Cortez arrived in Mexico. But the figurines and pottery vessels that are found at this site belong for the most part to an epoch earlier than that of the Aztecs. Quetzalcoatl was the patron deity of Cholula and in the decorative art the serpent is finely conventionalized. A pottery shape frequently met with at Cholula is the flat plate bearing polychrome designs.
An important culture area is located upon the northwestern limits of the area of high culture in ancient Mexico. The best known and most accessible ruin is La Quemada, “The Burned” which is situated a day’s ride from the city of Zacatecas. This site was found in a deserted and ruinous condition by the Spaniards in 1535 and there is little doubt that it had been abandoned several centuries previous. La Quemada has been popularly associated with Chicomoztoc, “The Seven Caves,” a place famous in Aztecan mythology, but this association rests upon no scientific basis. It is simply an unauthoritative attempt to invest a forgotten city with a legendary interest. Chicomoztoc, where the Aztecs came out of the underworld might be compared with our own Garden of Eden and its exact location is just as much an eternal riddle. La Quemada is a terraced hill resembling Monte Alban and Xochicalco. The retaining walls of terraces and pyramids as well as the walls of buildings are still well preserved. These walls consist of slabs of stone set in a mortar of red earth. Perhaps the most noteworthy structure is a wide hall containing sevencolumns built of slabs of stone in the same manner as the walls. All in all the architectural types as well as the observed contacts in art point to a late epoch of the Toltecan period. Other ruins of the same character as La Quemada occur at Chalchihuites on the frontier of Durango and at Totoate, etc., in northern Jalisco.
The most important artistic product from this northwestern region is a peculiar kind of pottery which might be described as cloisonné or encaustic ware. Examination shows that this pottery was first burned in the usual way so that it acquired a red or orange color. Then the surface was covered with a layer of greenish or blackish pigment to the depth of perhaps a sixteenth of an inch. A large part of this surface layer was then carefully cut away with a sharp blade in such a way that the remaining portions outlined certain geometric and realistic figures. The sunken spaces, from which the material had just been removed, were then filled in flush with red, yellow, white, and green pigments. The designs on this class of pottery are thus mosaics in which the different colors are separated by narrow lines of a neutral tint. The geometric motives show a marked use of the terrace, the fret, and the scroll. The realistic subjects are presented in a highly conventionalized manner and have few stylistic similarities to the figures from the Valley of Mexico. Representative collections of this ware from Totoate, already referred to, and from Estanzuela, a hacienda near Guadalajara, are on exhibition in the American Museum of Natural History.
Cloisonné pottery of a somewhat different style sometimes occurs at Toltecan sites in the Valley of Mexico, such as Tula, Teotihuacan, and Atzcapotzalco,but fresco pottery which resembles it at first glance is more characteristic. It appears that the cloisonné process was taken over from the embellishment of gourd dishes in connection with which it still exists over a large part of Mexico and Central America.
Fig. 59. Vessel with “Cloisonné” Decoration in Heavy Pigments. This example comes from a mound at Atzcapotzalco and dates from late Toltecan times. Trade pieces of this ware have been found at Pueblo Bonito in New Mexico and Chichen Itza in Yucatan.
Fig. 59. Vessel with “Cloisonné” Decoration in Heavy Pigments. This example comes from a mound at Atzcapotzalco and dates from late Toltecan times. Trade pieces of this ware have been found at Pueblo Bonito in New Mexico and Chichen Itza in Yucatan.
Fig. 60. The Turtle Motive as developed in Negative Painting with Wax at Totoate, Jalisco.
Fig. 60. The Turtle Motive as developed in Negative Painting with Wax at Totoate, Jalisco.
Another common method of ceramic decoration taken over was that of negative painting similar to the process used with cloth in making batik designs. This process still exists in Central America as regards gourd dishes although discontinued on pottery. Negative painting appears to be an ancient process of exceedingly wide distribution. It is especially common in Jalisco and Michoacan, the Valley of Toluca, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia, and sometimes occurs in Yucatan and Peru. The design was painted in wax or some other soluble or combustible paint, then the entire surface was covered with a permanent paint. When the pot was burned the design came out in the natural color of the clay against a black, or sometimes a red field. The design was often made two layers deep by applying simple masses of red over the sizing before the impermanent paint of the design proper was put on. In the northwestern region of central Mexico now under consideration the negative painting technique is associated with conventionalized designs representing turtles (Fig. 60). Another ware with designs in white is concerned with derivatives of the turtle motive. Then there are the remarkable copper bells in the form of turtles made by coiling, that have been found in nearby Michoacan.
Stone Slab from an Ancient Sepulcher in the State of Guerrero. The face at the top apparently represents a monkey, but serpents have been introduced between the eyes and the eyebrows. The other highly conventionalized faces are probably those of serpents.
Stone Slab from an Ancient Sepulcher in the State of Guerrero. The face at the top apparently represents a monkey, but serpents have been introduced between the eyes and the eyebrows. The other highly conventionalized faces are probably those of serpents.
Fig. 61. Jaguar Head on Disk-Shaped Stone. Salvador.
Fig. 61. Jaguar Head on Disk-Shaped Stone. Salvador.
It is difficult to place time limits for the artistic styles that once existed in this northwestern region. The archaic culture seems to have lasted longer here than farther south; next followed the northern flow of Toltecan culture which later receded and finally came a rather thin layer of Chichimecan or Aztecan culture. We may tentatively conclude that the forgotten cities of the Zacatecan subculture flourished after 1000 A. D. The question should be settled because of its connection with the dating of Pueblo ruins farther north.
The zonal distribution of rain forests in southern Mexico and Central America is especially important, as has been pointed out, in connection with the spread of Mayan-type civilizations. The Olmeca and Totonacs who were among the first to feel the cultural effects of theMayan ascendency occupied lands of heavy precipitation. The Zapotecan and Mixtecan areas were partly wet and partly dry. The Toltecs seem originally to have been desert dwellers but they extended their conquests over tribes living in the humid tropics and made much of cacao, rubber, copal, etc., obtained by trade and tribute from such subject peoples.
Along the Pacific coast below the Isthmus of Tehuantepec lies a rain belt containing ruined cities which flourished between 1000 to 1300 A. D., or on the historical level of the Toltec expansion. The sculptural art at these sites resembles the works attributed to the Olmecs in Tabasco and Vera Cruz on the one hand and to the works of the Chorotega of lower Central America on the other. One such ruin is Quiengola near the modern city of Tehuantepec, another occupies a ridge above Tonalá and there is a cluster of sites in the environs of Santa Lucia Cozumalhualpa in southern Guatemala, extending into western Salvador.
Whether or not the sculptures of Santa Lucia Cozumalhualpa are to be credited to the Pipil, a Mexican tribe, is far from certain, but human sacrifice and other Toltec religious ideas are plainly presented. We find here elaborate speech scrolls comparable to those of Xochicalco and the Toltec work at Chichen Itza. Also there is evidence of the ceremonial importance of cacao in this region, the god of this economic plant being pictured in the form of a jaguar.
A peculiar type of pottery centered in southern Guatemala and western Salvador from which region it was distributed far and wide by trade. Although a few examples of this ware are found at Copan itis clear from the designs that most of the pieces belong to a time subsequent to the abandonment of this Mayan city. The ware has a semi-glaze which is the result of lead in the clay. Because paint could not be applied to this ware, the esthetic idea of shape was allowed to develop itself without hindrance. This pottery is now referred to as plumbate ware.
Passing south and east from the Mayan area we find remains of a rich and in many ways peculiar art, consisting mostly of pottery and stone carvings, to which the name Chorotegan is applied. This name means Driven-out People. It was first used in connection with several tribes of the Chiapanec-Otomi stock dispossessed of a fertile area about Lake Nicaragua by the intrusive Mexican-speaking Nicarao. The Chorotega were not, however, totally dispossessed since they continued to hold the Peninsula of Nicoya in Costa Rica as well as other pieces of territory. In an archæological sense the name Chorotegan fittingly can be extended to eastern parts of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras, since the inhabitants of this stretch of land were also dispossessed some time before the coming of the Spaniards. Or perhaps they voluntarily migrated northward towards the end of the Toltec rule and are to be identified with the Otomi, Tlappaneca, and Mazateca of southern and central Mexico. The Tlappaneca and Otomi are definitely associated with introduction into Mexico of the peculiar cult of Xipe, God of the Flayed. This cult was clearly of southern origin and indeed still survived at Nicaragua at the time of the Spanish Conquest. The Mazateca werefound in transit by Cortez, in the southern part of the Peninsula of Yucatan, living in palisaded villages. Similar palisaded villages once flourished in Honduras. The wild South American tribes who replaced the eastern Chorotega exhibit a cultural non-conformity with the archæological remains of the region they now occupy.
Fig. 62. Front View and Profile View Serpent Heads in Chorotegan Art. Although derived from Mayan models they have undergone great changes and have become highly conventionalized.
Fig. 62. Front View and Profile View Serpent Heads in Chorotegan Art. Although derived from Mayan models they have undergone great changes and have become highly conventionalized.
Close analysis shows that many of the decorative motives in Chorotegan art were developed from those of the Mayas. The serpent and the monkey furnish the majority of the designs that are surely Mayan but each of these is carried so far away from the original that only an expert can see the connections. The arms and legs of the monkeys are lengthened and given an extra number of jointswhile the heads degenerate into circles. The tongues of the serpents are elongated and bent downward at the end. All the open spaces are treated with scallops or fringes of short lines.
Fig. 63. Jaguar Design with Mayan Affinities associated with Figurines that still retain Archaic Characters. Costa Rica.
Fig. 63. Jaguar Design with Mayan Affinities associated with Figurines that still retain Archaic Characters. Costa Rica.
Fig. 64. Jaguars from painted Nicoyan Vases.
Fig. 64. Jaguars from painted Nicoyan Vases.
There is also in Chorotegan art a crocodilian motive that may be peculiar to the Isthmian region although it has Mayan affinities. The jaguar is also important in this ancient art. Among the most interesting vases are those that have a modeled head projecting from one side (jaguar, monkey, or bird) and two of the three legs of the vessel modified into animal legs. On these elaborate vessels there are bands of painted decoration mostly concerned with the crocodile.
(a) Finely Carved Ceremonial Slab found at Mercedes, Costa Rica. The three large figures on the end as well as the smaller ones on the bottom represent crocodiles. Keith Collection.
(a) Finely Carved Ceremonial Slab found at Mercedes, Costa Rica. The three large figures on the end as well as the smaller ones on the bottom represent crocodiles. Keith Collection.
(b) Stone Figure from Costa Rica. This sculpture in lava rock is one of the finest pieces ever discovered in this region. The lines on the body probably represent tattoo marks.
(b) Stone Figure from Costa Rica. This sculpture in lava rock is one of the finest pieces ever discovered in this region. The lines on the body probably represent tattoo marks.
(c) Ceremonial Slab decorated with Monkeys. Mercedes, Costa Rica. These ceremonial slabs may be developments of metates or corn grinders. Keith Collection.
(c) Ceremonial Slab decorated with Monkeys. Mercedes, Costa Rica. These ceremonial slabs may be developments of metates or corn grinders. Keith Collection.
The extremely elaborate metates (stones upon which maize was ground) from southern Nicaragua and northern Costa Rica probably were made by the producers of the peculiar pottery art already described. These were carved out of solid blocks of lava with stone tools. It is not unlikely that these elaborate metates were used as ceremonial seats since few of them show signs of use. The jaguar is perhaps the most common motive used in the decoration of these metates. The back is broad and slightly dished, the head projects from the center of one end and the tail swings in a curve from the other end to one of the feet.
Fig. 65. Highly Conventionalized Jaguar Motive. The principal features of the head as well as the outline of the leg survive in highly modified form. From the southern end of Lake Nicaragua.
Fig. 65. Highly Conventionalized Jaguar Motive. The principal features of the head as well as the outline of the leg survive in highly modified form. From the southern end of Lake Nicaragua.
At Mercedes remarkable stone slabs were found during the excavations conducted by Mr. Minor C. Keith. These are now on exhibition in the American Museum of Natural History. The sculptures in relief on these slabs are by all odds the finest from the Isthmian area. Human beings, crocodiles,monkeys and birds are all used to decorate these carefully and laboriously made pieces whose use is entirely unknown. Statues in the full round have also been unearthed in quantity at Mercedes which gives every evidence of having been a large city with a long career.
Fig. 66. Simple Crocodile Figures in Red Lines on Dishes from Mercedes, Costa Rica.
Fig. 66. Simple Crocodile Figures in Red Lines on Dishes from Mercedes, Costa Rica.
Fig. 67. Panels containing Crocodiles painted in White Lines on Large Tripod Bowls from Mercedes, Costa Rica.
Fig. 67. Panels containing Crocodiles painted in White Lines on Large Tripod Bowls from Mercedes, Costa Rica.
Fig. 68. Simplified Crocodile Heads in the Yellow Line Ware of Mercedes, Costa Rica.
Fig. 68. Simplified Crocodile Heads in the Yellow Line Ware of Mercedes, Costa Rica.
We may be reasonably sure that the stone slabs date from a fairly late epoch because an undoubted “Chacmool” exhibiting the same style of carvinghas been discovered here. The “Chacmool,” a half reclining figure with the knees drawn up, the body supported in part upon the elbows and a bowl for incense or other offerings in the pit of the stomach, gets its fanciful name from Le Plongeon who discovered the original at Chichen Itza. But the unmistakable sculptures of this type were apparently developed by the highland tribes and the cult was introduced into northern Yucatan during the period of Mexican influence. In addition to Chichen Itza examples have been found at Cempoalan, the historic Totonacan capital near Vera Cruz, at Texcoco, in the Valley of Mexico, at Jhuatzio in the Tarascan region, as well as at Chalchuapa far to the southeast in Salvador. All of these occurrences indicate a late Toltecan horizon for its distribution.
Metal-working was unknown to the Mayas of the First Empire, but is abundantly illustrated in cities of the Second Empire, especially Chichen Itza where the pieces are predominantly of Costa Rican and Colombian manufacture evidently secured in trade. We are therefore justified in concluding that the splendid Isthmian gold work came into being after 630 A. D. and was typically developed by 1200 A. D. The “wire technique,” essentially a cast rather than a soldered filigree, characterized metal working as far south as southern Colombia and is also the dominant mode in Mexico. In addition to plain and hollow casting, two kinds of gold plating were carried to perfection by the ancient metal workers: one a heavy plating over copper and the other a thin gilding. The manner in which this plating was done is still uncertain. It has been suggested that the molds were lined with leaf gold or sprinkled with gold dust before the baser copper was poured in. Also acids are said to have been used to dissolve out copper from the surfaces. Many ornaments are of pure beaten gold and have designs inrepoussé.
(a) The Gold Work of the Ancient Mexicans excited the Wonder of the Spanish Conquerors. Comparatively few examples, however, have come down to us.
(a) The Gold Work of the Ancient Mexicans excited the Wonder of the Spanish Conquerors. Comparatively few examples, however, have come down to us.
(b) Many Ornaments of Gold are found in the Graves of Costa Rica and Panama. The Keith Collection contains a very fine series of these pieces illustrating all the forms as well as the technical processes.
(b) Many Ornaments of Gold are found in the Graves of Costa Rica and Panama. The Keith Collection contains a very fine series of these pieces illustrating all the forms as well as the technical processes.
Fig. 69. Conventional Crocodiles from Costa Rica and Panama.
Fig. 69. Conventional Crocodiles from Costa Rica and Panama.
The gold objects are found in stone box graves along with pottery and stone carvings. Gold is taken from only a small percentage of the graves, probably those of chiefs. A systematic rifling of the ancient cemeteries has been going on since the arrival of the Spaniards, but the finds have mostly been thrown into the melting pot. The burial places are sometimes marked by low platforms built over a group of graves. An iron rod, giving forth a hollow sound when the stone cysts are struck, is used by the searchers. Human bones are found inthese graves, but seldom in a state of good preservation.
Mr. Minor C. Keith’s collection of gold work from Costa Rica and Panama is unexcelled and illustrates the range of technical processes as well as of ornamental forms. Human forms are represented with peculiar headdresses and with various objects carried in the hands and often they are joined in pairs. Many of the most beautiful amulets are frogs arranged either singly or in groups of two or three. These figures are all provided with a ring on the under side for suspension. Lizards, turtles, and crocodiles are frequently modeled as well as clam shells, crabs, and monkeys. But perhaps the most frequent amulets are those that picture birds with outspread wings among which may be recognized vultures, harpy eagles, gulls, man-of-war birds, and parrots. The larger and more elaborate pieces of gold work cast considerable light on the ancient religion of the natives since beast gods are figured in half human form. Bells of copper and gold were much used in gala dress and were doubtless an object of trade with the tribes farther north.
A Page from the Tribute Roll of Moctezuma, showing the Annual Tribute of the Eleven Towns pictured at the Bottom and Right. The tribute consisted of: (a) Two strings of jade beads; (b) Twenty gourd dishes of gold dust; (c) A royal headdress; (d) Eight hundred bunches of feathers; (e) Forty bags of cochineal dye; (f-g) Warrior’s costumes; (h) Four hundred and two blankets of this pattern; (i) Four hundred blankets; (j) Four hundred and four blankets; (k) Four hundred blankets. The towns are: (1) Coaxalahuacan; (2) Texopan; (3) Tamozolapan; (4) Yancuitlan; (5) Tezuzcululan; (6) Nochistlan; (7) Xaltepec; (8) Tamazolan; (9) Mictlan (Mitla); (10) Coaxomulcu; (11) Cuicatlan, in the State of Oaxaca.
A Page from the Tribute Roll of Moctezuma, showing the Annual Tribute of the Eleven Towns pictured at the Bottom and Right. The tribute consisted of: (a) Two strings of jade beads; (b) Twenty gourd dishes of gold dust; (c) A royal headdress; (d) Eight hundred bunches of feathers; (e) Forty bags of cochineal dye; (f-g) Warrior’s costumes; (h) Four hundred and two blankets of this pattern; (i) Four hundred blankets; (j) Four hundred and four blankets; (k) Four hundred blankets. The towns are: (1) Coaxalahuacan; (2) Texopan; (3) Tamozolapan; (4) Yancuitlan; (5) Tezuzcululan; (6) Nochistlan; (7) Xaltepec; (8) Tamazolan; (9) Mictlan (Mitla); (10) Coaxomulcu; (11) Cuicatlan, in the State of Oaxaca.
The Aztecs were the dominant nation on the highlands of Mexico when Cortez marched with his small army to conquer New Spain. The horrible sacrifices that they made to their gods and the wealth and barbaric splendor of their rulers have often been described. But their history in point of time covered short space and their art and religion was based in a large measure on achievements of the nations that had preceded them.
A remarkably close analogy may be drawn between the Mayas and Aztecs in the New World and the Greeks and Romans in the Old, as regards character, achievements, and relations one to the other. The Mayas, like the Greeks, were an artistic and intellectual people who developed sculpture, painting, architecture, astronomy and other arts and sciences to a high plane. Politically, both were divided into communities or states that bickered and quarreled. There were temporary leagues between certain cities, but real unity only against a common enemy. Culturally, both were one people, in spite of dialectic differences, for the warring factions were bound together by a common religion and a common thought. To be sure the religion of the Mayas was much more barbaric than that of the Greeks but in each case the subject matter was idealized and beautified in art.
Page from the Codex Telleriano-Remensis showing a Native Manuscript with Explication by the Spaniards. The death of Chimalpopoca and the election of his successor, Itzcouatl, is recorded, as well as the capture of Atzcapotzalco.
Page from the Codex Telleriano-Remensis showing a Native Manuscript with Explication by the Spaniards. The death of Chimalpopoca and the election of his successor, Itzcouatl, is recorded, as well as the capture of Atzcapotzalco.
The Aztecs, like the Romans, were a brusque and warlike people who built upon the ruins of an earlier civilization that fell before the force of their arms and who made their most, notable contributions to organization and government. The Toltecs stand just beyond the foreline of Aztecan history and may fitly be compared to the Etruscans. They were the possessors of a culture derived in part from their brilliant contemporaries that was magnified to true greatness by their ruder successors.
The term Chichimecas was applied by the more civilized tribes of the Mexican highlands to those nomads outside the pale who dressed in skins and hunted with the bow and arrow. Some of these wandering groups spoke Nahuan dialects, but the term was also applied to the Otomis who spoke a distinct language. Possibly through having been reduced in war certain of these wandering groups were drawn into civilization and when the Toltecan cities began to decline, they advanced to considerable power and prestige. In fact, the Aztecs may be considered as originally Chichimecan, along with the people of Texcoco. In later times, these city-broken nomads looked back with considerable pride on their lowly origin. The early life in the open is pictured interestingly in several documents including the Map of Tlotzin and the Map of Quinatzin.
We have already seen how the splendid culture of the Toltecan cities broke down under the weight of civil war about 1220 A. D. To be sure, Cholula appears to have kept alive the flame of Toltecan religion and art up to the advent of the Spaniards. Atzcapotzalco, Colhuacan, and other towns near the lakes that had been established during the Toltecanperiod were able to hold their own for a time against the newer order.
Xolotl, founder of the dynasty of Texcoco, makes his first appearance in the Valley of Mexico in 1225, five years after the dispersion of the Toltecs, according to the Codex Xolotl. He viewed the abandoned cities but neither he nor his immediate successors chose to lead a sedentary life. The first date appears too early because it seems unlikely that the reigns of Xolotl and his son actually covered ninety years. The foundation of Texcoco took place in the reign of Techotlala and Ixtlilxochitl, his son, fell a victim to the murderous policy of Tezozomoc, the famous tyrant of Atzcapotzalco. Nezahualcoyotl, who regained the throne in 1431 was a great poet, philosopher, and law maker. The rulers of Texcoco were as follows:—
THE DYNASTY OF TEXCOCO
The history of the Aztecs has a mythological preamble in common with other nations of Mexico. The Chicomoztoc or Seven Caves must not be considered historical but simply man’splace of emergence from the underworld. The general conception of an existence within the earth that preceded the existence upon the earth is found very widely among North American Indians. It is likewise impossible to locate the Island of Aztlan, that served, according to several codices, as the starting place of the Mexican migration. The northern origin for the Aztecan tribe to which so much attention has been paid need not have been far from the Valley of Mexico, since in their entire recorded peregrination they hardly traveled eighty miles.
Owing to the ineffectiveness of the Mexican time count Aztecan chronology is far from fixed. The year was known by the day with which it began and as this day ran the permutation of four names and thirteen numbers a cycle was fifty-two years in length. No method of keeping the cycles in their proper order seems to have been devised except the laborious one of putting down every year in sequence whether or not an event occurred in it. According to different authorities the year 1 Stone which begins the historical account in the Aubin Codex was 648, 1064, or 1168 in the European calendar, each date differing from the others by multiples of fifty-two years. The last base, 1168, is correct; this being the epoch of the Toltec Era established by Quetzalcoatl.
Serpent Head at Bottom of Balustrade, Great Pyramid, Mexico City. The same excavations showed that the Great Pyramid was enlarged several times and this sculpture seems to have been buried under the walls long before the coming of the Spaniards. Compare Serpent Balustrade at Chichen Itza.
Serpent Head at Bottom of Balustrade, Great Pyramid, Mexico City. The same excavations showed that the Great Pyramid was enlarged several times and this sculpture seems to have been buried under the walls long before the coming of the Spaniards. Compare Serpent Balustrade at Chichen Itza.
The wandering tribes, among which may be mentioned the Chalca, Xochimilca, Tlahuica, Huexotzinca, Tepaneca, and Azteca, pushed their way into the region of the lakes and were allowed to live in less desirable locations as vassals to the established tribes. The “peregrinations” relate the succession of stops and the length of each stop. The Aztecs themselves made twenty or more stops lasting from two to twenty years. Finally, about 1325, they reached Chapultepec and for a number of years lived in comparative peace and quiet. Their bad manners and growing power excited the enmity of several nearby towns and in 1351 the Aztecs, under their chieftain Huitzilihuitl, were worsted in a fierce battle. Remnants of the tribe, including Huitzilihuitl and his daughter, sought the protection of Cozcoztli, king of Colhuacan. They soon were able to repay his support in a war with Xochimilco. The first actual settlement on the site of the future Tenochtitlan was made in 1364 and in 1376 Acamapictli, a noble allied to the royal house of Colhuacan, was elected to be the first war chief of the new city.
Fig. 70. Pictographic Record of fighting near the Springs of Chapultepec, “Hill of the Grasshopper.” Aubin Codex.
Fig. 70. Pictographic Record of fighting near the Springs of Chapultepec, “Hill of the Grasshopper.” Aubin Codex.
One of the first improvements undertaken by the new city was in the matter of water supply. Rights were secured to the famous spring of Chapultepec, an important gain because the brackish waters of the lake were not fit to drink. A double water main of terra cotta was laid from the springs to the town. New land was made, probably after the manner still to be seen in the famous floating gardens of Xochimilco by throwing the soil from the bed of the shallow lake into enclosed areas of wattle work. Gradually a Venice-like city, traversed by canals and admirably protected from attack, rose from the lake. At the coming of the Spaniards there were three causeways leading to the shores of the lake and each of these was protectedby drawbridges. There was a city wall upon which were lighthouses for the guidance of homecoming fishermen. There were palaces and market places and a great central plaza called the Tecpan, where were situated the principal temples.
The Spaniards destroyed the ancient city, blocking up the canals with the débris of temples, and building the new City of Mexico over the leveled ruins. Ancient relics are brought to light wherever excavations are made. In 1900 many sculptures and ceremonial objects were uncovered in Escalerillas street near the Cathedral. Recently a building near the National Museum was torn down for replacement and in digging for new foundations part of the base of the great pyramid was found. This had been enlarged several times, as could be seen by the stairways successively buried under new walls. At the bottom of the balustrade of one stairway a great serpent head of stone was found in its original position (Plate XL).
The Aztecs count their history as a great people from their first war chief Acamapichtli who commenced his rule in 1376 (Codex Aubin). The names and the order of the succeeding war chiefs are the same in several records, but the dates are found to vary slightly.
After throwing off the yoke of their early overlords, the Tepanecas, by the subjection of Atzcapotzalco at the beginning of the brilliant reign of Itzcouatl, the Aztecs of Tenochtitlan entered into a three-cornered league with Texcoco and Tlacopan (Tacuba). This was an offensive and defensive alliance with an equal division of the spoils of war. Soon the united power of these three cities dominated the Valley of Mexico and began to be felt across the mountains on every side. Tenochtitlan gradually assumed the commanding position in the league, and although Texcoco continued to be an important center the third member was apparently much reduced. The great votive stone of Tizoc records some of the earlier conquests of the Aztecs. At the arrival of Cortez only a few important cities such as Tlaxcala retained their independence. But the crest of power had then been passed and it seems pretty certain that the remarkable city in the lake would in time have suffered the fate of other self-constituted capitals both in the Old World and the New.
Spanish historians often liken Tenochtitlan to the seat of an empire and speak of the ruler as one who had the power of an absolute monarch while other and more recent writers have declared that the tribal organization of the Aztecs was essentially democratic. The truth doubtless lies between these extremes. The people were warlike by nature and all men, except a few of the priesthood, were soldiers. Honors depended largely upon success in war and warriors were arranged in ranks according to their deeds. The common warriors formed one rank and next camethose who had distinguished themselves by definite achievements which gave the right to wear certain articles of dress or to bear certain titles. The chiefs were elected for an indefinite term of office from the most distinguished fighters and could be removed for cause.
But while the offices of state were elective there was, nevertheless, a tendency to choose from certain powerful families and at least the foundation of an aristocratic policy. A chief was succeeded by his son or brother except when these candidates were manifestly unfit. In the actual succession of the great war chiefs of Tenochtitlan, a peculiar system seems to have been followed in that the candidates from the older generation were ordinarily exhausted before the next lower generation became eligible. Thus Huitzilihuitl, Chimalpopoca, and Itzcouatl were all sons of Acamapichtli, and the last and greatest was born of a slave mother. Then followed Moctezuma Ilhuicamina I, the son of Huitzilihuitl. This chief had no male heirs but the children of his daughter ruled in order: Axayacatl, Tizoc, and Ahuitzotl. Moctezuma II was the son of the first of these as was Cuitlahua, while Cuauhtemoc, the last Aztec ruler, was the son of Ahuitzotl. This peculiar succession was not in vogue in Texcoco, where son succeeded father and the lawful wife was chosen from the royalty of Tenochtitlan. In the various annals, the genealogies are often indicated and the evidence that aristocracies existed is too strong to be overthrown. There are even cases of queens who succeeded to the chief power after the death of the royal husband.
It is extremely doubtful whether the Aztecs ever had what might be called clans. We have seen thatthere were originally eight closely related tribes constituting the Mexica or Mexici nation. The Aztecs themselves are said to have been divided into seven groups that were first reduced to four or five and then increased to about twenty. It is not clear that these were exogamic kinship groups. They were probably military societies taking into their membership all the men of the tribe. The nameCalpolli, or “great house,” which was applied to them seems to have referred to a sort of barracks or general meeting place in each ward or division of the city where arms and trophies were kept and the youth educated in the art of war. The title in land was held by thecalpolliand the right of use distributed among the heads of families who held possession only so long as the land was worked. Eachcalpolliseems to have had a certain autonomy in governmental matters as well as a local religious organization. It is curious to find in Salvador, far to the south, the wordcalpolliapplied to the platform mounds that surround courts in the ancient ruins. This use of the word may indicate that the “great houses” of the different societies were ordinarily the principal buildings of the city and that they were used for civil, military, and religious purposes.
In forming judgment on the fundamentals of social organization among the Aztecs we must remember that no clear case of kinship clans has been reported south of the area of the United States. Among the Cakchiquels, a Mayan tribe of the Guatemalan highlands, two royal houses are reported from which the ruling chief was alternately drawn. The Zotzils have been explained as a bat clan because their name is associated with the word for bat and because a bat god appears to have been their patron deity. The Mazatecas and Mixtecas, Deer people and Cloud people, also have clanlike names but in all cases these are designations of entire tribes, not of subdivisions of tribes.
Sahagun’s Plan of the Tecpan in Mexico City. After Seler. Among the details shown are: (a) The two great temples; (b) TheQuauhxicallior eagle bowl; (c) One of theCallimecatl, or priest houses; (e) An eagle house or warriors’ shrine; (f) TheTeotlachtlior ball court of the gods; (g)Tzompantlior skull rack; (h) The temple of Xipi; (i) TheTemalacatlor Gladiator Stone; (k) TheColhuacan Teocallior temple of Colhuacan; (l-m) The gods 5 Lizard and 5 House respectively; (n) Dance courts; (o)Coatenamitlor Serpent Wall, so called because it was decorated with heads of serpents.
Sahagun’s Plan of the Tecpan in Mexico City. After Seler. Among the details shown are: (a) The two great temples; (b) TheQuauhxicallior eagle bowl; (c) One of theCallimecatl, or priest houses; (e) An eagle house or warriors’ shrine; (f) TheTeotlachtlior ball court of the gods; (g)Tzompantlior skull rack; (h) The temple of Xipi; (i) TheTemalacatlor Gladiator Stone; (k) TheColhuacan Teocallior temple of Colhuacan; (l-m) The gods 5 Lizard and 5 House respectively; (n) Dance courts; (o)Coatenamitlor Serpent Wall, so called because it was decorated with heads of serpents.
Tenochtitlan was divided into four quarters and each quarter subdivided into a number of wards. An under chief was elected from each of the subdivisions which are doubtless to be identified with thecalpolli, and an over chief from each of the four quarters. Above these stood the war chief of the entire tribe who was likewise elected, but within the limits of a fixed aristocracy. A second great chief, who seems to have been a peace officer with some important relation to the priesthood, was nominally equal to the war chief, but practically much less powerful. The real center of the home government was a council made up of all the chiefs. In time of war the war chief was in supreme command and could either delegate his rights or act in person. Just how much the priesthood intervened in governmental affairs cannot be definitely put in words, but their power was doubtless great. Certain lands were cultivated in common for the officers of church and state and much of the tribute from conquered provinces was devoted to their needs.
The Calendar Stone of the Aztecs. This great stone represents the disk of the sun and the history of the world. It may be analyzed as follows, reading outward from the center.Central or cosmogonic portion: The day sign 4 Olin with details in the arms representing four epochs of the world; with the face of the sun god in the center and minor hieroglyphs that may represent the four directions just outside the Olin symbol.Band of day signs beginning at the top and reading towards the left.Bands of conventional rays of the sun and other details such as the embellishment of the sun with turquoise and eagle feathers.The outer circle of two great reptiles that may indicate the universe.Invisible edge of the disk bears representations of Itzpapalotl, the obsidian butterfly which is symbolical of the heavens.
The Calendar Stone of the Aztecs. This great stone represents the disk of the sun and the history of the world. It may be analyzed as follows, reading outward from the center.
Central or cosmogonic portion: The day sign 4 Olin with details in the arms representing four epochs of the world; with the face of the sun god in the center and minor hieroglyphs that may represent the four directions just outside the Olin symbol.
Band of day signs beginning at the top and reading towards the left.
Bands of conventional rays of the sun and other details such as the embellishment of the sun with turquoise and eagle feathers.
The outer circle of two great reptiles that may indicate the universe.
Invisible edge of the disk bears representations of Itzpapalotl, the obsidian butterfly which is symbolical of the heavens.
The ceremonial center of Tenochtitlan has been transformed into the civic center of Mexico City. The Cathedral, the National Palace, and the Zocolo, or Plaza Major, mark the site where once stood the famous Tecpan or temple enclosure. Within the serpent walls, according to Sahagun, there were twenty-five temple pyramids, five oratories, sundry fasting houses, four bowl-shaped stones, one disk-shaped stone, a great stepped altar, a “star column,” seven skull racks, two ball courts, two enclosed areas, a well, three bathing places, two cellar-like rooms, a dancing place, nine priest houses, a prison for the gods of conquered nations, arsenals, work places, etc. A native plan of the Tecpan, much simplified, occurs in the Sahagun manuscript. The great pyramid rose in several terraces and was surmounted by two temples each three stories in height, one dedicated to Huitzilopochtli and the other to Tlaloc. Each temple contained an image of the god to which it was dedicated and a sacrificial altar. The walls were encrusted with blood of human victims whose hearts, still beating, had been torn out for divine food and whose bodies had been rolled down the steep flight of temple stairs. The foundations for the great pyramids were laid in 1447 by Moctezuma I, the pyramids were completed in 1485 while Tizoc was war chief and the final dedication ceremonies were held in 1487.
Several very interesting large sculptures and many minor objects have been unearthed on the site of the Tecpan. In 1790 and 1791 were found three famous monoliths, the Calendar Stone, the Stone of Tizoc (Sacrificial Stone), and the Statue of Coatlicue. Since 1897 many fine pieces of pottery and several sculptures have been excavated near the Cathedral and placed in the Museo Nacional.
The Shield Stone at Cuernavaca. This Aztecan sculpture carved upon a boulder in the City of Cuernavaca shows a shield, a bundle of war arrows, and a war banner. The sculpture records the conquest of Cuernavaca or more properly Quauhnahuac, capital of the Tlahuican nation.
The Shield Stone at Cuernavaca. This Aztecan sculpture carved upon a boulder in the City of Cuernavaca shows a shield, a bundle of war arrows, and a war banner. The sculpture records the conquest of Cuernavaca or more properly Quauhnahuac, capital of the Tlahuican nation.
The great sculptured monument known as the Calendar Stone or Stone of the Sun, is the most valuable object that has come down intact from the time of the Aztecs. It is a single piece of porphyry, irregular except for the sculptured face. It now weighs over twenty tons and it is estimated that the original weight was over twice as much. The sculptured disk is about twelve feet in diameter. This great stone was transported by men over many miles of marshy lake bottom before it could be placed in position in front of the Temple of the Sun in the temple enclosure that has just been described. The stone was doubtless thrown down from its original position by the soldiers of Cortez and may have been lost to sight. We know, however, that it was exposed to view about 1560 and was then buried by order of the archbishop of Mexico City lest its presence should cause the Indians to revert to their original pagan beliefs. It was rediscovered in 1790 and was afterwards built into the façade of the Cathedral where it remained until 1885, when it was removed to the nearby museum.
The Calendar Stone is not only a symbol of the sun’s face marked with the divisions of the year but it is a record of the cosmogonic myth of the Aztecs and the creations and destructions of the world. In the center is the face of the sun god, Tonatiuh, enclosed in the middle of the symbol called Olin. Tonatiuh is often represented by a much simpler sign of a circle with four or more subdivisions resembling those of a compass which are intended to represent the rays of the sun. Olin is one of the day signs and means movement, or perhaps earthquake. It has also been explained as a graphic representation of the apparent course of the sun during the year. The history of the world, according to the Aztecan myth, is divided into five suns or ages, four of which refer to the past and one to the present. The present sun is called Olin Tonatiuh because it is destined to be destroyed byan earthquake. The day signs of the four previous suns are represented in the rectangular projections of the central Olin symbol beginning at the upper right hand corner and proceeding to the left. They are 4 Ocelotl (jaguar); 4 Ehecatl (wind); 4 Quauhtli (rain); 4 Atl (water), and they refer to destruction, first, by jaguars, second, by a hurricane, third, by a volcanic rain of fire, fourth, by a flood. It is claimed by some that the year 13 Acatl (reed) recorded at the top of the monument between the reptile tails refers to the first year of the present sun. The fifth sun will end with the day 4 Olin, that is expressed in the central symbol already described. For this reason a fast was held on each recurrence of this day. Outside of the Olin symbol but between its arms are four hieroglyphs of uncertain meaning. Next to this area dealing with the great ages of the world comes a band of the twenty day signs of the Aztecan month. Outside of this band are several others which probably represent in a conventionalized manner the rays of the sun and the turquoise and eagle feathers with which the sun disk was believed to be decorated. Finally, outside of all, are two plumed monsters meeting face to face at the bottom of the disk. In each reptile face is seen a human face in profile. These reptiles are probably to be identified as the Xiuhcoatl or Fire Serpents.
The newly discovered National Stone pictures the Calendar Stone in vertical position on a mound and at the head of a flight of steps. The dates on the side of the stairway are 1 Tochtli and 2 Acatl, 1506 and 1507, indicating that the Calendar Stone was dedicated in connection with the New Fire Ceremony. The design on the back of this new-found monument pictures the eagle on the cactus, symbolicof the founding of Tenochtitlan. Other sculptures adorn the sides, the top, and the bottom of the stone.
The Sacrificial Stone or Stone of Tizoc is believed to have been carved by order of Tizoc, the war chief who ruled from 1482-1486, as a memorial offering to Mexican arms on the completion of the great temple to the Mexican God of War. The stone was aquauhxicalli, or “eagle bowl.” This name was given to large bowls which were used to hold the blood and the heart of human victims sacrificed to the gods. The same name was extended to the large drum-shaped stone, under consideration, which has a pit in the center and a sort of canal running from the center to one side which may have been intended to drain off the blood. Human sacrifice actually took place on this stone but it is pretty certain that it was not one of thetemalacatlor “gladiator stones” on which were staged mortal combats as ceremonies. According to description the gladiator stones were pierced by a hole in the center so that one or more captives could be bound fast by a rope.