Location of Culture:
Southern Mexico, (Valley of Mexico) above the Yucatan Penn.
Population: over a million
By Karissa Fults and
Grant Stein
Capital: Tenochtitlan, founded March 13, 1325
Language: Nahuatl
Religion: unique Aztec culture
Government: Hegemonic Empire
Area: 500,000 km squared
Currency: no known currency. Aztecs bartered.
Social Class Structure:
1. Noble Class
2. Peasants
3. Slaves
4. Traveling Merchants
• Mexica, (Aztecs) came to the Valley of Mexico in the mid-13th century.
• The Mexicas settled around Lake Texcoco.
• Became city-states and formed coalition called the Aztec Triple Alliance.
• Expanded under powerful warlike rulers.
• The Spanish contacted the Aztecs not long after
this civilization’s height.
• Conquistadors allied with Aztec enemies
to crush them.
• Approximately half the population in
Tenochtitlan died during the siege from Smallpox.
• Two more epidemics struck, another of smallpox,
and another of typhus.
• Population in Valley of the Moon fell 60%.
• The Aztecs have a Sun Stone (wrongly named “The Calendar Stone”) that
is symbolic of the four disasters that destroyed the four prior Universes in
Aztec cosmology. They also dedicated it to their sun god, Tonatiuh.
• The Aztecs performed human sacrifice as a religious ritual. Some
considered it an honor to be killed as a sacrifice.
Sun Stone
Sacrificial Offering
Men:
• Loincloths were made of a long piece of fabric, usually
maguey or cotton. They went around the legs and tied in front.
• A sleeveless poncho was worn under a cloak or slung over
their shoulders.
• The rectangular cloak was tied across the shoulders or chest.
Used to determine rank and as a blanket.
Women:
• Skirt wrapped around hips and waist,
covered half-way down the legs.
• A small robe clothed the upper body with
sleeves going half-way down the arms.
• Sleeveless blouse went down past hips.
• No iron or bronze
• Scrapers and flake blades made with
obsidian and chert.
• Axe blades made by stone and copper
• Wood, bone, and steel also used
• No wheeled vehicles
• Fruit
• Veggies
• Tomatoes
• Avocados
• Spices
• Atole (porridge)
• Tortillas
• Tacos
• Tamales
• Chocolate
• Birds
• Dogs
• Sports: Tlachtli (a cross between soccer and
basketball) and Patolli (a cross between dice and
tic-tac-toe). Patolli was played between Cortez
and Moctezuma II.
• Codices were long, single folded sheets of paper,
made of either fig bark or plant fibers, often with a
layer of whitewash applied before writing. They
recorded information and kept records.
• The cursed coins in “Pirates of the Caribbean” are
said to be from the Aztec culture. They could not be
from the ancient Aztecs because they had no
currency; they bartered.
• Crystal skulls, like those in “Indiana Jones” were said
to be made by meso-american cultures, like the Aztecs
and Maya. The ones from Indian Jones were Incan.
http://lasa.international.pitt.edu/LASA97/ludden.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_skull
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec_army
http://www.mahalo.com/Aztec_Civilization
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/mesoamerica/aztec.html
http://www.crystalinks.com/azteculture.html
http://www.aztec-indians.com/aztec-culture.html
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/CIVAMRCA/AZTECS.HTM
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