The Aztecs

by Michael E Smith

  Figure 2.3 Air photo of the ruins of the central ceremonial district of Tula, the Early Postclassic Toltec capital (photograph courtesy of Companía Mexicana de Aerofoto)

  The symbolic importance of Tollan and the Toltecs to the Aztecs cannot be overestimated. Aztec rulers traced their genealogy, whether actual or invented, back to the Toltec kings, and this semimythical dynastic origin was a major source of political legitimacy to Mesoamerican kings, both Aztec and non-Aztec, at the time of Spanish conquest. The Aztec emperor Motecuhzoma (sometimes called “Montezuma” in English) sent a party to dig for precious relics at Tula, and Toltec objects were revered as sacred icons by the Aztecs.8 Although the Aztec kings traced their history to the Toltecs, the Aztec peoples themselves looked to a different source for their origins.

  The Aztlan Migrations

  According to native historical accounts, the Aztecs migrated into central Mexico from an original home in a place called Aztlan. Some scholars believe that Aztlan was a real place and argue over its exact location (opinions range from just north of the Valley of Mexico to the southwestern United States). Others argue that Aztlan was a mythical place with no precise location on the map. The term Aztlan, meaning “place of the herons,” is the origin of the word “Aztec,” a modern label that was not used by the ancient peoples themselves. Whether or not there ever was a place called Aztlan, scholars agree that the Aztec peoples migrated into central Mexico from the north. The northern area was the home of nomadic hunting groups known as the Chichimecs, and the Aztlan story is in part the rags-to-riches story of how the nomadic Chichimecs were transformed into the civilized Aztecs.9

  Setting out from Aztlan, the migrants visited Chicomoztoc, or “place of seven caves.” A number of sources describe seven groups or “tribes” at Chicomoztoc although they disagree over the identity of these groups. When all of the native histories are compared, no fewer than 17 ethnic groups are listed among the original tribes migrating from Aztlan and Chicomoztoc. One version of the seven tribes account is the Tira de la Peregrinación (also known as the Codex Boturini), illustrated in figure 2.4. The name glyphs of the groups are translated on the left side. The southward migration of these groups took several generations to complete. The migrants were led by priests, and they stopped periodically to build houses and temples, to gather or cultivate food, and to carry out rituals.

  Figure 2.4 Aztec ethnic groups leaving their homeland of Aztlan to migrate south to central Mexico (Tira de la Peregrinación 1944; drawing by Ellen Cesarski)

  The historical accounts of the Aztlan migrations may vary widely in the content of their lists of the migrating groups and the precise order in which they traveled, but there is consistency in the overall timing of three contingents of migrants. The first groups to arrive in central Mexico settled throughout the Valley of Mexico. The groups that formed part of this initial contingent were the ancestors of the major Nahuatl ethnic groups to be found in the Valley of Mexico in the sixteenth century; they included the Acolhua, Tepaneca, Culhua, Chalca, and several other groups.

  The second contingent of migrants arrived to find the Valley of Mexico settled, so they moved on to occupy the surrounding valleys of central Mexico. These groups included the Tlahuica of Morelos, the Tlaxcalteca and Huexotzinca of Tlaxcala and Puebla, the Matlatzinca of the Toluca Valley and the Malinalca of Malinalco. Historical dates for the arrival of the Aztec migrants fall around AD 1200 for the Valley of Mexico groups and around 1220 for the groups in the surrounding valleys. The last to arrive, around AD 1250, were the Mexica, who found all of the good land occupied and were forced to settle in an undesirable, desolate area of the Valley of Mexico called Chapultepec, “grasshopper hill” or “place of the grasshopper.” Far more details are available about the Mexica migration than about the other groups simply because more Mexica-based histories have survived. These sources tell us that the Mexica were guided by their patron god, Huitzilopochtli, whose image was carefully carried from Aztlan to the Valley of Mexico. We know the names of the places where the Mexica stopped on their journey, and some of the events that happened along the way.

  The north-to-south movement of the Aztlan groups – described in the native histories – is confirmed by research in historical linguistics. The Nahuatl language, classified in the Nahuan group of the Uto-Aztecan family of languages, is unrelated to most Mesoamerican native languages. Whereas the other major Mesoamerican language families – Mayan, Oto-Mangueyan, and Mixe-Zoquean – had deep roots going back millennia, Nahuatl was a relatively recent intrusion into Mesoamerica.10 The Uto-Aztecan languages originated in northern Mexico or the southwestern United States, and Nahuatl was brought to central Mexico by peoples moving south. Linguists argue over the exact timing of the arrival of Nahuatl speakers in central Mexico, but most agree that this must have occurred sometime after the collapse of Teotihuacan and before the rise of the Aztecs. Since the descendants of the named Aztlan groups were Nahuatl speakers in 1519, it is reasonable to assume that the Aztlan migrants spoke Nahuatl when they first arrived in central Mexico several centuries earlier. Whether they were the initial speakers of Nahuatl in central Mexico is uncertain, but once the Aztlan migrants arrived, the Nahuatl language spread rapidly through both migration and cultural contact. As the political and economic influence of the Aztec Empire expanded, Nahuatl became the language of diplomacy and trade. By the time of the Spanish Conquest, Nahuatl had spread far beyond its initial stronghold in the fertile valleys of central Mexico.

  Toltecs, Chichimecs, and Aztec Identity

  The Toltecs and the Chichimecs were both considered as ancestors by the Aztec peoples. These two ancient groups furnished contrasting elements of Aztec historical identity. The Toltecs were an accomplished, urban civilization of wise kings, religious purity, and legitimate imperial power, and the Chichimecs were hardy and fierce hunters and warriors. Traits of both of these idealized ancestral cultures are found in the somewhat contradictory accounts of the Aztlan migrations. In some accounts the migrants are depicted as Chichimecs who lived in caves, made their living by hunting with bows and arrows, and wore animal skins for clothing.

  In other accounts are descriptions of complex economic and cultural activities such as the planting of maize, the construction of temples, and the use of the ancient Mesoamerican 52-year calendar. Nomadic hunter-gatherers of the north Mexican desert did not have these practices, which suggests that the migrants had experience with Mesoamerican civilization long before they arrived in central Mexico. The presence of these contradictory traits among the Aztlan migrants is part of the dual conception of the cultural origins of the Aztecs, who believed themselves descended from both savage Chichimecs and civilized Toltecs.

  A pictorial document known as the Mapa Quinatzin (figure 2.5) illustrates the dual story of Chichimecs and Toltecs as Aztec ancestors. The Acolhua ruler Quinatzin (descendant of Xolotl) is depicted as a Chichimec, born in a cave (at top) and ruling over his domain on a royal mat (at bottom left). The Chichimecs, who have rough long hair, are shown wearing skins and hunting wild game. The nobility here are depicted as Toltecs, with neat hair, cotton garments, and the cultivation of maize. It is unlikely that the king Quinatzin actually wore animal skins; he probably dressed in cotton clothing like all of the Aztec nobles. But as the Mapa Quinatzin and other accounts show, the Chichimec heritage was an important part of both royal and ethnic identity.11

  Figure 2.5 Scene in the Mapa Quinatzin showing Chichimecs (top) and toltecs (bottom) as the ancestors of the Aztec peoples (reproduction courtesy of Eduardo Douglas)

  The Growth of City-States: The Early Aztec Period

  New Towns, New Dynasties (1100–1300)

  The Aztlan migrants arrived in central Mexico during the Early Aztec period (figure 2.1). The countryside was far from empty, and the settlers avoided existing settlements to found their own sites.12 Most of the indigenous non-Nahuatl-speaking peoples were eventually assimilated into Aztec culture, although some groups, such as the Otomi,
managed to retain their separate ethnic identity within Aztec civilization. Many of the new settlements were successful and grew rapidly into towns or cities with regional political and economic significance. Nearly all of the major Aztec cities and towns that existed at the time of Spanish conquest were founded during this time period.

  Central Mexico became the arena for a dynamic system of interacting city-states. The rulers of these small polities were petty kings called tlatoque (sing. tlatoani) who endeavored to establish genealogical links to the Toltec kings through marriage ties with their descendants or through invention. Like systems of city-states in other ancient cultures, the polities of Early Aztec central Mexico interacted intensively with one another in both friendly and antagonistic fashions. Alliances between dynasties and trade between city-states were accompanied by warfare and aggression.

  The native histories are full of accounts of battles among the city-states. During the first century or so after initial settlement, small-scale warfare among the new city-states was frequent, but because of shifting alliances and the small scale of most conflicts, no individual polity succeeded in establishing a tributary empire. Among the more active and influential polities at this time were the cities of Azcapotzalco, Coatlinchan, Culhuacan, Tenayuca, and Xaltocan in the Valley of Mexico, and Cuauhnahuac/Teopanzolco, Calixtlahuaca, Cholula, and Huexotzinco in surrounding areas.13

  During the Early Aztec period a common Aztec culture emerged among the new settlers of the central Mexican highlands. The use of the Nahuatl language and the acknowledgement of a common Aztlan origin were at the foundation of this widespread culture. The interactions among city-states, particularly through trade and noble marriage alliances, kept far-flung peoples in touch. An important component of this widespread culture was religious ritual. Although individual gods and ceremonies varied slightly from region to region, a common core of ritual and belief united the central Mexican peoples. This religion received concrete material expression in both cult objects – incense burners and figurines – and temple architecture. In contrast to earlier Mesoamerican pyramids with a single temple on top and a single stairway up the side, the pyramids built by the Early Aztec peoples had twin temples and double stairways. Impressive examples of such pyramids have been excavated and restored at the Early Aztec sites of Teopanzolco and Tenayuca.

  Teopanzolco and Tenayuca: early Aztec Cities

  Nearly all cities and towns of the Early Aztec period continued to be occupied into Late Aztec times. Unfortunately for archaeologists, Late Aztec urban expansion and renewal obliterated or built over most of the Early Aztec architecture. At Teopanzolco and Tenayuca, however, large Early Aztec twin-stair pyramids survived intact; these were excavated and restored in the early part of the twentieth century.14 The pyramid at Teopanzolco (figure 2.6) was discovered during the Mexican Revolution (1910–1914) when the army of Emiliano Zapata placed canons on top of the mound to shell federalist positions in downtown Cuernavaca. The vibrations from cannon fire shook loose the soil, exposing ancient walls and floors. After the Revolution the pyramid was excavated and restored, along with a series of nearby platforms and buildings. The pyramid had two main stages of construction, and the walls of small temples on top of the earlier (inner) platform have survived. Across the plaza from the pyramid is a row of low platforms that probably served as bases for altars. Inside the southernmost altar archaeologists found a sunken chamber filled with human skulls and offerings of ceramic vessels. The presence of cervical vertebrae with the skulls indicates that these were the victims of decapitation, probably part of a ritual of human sacrifice (chapter 10).

  Figure 2.6 An Early Aztec twin-stair pyramid at Teopanzolco, a site located in the city of Cuernavaca, Morelos (photograph by Michael E. Smith)

  The Teopanzolco ceremonial precinct was almost certainly the center of the city of Cuauhnahuac during the Early Aztec period. Early Aztec ceramics associated with the site have been found in many parts of the modern city of Cuernavaca, suggesting that the settlement was quite extensive at that time. In Late Aztec times, the civic center of Cuauhnahuac was moved from Teopanzolco to a more defensible location between steep ravines, and this new area was to became the center of the Spanish (and modern) city of Cuernavaca. After the capital was moved, no further construction was carried out at Teopanzolco, although the temples were probably maintained. In the Early Aztec period, Teopanzolco/Cuauhnahuac was the capital of a large and powerful city-state. Its distinctive painted ceramics were widely traded, comprising one of the main imported ceramic types at most Early Aztec sites in Morelos.

  The pyramid of Tenayuca (figure 2.7), located in Mexico City, resembles the Teopanzolco pyramid, but is nearly twice as large.15 Like the Teopanzolco structure it was excavated in the 1920s, but the project was published much more fully. Six construction stages were identified, starting with a small twin-stair pyramid toward the beginning of the Early Aztec period and ending with an impressive, towering structure (figure 2.8). The pyramid is surrounded by a coatepantli (serpent wall) made up of nearly 150 carved stone serpents. A number of nearby altars and shrines were also excavated, some with additional serpent sculptures. The pyramid was still standing when the Spaniards arrived, and the conqueror Bernal Díaz del Castillo called Tenayuca “town of the serpents.”

  Figure 2.7 A large Early Aztec pyramid at Tenayuca (located within Mexico City), showing one of the two stairways (photograph by Michael E. Smith)

  Figure 2.8 Construction stages of the Early Aztec pyramid at Tenayuca (modified after Marquina 1951:169)

  According to native historical accounts, Tenayuca was founded as a capital city by the Early Aztec ruler Xolotl, a powerful king who was the ancestor of Quinatzin and the Acolhua dynasty. The capital was later moved from Tenayuca to Texcoco. Like Teopanzolco, construction activity at Tenayuca stopped in the Late Aztec period after the capital was moved to another location. Tenayuca maintained its symbolic importance, however. Although the pyramids are almost all that survives of the Early Aztec cities of Teopanzolco (Cuauhnahuac) and Tenayuca, they furnish us with important insights into Aztec civilization at that time. The rulers of these cities were powerful enough to build impressive monumental temples. They forged a new architectural style – the twin-stair pyramid temple – without precedent in earlier cultures. The similarities between Tenayuca and Teopanzolco showed that the various parts of the Aztec realm were in communication with one another and formed a single, extensive culture. The symbolism of the twin-stair pyramid was important enough for the Mexica to copy this style when they started building the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan in the Late Aztec period. Their deliberate use of an archaic style may be analogous to the use of Greek and Roman architectural styles in later European cities.

  When the Mexica immigrants arrived from Aztlan, Tenayuca was a powerful polity and its pyramid one of the most sacred landmarks in the Valley of Mexico. From this point onward, the story of the Mexica peoples dominates Aztec native history. The Mexica were destined to rule the Aztec Empire, and as a result the vast majority of the surviving native histories come from the Mexica tradition. That they held Tenayuca in great esteem is shown on the first page of the Codex Mendoza, where Tenayuca is one of two towns (Culhuacan is the other) shown as the initial conquests in the long process of Tenochtitlan's imperial expansion. We now turn to the Mexica story.

  Mexica Outcasts (1250–1325)

  By the time the Mexica arrived in the Valley of Mexico around 1250, most of the land was already claimed by the city-states of the earlier immigrant groups.16 The Mexica settled initially in Chapultepec, a hill adjacent to a swamp, because the land was empty and barren. Nearby groups, such as the Tepaneca and Chalca, were wary of the newcomers. The Mexica convinced the reluctant king of Culhuacan to let them settle in an isolated, snake-infested part of his realm called Tizaapan. Culhuacan was an ancient town southeast of Chapultepec that had been settled by both Toltecs and Aztlan migrants, and the Culhua nobles and peoples considered the Mexica new-com
ers barbaric. The Mexica flourished, supposedly living on a diet of snakes and lizards, prompting the Culhua king to exclaim to his court, “See what rascals they are; have no dealings and do not speak to them.”17 The king's attitude soon changed as the Mexica became good subjects and neighbors of the Culhua. The Culhua king called on the Mexica to come to their aid in a fierce battle with the Xochimilca, and the arrival of Mexica troops turned the tide in favor of the Culhua. This victory was important, for it previewed the later military success of the Mexica as vassals of the Tepanecs.

  The Mexica managed to turn the Culhua against them, however. According to the semi-mythical accounts of early native history, their god Huitzilopochtli ordered the Mexica to obtain a Culhua princess to be worshiped as a goddess. The Culhua king agreed and sent them his favorite daughter. Some time later, he and the other Culhua lords were invited to witness ceremonies and sacrifices to the new Mexica goddess. On Huitzilopochtli's orders the Mexica had killed and flayed the princess, and a Mexica priest donned her skin to dance in public (a common Aztec ritual practice, see chapter 9). When the Culhua king saw what the Mexica had done, he ordered his nobles and troops to attack, and the Mexica were driven from Tizaapan by force. This was all part of the god Huitzilopochtli's divine plan, however.

  The Mexica fled into the wilderness of swamps that ringed the salty lakes of the Valley of Mexico, where they wandered for weeks. Huitzilopochtli appeared in a vision to one of the priests and told the Mexica that they would soon find their promised homeland, in a place where an eagle lived atop a tall nopal cactus. When the Mexica saw the eagle and cactus on a small island in the swamp, they were overjoyed and proceeded to found the site of Tenochtitlan, “place of the cactus fruit,” in the year 2 House, AD 1325.18