What was tenochtitlan made of

Tenochtitlan was laid out symmetrically, with four sectors separated by four causeways or canals surrounding the central area. Each of the four sectors had its own services, including a religious precinct , and was occupied by craftspeople like weavers, sculptors, and potters. The center of the city was known as the Templo Mayor. Atop the single complex were two temples, one for Tlaloc, the god of rain, and one for Huitzilopochtli, the god of the sun and war.

The Spanish conquistador s, aided by an alliance of indigenous peoples, laid siege to the Aztec capital for 93 days, until the Mexica surrendered on August 13, A great deal of Tenochtitlan was destroyed in the fighting, or was looted, burned, or destroyed after the surrender. Lake Texcoco was ultimately drained, and much of Mexico City rests in the lake basin.

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Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service. Ruins of Templo Mayor : While the location of the ruins of Templo Mayor was rediscovered in the early 20th century, major excavations did not take place until to Outside of the city center was the palace of Moctezuma with rooms, each one with its own bath, which was used by the lords and ambassadors of allies and conquered people.

The palace also had two houses or zoos, one for birds of prey and another for other birds, reptiles, and mammals. About people were dedicated to the care of these animals. Also contained within the palace were a botanical garden and an aquarium, which had 10 ponds of salt water and 10 ponds of fresh water and contained both fish and aquatic birds.

The Aztecs excelled in creating sculptures made of stone and other material, ranging from small works of art to monumental buildings. As with many Mesoamerican cultures, the Aztecs excelled in stone sculptures that ranged from small works of art to monumental buildings. Aztec sculpture often took the form of striking carvings of Aztec gods or mythical creatures, and it was expressed through ceramics, architecture, freestanding three-dimensional stone works, and relief work.

The grand city of Tenochtitlan contained some of the finest examples of Aztec sculpture, from its temples and pyramids to its elaborate stone palaces. The use of skulls and skeletons in Aztec art originated before the conquest, and the Aztecs often carved skulls into their stone sculptures, monoliths of lava, and masks of obsidian and jade. A unique and versatile form of sculpture was the carved mirror.

Obsidian mirrors in pre-Columbian times were fashioned from stone and served a number of uses, from decorative to spiritual. During the late Post-classic period c. Aztec mirrors were originally held in wooden frames and were decorated with perishable ornaments, such as feathers. Aztec mirror : This mirror was carved from obsidian on a modern wooden base and is currently held in the Museum of the Americas, Madrid. One of the most well-known Aztec sculptures is the Calendar Stone.

The stone is While the exact purpose of the stone is unclear, archaeologists and historians theorize that there could have been many functions to the stone, from spacial and time-related to political and spiritual.

Featherwork, or the working of feathers into clothing and artifacts, was an especially elaborate practice among the Aztecs. Featherwork is the working of feathers into a cultural artifact, which was an especially elaborate art form among the Aztecs. Endowed with sacred meaning, feathers were associated with the Aztec patron deity Huitzilopochtli and the mythical god of featherworkers, Coyotlinahual. Feathers were incorporated into many aspects of life, including traditional clothing, armor for warfare, elaborate headdresses, and beautiful works of art.

Artisans specializing in featherwork often worked full-time to produce fine luxury goods for noble patrons during the height of the Aztec empire. Perhaps the most well-known example of Aztec featherwork is the feather headdress, such as the one thought to be worn by Moctezuma II.

As the Aztec emperor at the time of the Spanish conquest, his headdress was made of quetzal and other feathers and mounted in a base of gold and precious stone. In particular, the Eagle Aztec warriors wore feathered helmets to mark their ability.

The huipil is the most common traditional garment worn today by indigenous women from central Mexico to Central America. It is the only garment in Mexico that uses the pre-Hispanic art of featherwork, and the most complicated designs are generally known only to a few older master weavers. Designs are embedded into the fabric of the huipil , along with decorative elements such as embroidery, ribbon, feathers, lace, wax, and even gold thread.

After the Aztec Empire was invaded and conquered by the Spanish, the huipil evolved to incorporate elements from Europe and even Asia. The sacredness of feathers, which for the Aztecs stemmed back long before the conquest, became associated with Christian forms of veneration. They were used to adorn triumphal arches, the bases of crosses, and the litters and canopies in which the host was carried during the Corpus Christi festival.

Aztec codices, or pictorial manuscripts, are among the best primary sources of information on Aztec culture. The Aztec codices are manuscripts that were written and painted by tlacuilos codex creators. One of the best primary sources of information on Aztec culture, they served as calendars, ritual texts, almanacs, maps, and historical manuscripts of the Aztec people, spanning from before the Spanish conquest through the colonial era.

Pre-colonial codices differ from colonial codices in that they are largely pictorial and not meant to symbolize spoken or written narratives. The colonial-era codices not only contain Aztec pictograms, but also Classical Nahuatl in the Latin alphabet , Spanish, and occasionally Latin.

Scholars now have access to a body of around colonial-era codices, as well as a limited number of pre-colonial codices, though there are very few surviving codices from the pre-colonial era. While the tradition of codex-painting endured over the transition to colonial culture, codex production declined under the control of Spanish authorities, suggesting Spanish influence or even censorship in codex production.

The Codex Borbonicus is a codex written by Aztec priests around the time of the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Like all pre-colonial codices, it was originally entirely pictorial in nature, although some Spanish descriptions were later added. It is a single Codex Borbonicus can be divided into three sections. There is a street for game, where every variety of' birds found in the country are sold, as fowls, partridges, quails, wild ducks, fly-catchers, widgeons, turtle-doves, pigeons, reedbirds, parrots, sparrows, eagles, hawks, owls, and kestrels they sell likewise the skins of some birds of prey, with their feathers, head, beak, and claws.

There are also sold rabbits, hares, deer, and little dogs, which are raised for eating and castrated. There is also an herb street, where may be obtained all sorts of roots and medicinal herbs that the country affords.

There are apothecaries' shops, where prepared medicines, liquids, ointments, and plasters are sold; barbers' shops, where they wash and shave the head; and restaurateurs, that furnish food and drink at a certain price. There is also a class of men like those called in Castile porters, for carrying burdens. Wood and coals are seen in abundance, and braziers of earthenware for burning coals; mats of various kinds for beds, others of a lighter sort for seats, and for balls and bedrooms.

There are all kinds of green vegetables, especially onions, leeks, garlic, watercresses, nasturtium, borage, sorrel, artichokes, and golden thistle; fruits also of numerous descriptions, amongst which are cherries and plums, similar to those in Spain; honey and wax from bees, and from the stalks of maize, which are as sweet as the sugar-cane; honey is also extracted from the plant called maguey, which is superior to sweet or new wine; from the same plant they extract sugar and wine, which they also sell.

Different kinds of cotton thread of all colors in skeins are exposed for sale in one quarter of the market, which has the appearance of the silk-market at Granada, although the former is supplied more abundantly. Every kind of merchandise is sold in a particular street or quarter assigned to it exclusively, and this is the best order is preserved.

They sell every thing by number or measure; at least so far we have not observed them to sell any thing by weight. There is a building in the great square that is used as an audience house, where ten or twelve persons, who are magistrates, sit and decide all controversies that arise in the market, and order delinquents to be punished.

In the same square there are other persons who go constantly about among the people observing what is sold, and the measures used in selling; and they have been seen to break measures that were not true.

Corey Prize Raymond J. Cunningham Prize John H.