By Karissa Fults and Grant Stein

Location of Culture:

Southern Mexico, (Valley of Mexico) above the Yucatan Penn.

Population: over a million

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

4. Traveling Merchants

2. Peasants3. Slaves

• 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:

Women:

• 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.

• 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

• Tomatoes• Avocados

• Atole (porridge)• Tortillas• Tacos• Tamales• Chocolate

• Fruit• Veggies

• Spices

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

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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