While wandering the broad, perfectly clean streets of Azcapotzalco, Tenochtitlan or Texcoco, you could be surprised to find them nearly deserted, with even the main road leading to the marketplace empty of passersby. In such large altepetls this occurrence would be highly unusual, even when large... Read More
I met Moctezuma Xocoyotzin on Twitter and quickly grew addicted to his tweets, following and re-tweeting, fascinated and intrigued. It felt like I just managed to jump back in time, to the glorious times when the Aztec Empire was still ruling Mesoamerica almost from coast to... Read More
In Mesoamerica of 16th century the dilemma was simple. Was it better to bath once a day or once a month? The state policy of reorganized by the Spanish authorities Tenochtitlan stated that once a month was more than enough. Any more frequent visits to... Read More
In ‘The Rise of the Aztec Part III’, we dealt with the Aztecs struggling to make their island-city, Tenochtitlan, more presentable, so the snobbish tourists from the altepetls around Lake Texcoco would not look down their long haughty noses and sneer. Energetic and forceful, the... Read More
This time the action shifts to Mesoamerica. Having witnessed the fall of the ancient Cliff Dwellers-Anasazi, the main characters, Tecpatl and Sakuna, are now have to deal with an entirely different situation. It is the middle of the 14th century and the mighty Tepanecs are... Read More
“… When we saw so many cities and villages built in the water and other great towns on dry land we were amazed and said that it was like the enchantments… great towers and cues and buildings rising from the water, and all built of... Read More
In The Rise of the Aztecs Part I, we left the Tepanecs immersed in the dilemma. What to do with their newly acquired neighbors known as Mexica-people-from-Aztlan or the Aztecs. The despised newcomers got themselves into a trouble all right, angering their previous patrons of... Read More
Around the eleventh century, the modern-day Southwest canyons were alive with architectural wonders, cliff cities and sprawling fields belonging to the Ancient Cliff Dwellers, more known to us as Anasazi. Those ancients built their multi-storey great houses of hundreds of spacious, well-conditioned rooms with such... Read More
The evolution of weaponry is a fascinating progress to follow. Our computer games are straining to invent all kinds of new weapons, to dispense with boredom and make the games more attractive to us. But the reality overpasses the imagination. How the most popular ancient... Read More
The ancient largest North American city deserved to be ruled by no less than a deity, or a descendant of it, so the purity of the bloodline was of paramount importance. The Cahokian Royal House went to great pains in order to preserve it. And... Read More