The legendary animal that reportedly haunted many fishermen’s sleep back in the 15th century Central Mexico, ahuizotl was widely known around the great Lake Texcoco and among towns and altepetls surrounding it; widely known and greatly feared. Described as a lethal creature with spiky fur,... Read More
Between the grand feasts consumed by the Mexica rulers in Tenochtitlan Palace and the daily meals the last of the commoners living by the wharves or the marketplace hastily devoured, the flow of the edible goods entering the island city had to be maintained and... Read More
In the Mexica Capital, women composing poetry were not uncommon, if less famous than their fellow contemporary noblemen poets. Sahagun in his “Florentine Codex” presents us with a glyph that is thought to be depicting Nahua noblewomen composing songs, still among the plethora of beautiful,... Read More
The name Acamapichtli – Aca(tl)=reed, mapichtli=handful – meant ‘a handful of reeds’, sometimes depicted as arrows with blunted tips, has carved itself into Tenochtitlan’s history as one of the corner stones, or the true Tenochtitlan’s beginning. He was the son of a prominent Mexica warrior... Read More
The remnants of the 13 years of his reign, Itzcoatl, the fourth Mexica-Aztec emperor, spent on the attempts to inherit as many of the former Tepanec provinces as he could, making it clear to every neighboring town or city-state who the next rising power of... Read More
A guest post from Enrique Ortiz, an artist, painter, and web designer, a man who knows way too much about anything Mexica-Aztec related, a man who would not miss a single archaeological conference in the Temple Mayor museum. Enrique is also one of the founders... Read More
What wouldn’t you bet while watching a fierce ball game where the players were not afraid to hurt themselves? A kernel of maize? A good obsidian knife? A golden necklace studded with precious stones? Well, why not? Like anywhere else around the globe, people of... Read More
Many sources report him to be the First Son of the Second Mexica Ruler, Huitzilihuitl; or at least one of the tlatoani’s first children. A legitimate son, he possessed it all – the birthright, the brilliance, the drive, the ability to work hard – all... 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
Once upon a time, if you would ask the powerful Tepanecs who had dominated the fertile Mexican valley around Lake Texcoco up to the mid 14th century, the Aztecs were no more than pushy newcomers, coming out of the southwest, poor and semi-nomadic, bringing along... Read More