The Aztecs

by Michael E Smith

  Yautepec was an important capital city in Morelos with several nearby city-states subject to its tlatoani. As discussed in chapter 6, Yautepec has the largest surviving Aztec royal palace. After the success of the initial seasons of Hortensia de Vega Nova's excavations at the palace, my wife and I were invited by the Mexican government to work at Yautepec. The palace was on the edge of the modern town with Aztec residential areas extending into agricultural fields to the west and south. This left major areas of Aztec Yautepec open for fieldwork. De Vega Nova continued her work at the palace and we concentrated on excavating houses and other features in other parts of the site.9

  In our first season of fieldwork, we used surface concentrations of artifacts to trace the size and shape of the Aztec city. This was easy in the plowed fields, but required patience and perseverance within town. Our field crews spent a lot of time knocking on doors and explaining our purpose to the people of Yautepec so that they would let us root around in their yards for potsherds, obsidian, and other traces of Aztec occupation. I was surprised at how well we were able to find artifacts in and around modern Yautepec, and the goodwill of the citizens contributed greatly to our success. We made several hundred collections of artifacts from 2 by 2 m squares (figure 1.10) and used computer-generated maps of artifact density to help draw the borders of Aztec Yautepec. The city reached its maximum extent, 210 ha (2.1 sq km), in the Late Aztec B period, just prior to the Spanish Conquest. Although there were some earlier villages at the site, the major occupation began in the Early Aztec period, which suggests that Yautepec, like other Aztec cities, was founded by Aztlan immigrants.

  Our second season was devoted to excavations of houses, garbage middens, and other key areas in and around Aztec Yautepec.10 We placed excavations in various parts of the modern town, including schoolyards, vacant lots, residential neighborhoods, churchyards, plowed fields, and even a street. In all we placed excavations in 17 different areas of Yautepec. Twelve of these 17 excavations were undertaken specifically to find buried houses. We located and excavated seven Aztec houses (figure 8.3; see discussion in chapter 6) as well as numerous other domestic deposits.

  Figure 8.3 Excavation of an urban commoner house in Yautepec. This house was first discovered by a public works crew while grading the street (House 7; see map, figure 8.4) (photograph by Michael E. Smith)

  The locations of the excavations and houses are shown superimposed on our map of Yautepec in figure 8.4. We dug one elite residence (structure 6), five commoner dwellings (structures 1–4 and 7), and one intermediate structure (no. 5). These are among the first urban Aztec houses excavated in central Mexico. We were somewhat surprised that the urban houses (see chapter 6) were quite similar in size and construction to the rural houses we had excavated previously at Cuexcomate and Capilco (chapter 3). The population density of Yautepec was not much higher than the rural sites,11 and this implies that this city had considerable open space for gardens and fields within its borders.

  Figure 8.4 Map of Aztec Yautepec showing the locations of our excavation zones and the houses excavated in 1993. The houses are drawn to a common scale; the largest, House 6, measures 23 m by 18.5 m (drawing by Ellen Cesarski)

  The excavation results suggest that most Yautepec residents were fairly prosperous. Their skeletal remains showed that people had healthy diets and low levels of disease. The artifact assemblages from all of the excavated houses included many imported goods (such as obsidian from Pachuca, salt from the Valley of Mexico lakes, pottery from many parts of central Mexico, and copper and bronze from the Tarascan territory) in addition to local items. In domestic contexts throughout Yautepec, we uncovered considerable evidence for the production of goods such as obsidian tools and jewelry, ceramic figurines, bark paper, and cotton textiles. None of these artifact deposits, however, was heavy enough to suggest that they were the remains of workshops. Unfortunately, we cannot tell from our scattered excavations whether Yautepec had economically specialized calpolli similar to those at Otumba.

  The locations of the colonial and modern Yautepec settlements, just to the north of Aztec Yautepec, contributed enormously to the success of our fieldwork. In most central Mexican towns the Spanish settlement was constructed directly on top of the Aztec settlement. The Spaniards typically tore down the Aztec pyramid to make a base for construction of a Catholic church. We tested this notion by excavating in and around Yautepec's sixteenth-century church and convent but found no evidence for a temple or other Aztec structure beneath. We do not know why the early Spanish settlers of Yautepec founded their town to the north of the Aztec city, but as archaeologists we are grateful for this turn of events.

  Rural and Urban

  Rural and urban contexts were not as sharply differentiated as they are in modern societies. Most Aztec cities were quite “rural” in appearance, owing to their unplanned residential districts, farming within the urban site, the presence of large houselots, and an overall low population density. Outside of the downtown area, cities did not look much different from towns and villages. A similar comparison can be made in the opposite direction: there was much of the “urban” in the countryside. Nobles lived in rural areas as well as in the city. Many crafts were produced in the countryside, and peasant families were remarkably well connected to central Mexican market networks. Aztec peasants were not impoverished, isolated serfs but rather prosperous and sophisticated producers and consumers.

  The explanation for this similarity between the rural and the urban lies in the nature of Aztec economic and political organization. Economic and demographic expansion in the Early Aztec period set the scene for prosperity in both urban and rural areas. In Late Aztec times, the growth of stable city-states made the countryside a safe place to live and work. The ensuing expansion of merchant activity and marketplace trade linked all parts of central Mexico – rural and urban – together into a single economic network. Peasants did not have to move to the city to prosper, and urbanites did not have to give up the farming life or differentiate themselves socially from their country cousins. Tenochtitlan, however, did not fit this pattern of rural-looking cities. The Mexica capital was a settlement of a different order than other Aztec cities.

  Tenochtitlan

  Proud of itself

  is the city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan.

  Here no one fears to die in war.

  This is our glory.

  This is Your Command,

  oh Giver of Life!

  Have this in mind, oh princes,

  do not forget it.

  Who could conquer Tenochtitlan?

  Who could shake the foundation of heaven?

  Cantares Mexicanos

  Tenochtitlan was a city built to impress visitors, both human and divine. Just as the city awed the first Spaniards who saw it (see chapter 1) Tenochtitlan also overwhelmed Aztecs visiting from the provinces (figure 8.5).12 Part of Tenochtitlan's grandeur derived from its sheer size (200,000 inhabitants on an island of 13.5 sq km) and part reflected the deliberate planning and layout of the city. This was not just a political capital and market center. Tenochtitlan was forged into a sacred imperial city whose size and layout proclaimed the Mexica view of their destiny as rulers of the empire.

  Figure 8.5 Reconstruction of the city of Tenochtitlan (looking east) on the eve of Spanish conquest (detail from a painting by Miguel Covarrubias in the Museo Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City; photo: Robert Frerck, Odyssey Productions, Chicago)

  Urban Planning and Layout

  Tenochtitlan was the last of the city-state centers to be founded by the Aztlan migrants.13 The Mexica began by constructing a shrine to their god Huitzilopochtli at the place where they had seen the omen of the eagle perched on a cactus. The name Tenochtitlan means “Among the Stone-Cactus Fruit”; its glyph is a fruited nopal cactus growing out of a stone. The town was laid out around the shrine, which was soon enlarged into a stone pyramid. This structure, with twin stairways leading to two temples, was the earliest stage of
the Templo Mayor. In its early days, Tenochtitlan probably resembled the city-state capitals described above, with a formally planned city center surrounded by unplanned residential quarters.

  The Mexica's growth in power and influence during the Late Aztec A period (AD 1350–1430) was mirrored by explosive growth in the size and prosperity of Tenochtitlan. In the Late Aztec B period, following the Tepanec war of 1428, Tenochtitlan became capital of the empire and the Mexica set out to redesign the city to differentiate it from other Aztec cities and towns. The Mexica saw themselves as heirs to the powerful ancient empires of Teotihuacan and Tula, and they deliberately appropriated principles and concepts from the ruins of those abandoned capitals in order to refashion Tenochtitlan in their image. First, they used a grid layout, similar to that at Teotihuacan, to establish a common alignment for all buildings. Second, they effected a radical change in the layout of the downtown area by walling off a sacred religious precinct from the rest of the city. Third, they deliberately copied architectural and sculptural styles from Teotihuacan and Tula in their rebuilt downtown area.14 They also drew on a more recent – but still ancient – tradition when they used the Early Aztec twin-stair style of pyramid for their Templo Mayor. This may have been done in homage to Early Aztec cities rich in historical tradition like Tenayuca.

  Unlike the haphazard layouts of most towns and cities, the entire urban area of Tenochtitlan was carefully planned and rebuilt according to fundamental political, religious, and practical principles. The regular grid pattern demonstrated the power of the Mexica rulers. In ancient civilizations around the world, only strong kings were capable of impressing their will on a city by designing the whole settlement sufficiently in advance to produce a grid layout. The application of the grid plan to Tenochtitlan was a public statement about the grandeur and power of the island city and its links to ancient Teotihuacan.

  The influence of religion was also felt in the planning and layout of Tenochtitlan. The city's grid was established close to the cardinal directions (the orientation of streets and buildings was 6.5 degrees east of true north). In Mesoamerican cosmology, the four cardinal directions had important symbolic significance, each with its own gods, rituals, and colors. Major avenues extended out from the sacred precinct along the cardinal directions, dividing the city into four major quarters (figure 8.6). Because it monitored the path of the sun, the east-west axis was the more important one, and this was reflected in the placement and orientation of the Templo Mayor and other shrines in the sacred precinct.

  Figure 8.6 Map of Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco (drawing by Ellen Cesarski)

  In addition to these political and religious influences, practical considerations also contributed to the adoption of a grid plan at Tenochtitlan. A rectilinear grid is the easiest layout to use in a rapidly expanding city. As rocks and fill were brought from the shore to reclaim land for chinampas and houses, it was convenient to lay out canals and roads at right angles, following a single orientation for the entire city.

  The Mexica drew upon their knowledge of the central ceremonial zone at Tula (figure 2.3) to redesign their downtown area. In place of the open public plaza bordered by religious and civic buildings that was standard at other Aztec cities, the Mexica created a walled sacred precinct whose buildings were arranged in a pattern similar to that used at Tula. Limiting public access to the precinct was part of a Mexica plan to elevate their religion to a mystical state cult (see chapter 9). In a further break with prior Aztec practice, each Mexica king constructed his own palace rather than reusing a single palace as at smaller Aztec cities. These palaces were built next to, but outside of, the sacred precinct. The Mexica kings further emphasized their associations with Teotihuacan and Tula by erecting buildings in the styles of these ancient capitals; archaeologists have excavated at least one structure in each style near the central Templo Mayor in the sacred precinct. The kings also had sculptures carved in the ancient Teotihuacan and Toltec styles and displayed these in and around the precinct. By the late 1400s the architectural transformation of Tenochtitlan was complete, and the city was one of the largest and most impressive urban centers in the world.

  Tlatelolco

  A major contribution to the great size and prosperity of Tenochtitlan was its annexation of the adjacent city of Tlatelolco.15 Tlatelolco had begun as an independent Mexica city-state located on an island just north of Tenochtitlan. During the fifteenth century Tlatelolco developed into the major commercial city of central Mexico. The pochteca merchants established Tlatelolco as their base of operations, and its market grew into the largest and richest in the Valley of Mexico. It was perhaps inevitable that the two adjacent city-states would come into conflict with one another, and in 1473 the Mexica emperor Axayacatl conquered Tlatelolco and incorporated the city into the polity of Tenochtitlan. By that time the two cities had expanded into one another, and together they formed a single large urban center (figure 8.6). When we refer to Tenochtitlan after 1473, what is usually meant is the combined twin cities of Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco.

  A large part of the central ceremonial precinct of Tlatelolco has been excavated, providing important information on Aztec urban architecture (figure 8.7). The double-stair main pyramid of Tlatelolco was quite similar to the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan in size and plan (see chapter 10). Associated with the central pyramid are numerous smaller temples and shrines. A circular temple dedicated to Ehecatl was the setting for some of the richest burials and offerings excavated at any Aztec site outside the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan (figure 8.7, lower right). Northeast of this was a “calendar temple” decorated with carved day name glyphs. A skull rack platform (small rectangular platform at the top of figure 8.7) had an adjacent burial of human skulls, arranged in neat rows and each perforated on the sides for hanging on poles (see chapter 10). In addition the Tlatelolco ceremonial precinct included an unusual sunken patio and numerous rectangular and circular altars and platforms.

  Figure 8.7 Map of the ceremonial zone at Tlatelolco; see also figure 13.12. The arms of the scale are 20 m long. (Author: Salvador Guilliem Arroyo; drawing: Fernando Botas; surveyor: Carlos González. Proyecto Tlatelolco 1987–2001, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia; reproduced with permission; from Guilliem Arroyo 1999:277)

  The central precinct of Tlatelolco was almost as luxurious and impressive as that of Tenochtitlan itself, and by the late 1400s the combined urban center of Tenochtitlan/Tlatelolco was the largest and richest city in the New World. What did it look like to visitors?

  Fictional Visit to the Imperial Capital

  This fictional vignette describes Tenochtitlan from the perspective of a visitor from the provinces.

  The young provincial lord Mihua (“Possessor of arrows”) has been invited to attend his first state ceremony at the imperial capital. He is the eldest son of the tlatoani of Yautepec, who cannot attend because of other commitments. Mihua crosses the mountains on foot with his personal servant, and they pass through several settlements on their way to one of the causeways that lead to Tenochtitlan. These cities and towns are larger and busier than those of his valley at home, he notes. As they start across the western causeway toward the capital, the young noble is greatly impressed at the huge city spread out before him (figures 8.5 and 8.6). He has never seen a road as wide or straight as this causeway, nor an aqueduct as large and well made as the one that runs along the road carrying fresh water to the city from springs at Chapultepec on the shore.16

  While on the causeway, Mihua marvels at the drawbridges that can be raised to let canoes pass through. He realizes that these could also be pulled up for defense in case of attack. But then who would ever attack this enormous and powerful city? The lake surrounding Tenochtitlan seems full of boats, particularly in the northern area around Tlatelolco, home of the central market. There are the small canoes of individual farmers or craftsmen bringing their goods to market, and the larger vessels with shaded seats carrying fancily dressed lords on their way to the capital
.

  At the outskirts of the island city Mihua sees miles and miles of greenery from the maize and vegetables that grow year-round in the chinampa plots. His servant comments that these densely planted fields make the farms back in Yautepec look pretty scraggly. The Yautepec countryside is known far and wide in the provinces for its highly fertile irrigated croplands, but even the most productive plot cannot match the exuberant maize, beans, and amaranth of the chinampas. Long straight canals run everywhere, including both thoroughfares for large boats carrying people and goods, and small canals for farmers moving among their fields. The visitors notice the small, flat-roofed houses of farmers built on solid land in the midst of their family plots.

  The provincial lord marvels at a high and mighty Mexica noble, who, dressed in incredible finery, rides in a flat-bottomed barge with a decorated awning for shade. Mihua complains to his servant about the luxurious treatment afforded the Mexica lord while a visiting prince from an important city like Yautepec has to fight his way along the causeway through crowds of merchants, servants, and other commoners.

  The visitors come to the end of the chinampa area, and the causeway widens into a road traversing the main residential zone of the city. Like the canals and chinampas, the roads and houses are all aligned along the same north–south and east–west grid that covers the city. Nonfarming commoners live in small houses similar to their farming cousins, but the houses are packed much closer together than anything back in Yautepec. Several generations of an extended family emerge from a modest house along the avenue, and Mihua is secretly pleased that even in the great Tenochtitlan commoners live crowded together in small houses, just like back home. The travelers come upon a sumptuous two-story house surrounded by well-tended gardens, obviously the palace of a noble. These luxurious buildings become more common along the avenue as the two proceed toward the city center, but smaller commoners' houses can be seen back behind the palaces, off the central thoroughfare.