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The great temple of Tlatelolco as pictured in the Codex Azcatitlan, mid-17th Century.

This page, opposite the coronation of the elder Moteuczoma, shows several episodes highlighting the role of Tenochtitlan's partners in his wars of expansion. Tlatelolco's place-name glyph is shown at the pyramid's base, on which is also superimposed a temple and the glyph for the town of Chalca Atenco. To its left are Chalca captives wearing the quauhcozcatl or slave collar attached to ropes. They are held prisoner by Nezahualcoyotl, ruler of Texcoco.

To the captives' right is a fire drill referring to the Toxhiuhmolpilia or binding of years ceremony of Moteuczoma's reign in 1455. At the top right this ceremony is also shown celebrated at Chalco Atenco and the town of Acolman. Below the two smaller temples two men lie dead with one--connected to the temple by a line--possibly a Chalca lord. Underneath them is shown the death of Tlatelolco's tlatoani Cuauhtlahtoa, who is succeeded by Moquihuix, leader of the city until the Mexica civil war of 1473.

The European influenced three-dimensional style of the temple stands out in this codex more than others. Its prominence here and in earlier scenes where it is shown both in the mythical homeland of Aztlan and constructed in Mexico before Tenochtitlan's together with the coronation of the Tlatelolco's first tlatoani--otherwise described in detail only in the city's famous annals--and the attention it pays to local episodes while illustrating the conquest, have been used to argue the book originated there.

Whereas some scholars have seen the Azcatitlan's presentation of history as somewhat "objective", the artists' decision to use this three-dimensional form primarily for Tlatelolco's temple and bi-dimensional depictions of Tenochtitlan's temple for most of the codex has lead others to speculate this was intended as a subversive message meant to delegitimize the Tenochcas in the eyes of its Mexica audiences.

Regardless, the attention given to Tlatelolcan narratives in general during the early colonial era--the Florentine Codex among them--was a frustration voiced by fellow Mexica rivals. The Nahua historian Alvarado Tezozomoc, who was of royal Tenochca lineage and compiled his own history, the Cronica Mexicayotl, based on the traditions told to him by other highborn noblemen from Tenochtitlan, addressed this directly while writing to their descendants:

>And as for Tlatelolco: never will [these accounts] be taken from us, for truly they were not only in [the Tlatelolca’s] keeping. But these accounts of the ancient ones, this book of their accounts in Mexico, we have inherited. These accounts are indeed in our keeping. Therefore we too, but especially our sons, our grandsons, our offspring, those who will issue from us, they too will always guard them.

In 1521, under the orders of Pedro de Alvarado the great temple of Tlatelolco was captured and set ablaze by the conquistador Gutierre de Badajoz during the war between the Mexica and allied Spanish/Tlaxcallan forces. For this he was awarded a coat of arms with two golden towers by the Spanish Crown.

Full Codex is available here: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84582686/f6.item

References

Barlow, R. (1944). Gutierre de Badajoz, conquistador del Cu de Tlatelolco. Tlatelolco a través de los tiempos. Memorias de la Academia de la Historia, 2. México

Barlow, R. (1949). El Códice Azcatitlan. Journal de La Société Des Américanistes, 38, 101–135. http://www.jstor.org.kbcc.ezproxy.cuny.edu/stable/24720803

Francisco, D. (2016). Codex Chimalpahin : society and politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Texcoco, Culhuacan, and other Nahua altepetl in central Mexico : the Nahuatl and Spanish annals and accounts collected and recorded by don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin. University Of Oklahoma Press.

Navarrete, F. (2004). The Hidden Codes of the Codex Azcatitlan. Res (Cambridge, Mass.), 45(45), 144–160.

Rajagopalan, A. H. (2019). Reading Between the Lines: An Indigenous Account of Conquest on the Missing Folios of Codex Azcatitlan. Iberoamericana (Madrid, Spain), 19(71), 51–76.

Credits: Tesoros de Wiracocha

Sun God, K'inich Ajaw???

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This stone beaker features a carved anthropomorphic face with a stepped headdress on the upper half of one side of the vessel. The abstracted face is indicated by the prominent brow ridge and nose with a carved mouth and circles for eyes. The vessel is covered with incised designs featuring bi-cephalic serpent motifs and geometric forms. The shape of this vessel is similar to a type of beaker (kero) known from the Central Andes.

The Condorhuasi-Alamito peoples were llama pastoralists in the area that is now the Catamarca province of Argentina. They were skilled artisans in a variety of media, including ceramic, metal, and stone. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Condorhuasi-Alamito peoples maintained extensive long-distance contacts with other regions, including the important site of Tiwanaku, near Lake Titicaca in what is now Bolivia.

The Indigenous Languages of the Americas takes stock of what is known about the history and classification of these languages and language families. It identifies the gaps in knowledge and puts them into perspective, and it assesses differences of opinion. It also resolves some issues and makes new contributions of its own.

The nine chapters of the book deal incisively with the major themes involving these languages: the classification and history of the Indigenous languages of North American, Middle American (Mexico and Central America), and South American; difficulties involving names of the languages; origins of the languages of the New World; unclassified, phantom, fake, and spurious languages in the Americas; recent hypotheses of remote linguistic relationships; the linguistic areas of the Americas; contact languages, including pidgins, lingua francas, and mixed languages; and loanwords and other new words in the native languages of the Americas.