# Mexican Archæology/Chapter 1

Table of Contents
CHAPTER I—MEXICO: TRIBAL HISTORY
AT the time of the conquest by the Spaniards of the province of Mexico, the dominant people was the Aztec population of Tenochtitlan (Mexico city), inhabiting a town built on an island in the lake of Tezcoco, or rather that portion of it known as the lake of Mexico. The Aztec were confessedly immigrants, who had wandered south less than five hundred years before the conquest; by their superiority as fighting-men they had won the hegemony over the kindred tribes which they found settled in the valley of Mexico, and had extended their power to both oceans and as far at least as the isthmus of Tehuantepec. Both they and their immediate predecessors spoke the same language, called Nahua (strictly, Nahuatl), and they appear to be a branch of the great Shoshonean family which reaches as far north as the state of Montana. Beyond this, their ethnography and language would seem to connect them rather with the coastal tribes of the far north-west than with those to the east of the Rockies, but on this point little can be said at present. Immediately to the north and north-west of the settled peoples of the valley, the steppe country was inhabited by tribes who lived mainly by hunting, called Chichimec and Otomi, the former being almost purely nomadic, the latter to some extent settled. The Chichimec spoke for the most part a language which was essentially Nahua, but the name itself possessed for the Mexicans rather a cultural than a linguistic significance, and meant little more than "nomadic hunters." The Otomi tongue was different, and extended down ​to the valley of Toluca, through the people known as Mazaua to the Matlatzinca. South of the last, among the Tlalhuica around Cuernavaca, Nahua again prevailed. In the hilly volcanic country around lakes Pazcuaro and Chapala, a third speech was found, the Tarascan, of which the exact affinities are still doubtful. The Rio de las Balsas appears to be about the southern limit of the Tarascan tongue, but its northern is less certain; it extends into Jalisco, and may at one time have reached up into Zacatecas where remains in Tarascan style have been discovered (at La Quemada). Roughly south of the Rio de las Balsas and a line drawn thence to Teotitlan is the Mixtec-Zapotec group of tongues; the Mixtec extending from Acatlan to Tototepec, and the Zapotec to the east, from the Nahuaspeaking Teotitlan to Tehuantepec, the Mazatec occupying the northern portion of this strip. The Mixtec-Zapotec language bears many structural analogies to the Otomi group mentioned above. Along the east coast, from the Panuco valley southward, were two peoples, speaking dialects of yet another language, the Maya tongue. In the north were the Huaxtec, primitive Maya, extending as far south as Tuxpan, where they were in touch with the linguistically related Totonac. To the north they stretched beyond the Panuco, but the remains of this region are practically unknown. There is evidence too that they once extended far further west than they did at the conquest, but the expansion of the Nahua had penned them up in the narrow strip of coast, and an Aztec fortress was established as far east as Meztitlan to keep the border. The Totonac, inhabiting Vera Cruz to the south, had suffered similarly from Mexican encroachment, and the river Nautla formed a strip of Aztec territory which almost severed their country in two. At the time of the conquest their principal centres were Papantla and Zacapoaxtla. East of them, ​in Coatzacoalcos and Tabasco, were the peoples known to the Mexicans as Olmec, Xicalanca and Nonoualca, who, according to legend, were once settled in the neighbourhood of Tlaxcala, but were driven thence by the historical Tlaxcalans when they immigrated into the country.
The early history of these tribes is very difficult to elucidate from the tangled mass of migration myths, often contradictory, which have survived. What may be termed the historical period starts only with the election of the first Aztec king, some years after the settlement of the tribe at Tenochtitlan, and this takes us back only to about 1376, or not much more than a century before the Spanish conquest. The Aztec, when they arrived, found a number of Nahua-speaking "Chichimec" in occupation of the valley, and these "Chichimec" had themselves found the remains of a culture far above their own, to which they gave the name of Toltec. Now the "Toltec question" has been hotly debated from early times; to the Mexicans the Toltec were the people of a golden age, and their state was the prototype of peaceful civilization. Some writers have gone so far as to deny them actual existence at all, regarding them as a purely mythical people to whom the Mexicans conveniently attributed the invention of all useful arts of which they could not readily explain the evolution otherwise. Others have exalted their culture to a pitch far above, one might almost say, the human, and have credited them with a knowledge transcending that of latter-day civilization. I do not propose to plunge into the welter of controversial theories, but to regard the matter from a strictly practical point of view, which seems to me to be as follows. The Aztec and their immediate forerunners the "Chichimec" were merely nomadic hunters when they settled in the valley, and their knowledge of arts and crafts, which need a settled life for development, had not advanced beyond a very ​primitive stage. They found the remains of a people who had for years been living as settled agriculturists, and ruined cities which their untutored minds regarded as something bordering on the marvellous. The agricultural population whom they subdued, more cultured but less warlike than they, told them stories of a powerful empire, stories which no doubt lost nothing in the telling. To this empire they gave the name of Toltec, from the city of Tulan (or Tollan) which was its reputed centre. Modern research has proved conclusively the existence, at those very localities especially associated with the Toltec, of pre-Aztec ruins, and of a relatively high culture which prevailed throughout the valley (and beyond) for a period considerably longer than that which elapsed between the Aztec immigration and the Spanish conquest. As a mere matter of evidence I cannot see that any name can be given to this pre-Aztec culture other than that of Toltec, and, further, that it is possible to deny at least a foundation in fact to the myths connected with this people. However, even so, the difficulties connected with the question are not entirely solved; Sahagun states definitely that the Toltec spoke Nahua, and relates a migration myth which brings them into contact with the Nahua peoples before their settlement in Tulan. Another legend makes the founder of their state a Chichimec, one Mixcoamazatzin, whose name bears a strong resemblance to that of the Chichimec hunting-god, Mixcoatl, compounded with the native word for the miraculous deer, mazatl, with which he was associated. Further, excavation has proved that before the "Toltec" culture, another of lower grade existed in the valley. This culture, at present the earliest of which traces can be found, strongly resembles that of the Tarascan, and it rather merges into that of the Toltec, while the latter is separated from that of the later Nahua by a definite line of demarcation. As far ​as the evidence goes at present, it is fair to draw the conclusion that the first settled agriculturists in the Mexican valley were of the same stock as the agricultural people around lake Pazcuaro; that upon them descended a Nahua tribe from the north, coming in sufficient strength to impose their language, who built up a culture which surprised the subsequent immigrants of similar race when, at a considerably later period, they followed in their footsteps. The tendency of rude hunting tribes to rapid development when they adopt settled life has not yet been fully recognized. There is no finer training for the human faculties than the pursuit of hunting; it hardens the body, sharpens the observation, and engenders a perpetual readiness to meet sudden emergencies. Agriculture on the other hand, while promoting the development of the useful arts to a certain pitch, is apt to result in stagnation. Students of African ethnography are well aware that nearly all the great kingdoms which have bloomed from time to time in Central Africa have had their origin in the descent of a nomadic tribe upon an agricultural, the former becoming sedentary and developing the arts which they received from the latter far beyond their previous limits. This point however is rather by way of illustration, for it does not wholly suffice to account for the Toltec civilization, though it helps to explain the rapidity with which the Aztec assimilated and developed the remains of it. The Toltec culture bears a definite relation to remains which occur at many sites in Oaxaca and Yucatan, these again are closely connected with the magnificent remains of the early Maya of Chiapas, Guatemala and Honduras. The exact relationship existing between the Maya and the Toltec can only be discussed after the archæology of the former has been considered, but it may be stated in anticipation that, as far as we can say at present, the finest Maya remains appear to antedate those of the Toltec, and ​therefore that the development of Toltec culture is in part due to Mayan inspiration filtered, I believe, through the early inhabitants of the Zapotec country.
The consideration of what may be called the mythical period of Mexican history is rendered all the more difficult by the fact that all the legends have been collected among later immigrants who wished as far as possible to trace some connection between themselves and the earlier settlers. Toltec descent, if it could be established, raised a family at once to a patrician status, and most of the immigrant tribes sought their rulers among the descendants of a Toltec house. There is therefore the danger of fictitious genealogies, such as exist among so many Sudanese tribes desirous of proving "Arab" descent; but apart from this we are confronted at the outset with a difficulty which is not easy of solution. Sahagun states that the first inhabitants, the Toltec, the other Nahua, the Olmec and the Michoacans, arrived at the Panuco valley and worked down the east coast before turning inland. Ixtlilxochitl represents the Toltec as coasting down lower California and Jalisco. Of the two writers Sahagun is by far the more trustworthy, but at the same time it is difficult to see what Ixtlilxochitl had to gain by deliberately transferring the scene of the migration from one coast to the other. The story of Sahagun is, in brief, as follows. The migrants penetrated as far as Guatemala, and then settled for a time at a place called Tamoanchan, mention of which occurs in nearly all migration legends. Here the wise men who led them departed, taking the god under whose guidance they travelled and the picture-writings which contained their lore, and sailing eastward over the sea. The rest remained behind, under the governance of certain lesser sages, of whom the chief were Oxomoco and Cipactonal, "awaiting the dawn for the administration of society." The Olmec also split from the main stem at this point. From here the others went to ​Xomiltepec, and then to Teotihuacan, a site remarkable for extensive pre-Aztec ruins, where they elected rulers, and then to Coatepec, where the Otomi branched off. Later the tribes who still remained associated foregathered at Chicomoztoc, another locality mentioned in nearly all the myths, where they established cave-temples. Hence the Toltec departed to Tulanzinco, and subsequently to Tulan; after they had separated, the Tarascans also split off, finding their way to Michoacan. Later still the Nahua, including the Tepanec (founders of Azcapotzalco), the Acolhua (of Tezcoco), and the eventual populations of Chalco, Uexotzinco and Tlaxcala respectively. The Aztec alone remained wandering in the northern steppes until they too eventually reached the valley of Mexico. It is hardly worth while entering into the details of Toltec history as recorded subsequent to their settlement; the "Annals of Quauhtitlan," a native tradition of considerable age and value, gives a list of five kings; Torquemada and Ixtlilxochitl furnish an entirely different list, the latter mentioning one king in addition to those quoted by Torquemada. All that need be said is that the Toltec were ruled by priest-kings, representatives of their god Quetzalcoatl, who, according to one legend, was their first ruler, and that the downfall of their power was heralded by the separation of the temporal and religious authority. The cause of that downfall seems to have been the gradual incursion of later Nahua immigrants; signs of degeneration are not wanting in the legends connected with the later reigns, in particular the introduction of human sacrifice. At the fall of the kingdom, a great emigration took place in the direction of the east, to Tabasco and beyond, and, so the story tells, via Tehuacan and Teotitlan to Soconusco. Many of the Toltec however remained behind, especially in Colhuacan, Cholula and Uexotzinco. The arrival of the Tlaxcalans, which probably occurred about this time, ​drove the Olmec further east in the path of the Toltec, with whom they claimed to be one and the same people. No doubt however the Tlaxcalans absorbed a large percentage of Toltec blood, a fact which intensified their friendship for the people of Uexotzinco and their ineradicable hostility to the Aztec. From a careful consideration of many points of evidence, I am inclined to think that the date given by the "Annals of Quauhtitlan "for the destruction of Tulan, viz. 1064, is not far wrong; how long the state had lasted is more difficult to say, but that it must have flourished for an extended period is obvious from the fact that the remains characteristic of the Toltec culture at Azcapotzalco form a stratum over three metres thick.
Fig. 2.—Detail from the Boturini MS., showing the commencement of the Aztec migration. From Left to Right: Aztlan on an island; the Aztec crossing the water; the date i. tecpatl; the city Colhuacan; eight other tribes, reading downwards, the Matlatzinca, Tepanec, Chicimec, Malinalca, Cuitlauaca, Xochimilca, Chalca, and Uexotzinca. (After Seler)
For the first half-century after their establishment at Tenochtitlan, the Aztec were ruled by a council, composed no doubt of the heads of clans; but in the year 1376 they elected a king. Nothing illustrates better the idea among the Mexicans that kingly power was inherent in certain families, than the fact that they elected Acamapitzin, whose mother was a daughter of the ruler of Colhuacan, Coxcoxtli, and therefore of Toltec descent. Simultaneously the inhabitants of Tlaltelolco elected a ruler, Quaquapitzauac, said to be connected with the ruling family of Azcapotzalco. At this time the most powerful cities in the valley were Tezcoco, whither Quinatzin had removed the Acolhuan court, which was now ruled by his successor Techotlala; Azcapotzalco, ruled by the Tepanec Tezozomoc, descended from Acolhuatzin; Coatlichan, where a member of Tzontecomatl's family held sway; and Colhuacan, under the kingship of Coxcoxtli, of the race of Pochotl the son of Topiltzin the last Toltec king.
​Acamapitzin was followed in 1396 by Uitziliuitl, and he in 1417 by Chimalpopoca, Tlacateotl having succeeded to the rulership of Tlaltelolco in 1406. Meanwhile Techotlala had died, and Ixtlilxochitl had become ruler of Tezcoco about 1400. The Mendoza codex assigns the conquest of certain cities to these kings, but it is probable that in these expeditions they acted merely as allies of Tezcoco or Azcapotzalco. During this period the power of Azcapotzalco began to expand, and, aided by the Mexicans, Tezozomoc, the ruler of that city, attacked Ixtlilxochitl of Tezcoco. The obstinate war which followed was the commencement of the struggle between the Tepanec and Acolhua for the hegemony of the valley, but for the time the latter prevailed, and a hollow peace was made. This lasted but a short time, and Ixtlilxochitl was eventually killed in an ambuscade by the Tepanec, who had utilized the interval in winning over certain of his allies. The Tepanec thus became masters of Tezcoco in 1418, and Nezahualcoyotl, the legitimate heir, was driven into exile. Tezozomoc, the Tepanec ruler, did not however enjoy his success long, but died about 1425 at an advanced age. So old was he, it is related, that he was at last kept in a basket surrounded with wool for warmth, and his final years were embittered by dreams that Nezahualcoyotl in the form of an eagle devoured his heart, or, as a lion, sucked his blood. His death brought internal dissension upon Azcapotzalco; one of his younger sons, by name Maxtla, assassinated the heir-designate and seized the power. He seems to have been the most energetic of the members of the ruling house, but lacked his father's political wariness, since he began to quarrel with Mexico. This was a fatal mistake, since it caused the Aztec, secretly at first, to intrigue with the exiled Nezahualcoyotl, who had, moreover, many friends among the cities where the Acolhuan element was strong. In 1417 Itzcoatl succeeded to power in ​Tenochtitlan; the Aztec had by this time increased considerably in numbers and prosperity, and the new ruler proved himself a man of action and an excellent general. He definitely espoused the cause of the exile, with the result that the latter, aided by the people of Tlaxcala and Uexotzinco, succeeded in recapturing Tezcoco and killing every Tepanec in the city. At the same time Coatlichan was stormed by the Chalca, who had also offered assistance to Nezahualcoyotl. These events brought matters to a head; Maxtla, refusing peace, rashly sent an expedition against Tenochtitlan, and the populace in terror wished to submit. But Itzcoatl succeeded in inspiring them with courage, and, aided by Quauhtlatoa, who had just been elected to the kingship of Tlaltelolco, they inflicted a signal defeat upon the invading force. Nor was this all, Itzcoatl followed up his success by attacking Azcapotzalco, which was successfully stormed and Maxtla was killed. Meanwhile the forces of Tlaxcala and Uexotzinco had captured Tenayocan, and the Tepanec domination was at an end. The Aztec were now actually the paramount power in the valley, but Itzcoatl was too wise to insist upon the fact. He recognized Nezahualcoyotl as his equal, and contracted with him an alliance on equal terms, by which means he won the support of the large Acolhua population. He also conciliated the favour of the defeated Tepanec; Azcapotzalco, it is true, was reduced to the level of a subordinate city, but over Tlacopan, another Tepanec town, he placed Totoquiuatzin, a descendant of Tezozomoc, as ruler and admitted him to the confederacy on the terms that the booty which was won by the allied arms should be distributed in the following proportions; to Tenochtitlan two-fifths, to Tezcoco two-fifths, and to Tlacopan one-fifth. The one essential of power Itzcoatl retained for himself; he stipulated that the military policy of the allies should be directed from Tenochtitlan.
​But if the political power was concentrated in Tenochtitlan, Tezcoco under the wise rule of Nezahualcoyotl became the intellectual and artistic centre of the valley. The government was reformed, and a code of laws drawn up which was regarded as the pattern of all legislation; schools were instituted for the study of poetry, astronomy, music and painting, and the city was embellished by the construction of temples and gardens. However the fall of the Tepanec did not bring peace to the valley; many cities began to be jealous of the Aztec and their newly-acquired hegemony, and the Mendoza codex gives a list of cities which were conquered during the reign of Itzcoatl, among them Quauhtitlan, Cuitlauac, Xochimilco, Chalco, and Quauhnauac (Cuernavaca). Yet these "conquests" were not on the same scale as that of Azcapotzalco; from this time forward the Aztec were content with exacting merely a nominal submission from the towns which they subdued, and imposing tribute. As long as the latter was paid punctually no interference was made either with the local rulers or their administration, though theoretically the heir of a "king" who died was supposed to seek confirmation in his office at the hands of the ruler of Tenochtitlan.
* 1. Colossal stone head of Coyolxauhqui
* 2. Stone figure of Chalchiuhtlicue
* (Scale: 1, 1/25th; 2, 1/3rd)
Of Zapotec and Mixtec history, apart from that of Mexico, we know practically nothing. We hear of a mythical Mixtec king named Dzahuindanda, who possessed a magic sack which he was wont to take to a desolate mountain and shake, after appropriate incantations, producing thereby as many soldiers as he required. Less legendary are the Zapotec Zociyoeza and his son Zociyopi, the former of whom ruled at Teozapotlan, the latter at Tehuantepec. Zociyoeza in fact opposed the Mexican advance, and held out against the invading troops for four years entrenched in Quiengola, until at last he was able to conclude an honourable peace. Between the Mixtec and Zapotec, hostilities ​seem to have been not uncommon, and from a story told by Burgoa it would appear that the Zapotec did not form a very large state. The principal ruler was the chief of Teozapotlan, but his resources could not have been great, since he asked a Mixtec king for troops to defend his city while he was absent upon a campaign against the Mixe in Tehuantepec. The same author relates that after being successful in his operations the chief rashly laid claim to certain Mixtec territory, a demand which resulted in the seizure by the Mixtec of a large slice of the Oaxaca region, and the founding of the Mixtec town of Xoxocotlan.
The history of the Pazcuaro plateau seems to have been very similar to that of the Mexican valley. Originally the shores of the lake were occupied by a population of agriculturists and fishers, probably akin to the pre-Toltec inhabitants around the lake of Tezcoco. Upon them descended, from the hills around Zacapu, certain tribes of wandering hunters led by a tribal hero Ticatamé. The new-comers mingled and intermarried with the original population and adopted their habits, but friction arose, Ticatamé was killed and the idol of the immigrants, Curicaveri, was captured. Sicuirancha, son of Ticatame, called upon the god for aid, the foe were smitten with a pestilence and the idol recaptured. In course of time the immigrants became a ruling class, and to the whole population the name Tarascan was given, from Taras, another hunting-god who was identified with the Chichimec Mixcoatl. It is possible that this ruling class was originally of Chichimec stock, and its descent upon Pazcuaro was part of that general movement southward which took place among the hunting tribes of the north towards the end of the Toltec rule. If this is so they must have abandoned their own language in favour of the tongue of the original agricultural population with whom they intermarried. It is interesting to find in Michoacan a ​definite story of a Toltec immigration. A body of Toltec, specified as skilled workers in gold, stone and feather-work, are said to have travelled from Vera Cruz via Tehuacan, Coyoacan and Tenochtitlan to Xiuhquillan (Tzitzipu, on L. Pazcuaro), where they settled. The Tarascan of later date bore a high reputation as stonecutters, mosaic-workers and feather-workers, and this fact, together with the presence in Michoacan of a peculiar class of pottery with polychrome champ-levé ornament, which is also characteristic of the pre-Aztec remains of the valley, suggest that Toltec influence had in fact penetrated into Michoacan.
Totonac history is as deficient as that of the Zapotec. Tradition related that they were immigrants into the country where they were found by the Spaniards, and lived there for about six and a half centuries in complete independence. Less than two centuries after their immigration, certain "Chichimec" tribes of lower culture settled on their north-western borders, and in course of time considerable intercourse, and even intermarriage, sprang up between them. Eventually civil war broke out among the Totonac, much of the country was laid waste and sections of the population emigrated from the district. It is quite possible that the "Toltec" who are said to have found their way to Michoacan may have been a body of Totonac emigrants who left their country at this period. The result of the civil strife was that a great portion of Totonac region fell under "Chichimec" domination. Three kings of this nationality held sway, until, in the reign of the last, the Aztec conquered the country and reduced it to the status of a province as related above.
MEXICO
Colossal stone figure of Coatlicue