Aztec Pre-Columbian Figure. Holding a mortar and pestle. 

Size: 5 X 3 3/4 X 9 1/2 in. 

#3951 . 

The Aztecs were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the post-Classic period from 1300 to 1521 AD. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica from the 14th to the 16th Centuries. Aztec culture was organized into city-states (altepetl), some of which joined to form alliances, political confederations, or empires. The Aztec Empire was a confederation of three city-states established in 1427: Tenochtitlan, the capital city of the Mexica or Tenochca, Tetzcoco, and Tlacopan, previously part of the Tepanec Empire, whose dominant power was Azcapotzalco. Although the term Aztecs is often narrowly restricted to the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, it is also broadly used to refer to Nahua polities or peoples of central Mexico in the pre-Hispanic era, as well as the Spanish Colonial era (1521-1821). The definitions of Aztec and Aztecs have long been the topic of scholarly discussion ever since German scientist Alexander von Humboldt established its common usage in the early 19th Century. The Nahuatl word aztēcah means “people from Aztlán, a mythical place of origin for several ethnic groups in central Mexico. Most ethnic groups of central Mexico in the post-classic period shared essential cultural traits of Mesoamerica, including maize cultivation, the social division between nobility (pipiltin) and commoners (macehualtin), a polytheistic pantheon (featuring deities like Tezcatlipoca, Tlaloc, and Quetzalcoatl), and the calendric system of 365 days. Particular to the Mexica of Tenochtitlan was the patron God Huitzilopochtli, twin pyramids, and the ceramic styles known as Aztec I to IV. The Mexica were late-comers to the Valley of Mexico, and founded the city-state of Tenochtitlan on unpromising islets in Lake Texcoco, later becoming the dominant power of the region. In 1519 the arrival of a small group of Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés heralded the swift collapse of the Empire when they allied with city-states opposed to the Mexica, particularly the Nahuatl-speaking Tlaxcalteca as well as other central Mexican polities. After the fall of Tenochtitlan on August 13th, 1521 and the capture of the emperor Cuauhtémoc, the Spanish founded Mexico City on the ruins of Tenochtitlan. From there they proceeded to conquer and assimilate Mesoamerican peoples into the Spanish Empire. The Spanish used the city-states on which the Aztec Empire had been built to rule the indigenous populations, via their local nobles. Those nobles pledged loyalty to the Spanish crown and converted (at least nominally) to Christianity, and, in return, were recognized as nobles by the Spanish crown. Nobles acted as intermediaries to convey taxes and mobilize labor for their new overlords, facilitating the establishment of Spanish colonial rule. Today, Aztec culture and history are primarily known through archaeological evidence found in excavations as well as from surviving Indigenous writings and eyewitness accounts by Spanish conquistadors. The famous illustrated bilingual (Spanish and Nahuatl) twelve-volume Florentine Codex created by the Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún, in collaboration with Indigenous Aztec informants, is considered to be comparable to the Rosetta Stone in deciphering and understanding pre-Columbian society, and the Aztecs in particular. At its height, Aztec culture had rich and complex philosophical, mythological, and religious traditions, as well as remarkable architectural and artistic accomplishments that continue to impact Central, North, and South American civilizations to this day.