The Atlantean figures are four anthropomorphic statues belonging to the Toltec culture in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. These figures are "massive statues of Toltec warriors". [1] They take their post-Columbian name from the European tradition of similar Atlas or Atalante figures in classical architecture.
Though the most famous Atlantean figures reside in Tula, the Olmecs were the first to use Atlantean figures on a relief discovered in Potrero Nuevo. [2] Mayan sculptors also created "Atlantean" figures in Chichen Itza. Furthermore, the Aztecs also created warrior statues strongly inspired by these Atlantean figures in Tula. [3]
The Atlantean figures in Tula are hand-carved statues made from the available stone in the area: limestone, sandstone, and volcanic rock. To carve them, sculptors would have used stone tools, such as chisels for fine sculpting, scrapers of various sizes, and stone hammers. Additional smaller and softer stones were used for smoothing. The process of creating these figures would have been very time-consuming, which is an indication to the importance of these figures to its civilization.
At Potrero Nuevo near San Lorenzo, part of San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, there is an altar supported by two Atlantean figures created by The Olmecs. It is believed to be the "oldest Mesoamerican example of the themes of atlantes holding up altars or ceilings" [2] The atlantes at this site are also unique compared to those found at other sites. The atlantes are not carved in the round like they are at later sites, rather they are carved as a relief.
Tula has long been considered the capital for the Toltec people. At Tula one can find the Temple of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli ('House of the Morning Star' or 'The Temple of the Lord in the Dawn'), where there are four Atlantean figures standing over 4.6 metres (15 ft) tall. The figures here are depicted as wearing "stylized butterfly breastplates, sun-shaped shields on their backs, feathered headdresses and carry spear throwers and a supply of spears". [4]
The exact dates for when Atlantean figures in Tula were carved is unknown. However, rough estimates can be made by dating the sites. The construction of the Toltec empire has been dated to approximately A.D. 750. [5] This dates mark the earliest time that the figures could have been carved.
Built by the Maya people, Chichen Itza is a site located on the northern center of the Yucatan Peninsula and contains what is known as the Temple of Warriors. At the top of the temple, used as support for the roof, run columns of the carved warriors, each wearing a feathered headdress, a butterfly-shaped pectoral, and holding a dart thrower and darts. [1] Like the Atlantean figures in Tula, the figures from Chichen Itza have not been dated exactly. The construction of Chichen Itza took place between A.D.100-250.
Built by the Maya people, Chichen Itza is a site located on the northern center of the Yucatan Peninsula and contains what is known as the Temple of Warriors. At the top of the temple, used as support for the roof, run columns of the carved warriors, each wearing a feathered headdress, a butterfly-shaped pectoral, and holding a dart thrower and darts. [1] Like the Atlantean figures in Tula, the figures from Chichen Itza have not been dated exactly. The construction of Chichen Itza took place between A.D.100-250.
The Aztec Atlantean figures were created by an unknown Aztec artist ca. 1500. They are made of basalt and measure to be about 120x42x37 centimeters. Currently, the five figures are located at La Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City. The Aztec Atlantean figures were inspired by the Toltec Atlantean figures, which is visible through their resembling structure and similar iconography such as their traditional military attire, spears, clay nose bars, which is symbolic of military prowess, and the butterfly breast plate. [6] The butterfly breastplate is significant as butterflies were symbolic of warriors, fire, death, and rebirth. The Aztecs believed butterflies to be the embodiment of Aztec souls, specifically the souls of warriors slain in battle. [7]
The five atlantean figures were located in Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital which was believed by the Aztec to be the center of the universe. [8] The statues were arranged with one in the center and four surrounding it, positioned in the North, East, South, and West. [6] This specific setup is related to Aztec cosmology as it was representative of the axis Mundi, Tenochtitlan, and the four cardinal directions. The cardinal directions represent the four quadrants of the cosmos and is decided by the path of the sun. [9] Each quadrant of the Earth holds power, brought together and unified by a fifth power in the middle, the axis mundi. The cardinal directions were a foundational aspect to Aztec society and constituted the layout for the city of Tenochtitlan and is the principle on which the aztec calendar was built. [8] Each quadrant was affiliated with specific deities, sacred trees, colors, or birds. [10]
Of these five atlantean figures, one was female while the rest were male. One bearded male warrior originally stood in the center of the group, while three other male soldier stood North, East and South. The fifth sculpture, a female warrior, stood West. These warriors marked the center and four directions of the universe, and were meant to guard the sun. [3] The Aztecs constantly strived to prove their rule was divinely fated and aligned with the desires of the cosmos. Aztecs used sculptural monuments as a way to commemorate significant events of Aztec history to reinforce their cosmic destiny and imperial aspirations. These figures typically were decorated with cosmic iconography to represent the connection between Aztec historical events and cosmic destiny. [9] The five atlantean figures may go beyond just representing the cardinal directions and axis mundi, but also to commemorate the migration led by Huitzilopochtli from Aztlan and the discovery of Tenochtitlan. The central figure, which represents the axis mundi, in turn represents Tenochtitlan and the four surrounding figures represent the four ancestral cities of the Valley of Mexico which surrounded the Empire. [8] Another explanation is that during the migration, Huitzilopochtli manifested into four sacred bundles, called tlaquimilolli. These bundles were carried by four Aztec individuals, three males and one female, who were called, Tezcacoatl, Cuauhcoatl, Apanecatl and Chimalma. This story is depicted in pictorial sequence in the Codex Boturini. It could be explained that the four Atlantean figures represent the four individuals whom carried Huitzilopochtli to Tenochtitlan, which is represented by the central figure depicting the axis mundi. [11]
Tula, the ancient Toltec capital, collapsed in the 12th century, before the Aztecs established their own city-states. [12] The Aztec people originally migrated from Aztlan across the central highlands before they reached the valley of Mexico, where they established Tenochtitlan. During their migration, they passed through the ruins of Tula.
The Aztecs regarded their predecessors, the Toltecs, as great warriors. The Toltecs conquered nearby peoples and then were paid tribute at Tula. [13] Similar to the Toltecs, the Aztecs utilized tribute-towns to pay maize and other goods to Tenochtitlan. [14] Toltecayotl, which translates in Nahuatl to "to have a Toltec heart", was a term that indicated greatness, displaying the Aztecs' reverence of the Toltecs. According to Richard Townsend,
"[Toltecayotl] was to excel, to be worthy, to possess extraordinary qualities in the manner of the ancients." [15]
The Toltec Empire was a former warrior nation whom the Aztec admired and revered. The purposeful similarities between the Toltec and Aztec figures is done to draw association between the two empires and bring legitimacy to the Aztec rule through association with their nobility and culture. The Aztecs viewed the Toltecs as the epitome of aesthetic sensibility, military prowess, and political success. [16] The Aztec figures symbolized the ideal of a noble warrior through consciously imitating the Toltec atlantean figures and drawing an association between Aztec warriors and the powerful, fearless Toltec warriors. As well, by demonstrating a ruler's connection to the Toltec lineage, it substantiated and legitimized their authority, reminding the Aztec they are descendants of the noble, royal line of the Toltecs, acting as cosmic confirmation for their rule. [17]
The Atlantean figures of Tenochtitlan were not the only sculptures that showed resemblance to the sculpture of Tula. Aztec standard-bearer statues, seating figures with flagpoles, are very similar to those found in Tula. Furthermore, the Aztecs created chacmools, reclining figures used for rituals, based on those that they encountered in Tula. [9]
Richard Townsend has said that "the Aztecs drew on ancient artistic themes to associate themselves with the great traditions of Mesoamerican antiquary." [18] In "State and Cosmos in the Art of Tenochtitlan", Townsend explores whether Aztec sculpture maintains continuity with or diverges from sculpture of the past. Townsend:
"The Mexica formed an art that would help to integrate their realm ideologically, and that would simultaneously serve to affirm the Mexica as legitimate successors to the great nations of the past." [19]
Townsend explores the dichotomy between continuity and disjunction by comparing Aztec warrior figures to Toltec Atlantean figures. He argues the some Aztecs figures possess characteristics especially similar to those of the Atlanteans from Tula. For example, he identifies one figure whose body is more contained within a planar, monolithic space.The expression is less defined and the carved lines are less vivid. According to Townsend, this figure displays continuity. Townsend then observes another Aztec Atlantean figure that to him represents disjunction. The figure shows influence of more common Mexica style. Townsend points out greater detail, bold lines, deeper relief, and swelling of the face. By looking closely at specific Aztec Atlantean figures, Townsend proves that the Aztecs imitated Toltec Atlantean figures but also integrated their own style and traditions. [9]
There is indication that Atlantean figures "express the rise of new kind of military order and associated types of behaviour ". [20] Between A.D. 850 and A.D. 900, archaeological evidence in the form of an increased number of emblems found throughout Mesoamerica support the idea that there was a "shift in leadership from the traditional one of paramount lord supported by lesser nobles (reflected in the radial stable networks and outlying elite complexes) to one that recast these supporting groups in the form of military orders". [21] Mesoamerican Atlantean figures are seen to be the representation of this shift in political thinking.
Tlaloc is the god of rain in Aztec religion. He was also a deity of earthly fertility and water, worshipped as a giver of life and sustenance. This came to be due to many rituals, and sacrifices that were held in his name. He was feared, but not maliciously, for his power over hail, thunder, lightning, and even rain. He is also associated with caves, springs, and mountains, most specifically the sacred mountain where he was believed to reside. Mount Tlaloc is very important in understanding how rituals surrounding this deity played out. His followers were one of the oldest and most universal in ancient Mexico.
A chacmool is a form of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican sculpture depicting a reclining figure with its head facing 90 degrees from the front, supporting itself on its elbows and supporting a bowl or a disk upon its stomach. These figures possibly symbolised slain warriors carrying offerings to the gods; the bowl upon the chest was used to hold sacrificial offerings, including pulque, tamales, tortillas, tobacco, turkeys, feathers, and incense. In Aztec examples, the receptacle is a cuauhxicalli. Chacmools were often associated with sacrificial stones or thrones. The chacmool form of sculpture first appeared around the 9th century AD in the Valley of Mexico and the northern Yucatán Peninsula.
The Toltec culture was a pre-Columbian Mesoamerican culture that ruled a state centered in Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico, during the Epiclassic and the early Post-Classic period of Mesoamerican chronology, reaching prominence from 950 to 1150 CE. The later Aztec culture considered the Toltec to be their intellectual and cultural predecessors and described Toltec culture emanating from Tōllān[ˈtoːlːãːn̥] as the epitome of civilization. In the Nahuatl language the word Tōltēkatl[toːɬˈteːkat͡ɬ] (singular) or Tōltēkah[toːɬˈteːkaḁ] (plural) came to take on the meaning "artisan". The Aztec oral and pictographic tradition also described the history of the Toltec Empire, giving lists of rulers and their exploits.
Aztec mythology is the body or collection of myths of the Aztec civilization of Central Mexico. The Aztecs were Nahuatl-speaking groups living in central Mexico and much of their mythology is similar to that of other Mesoamerican cultures. According to legend, the various groups who were to become the Aztecs arrived from the north into the Anahuac valley around Lake Texcoco. The location of this valley and lake of destination is clear – it is the heart of modern Mexico City – but little can be known with certainty about the origin of the Aztec. There are different accounts of their origin. In the myth the ancestors of the Mexica/Aztec came from a place in the north called Aztlan, the last of seven nahuatlacas to make the journey southward, hence their name "Azteca." Other accounts cite their origin in Chicomoztoc, "the place of the seven caves," or at Tamoanchan.
In Aztec religion, Coyolxāuhqui is a daughter of the priestess Cōātlīcue. She was the leader of her brothers, the Centzon Huitznahua. She led her brothers in an attack against their mother, Cōātlīcue, when they learned she was pregnant, convinced she dishonored them all. The attack is thwarted by Coyolxāuhqui's other brother, Huitzilopochtli, the national deity of the Mexicas.
Huitzilopochtli is the solar and war deity of sacrifice in Aztec religion. He was also the patron god of the Aztecs and their capital city, Tenochtitlan. He wielded Xiuhcoatl, the fire serpent, as a weapon, thus also associating Huitzilopochtli with fire.
In Aztec religion, Xiuhcoatl[ʃiʍˈkoːaːt͡ɬ] was a mythological serpent, regarded as the spirit form of Xiuhtecuhtli, the Aztec fire deity sometimes represented as an atlatl or a weapon wielded by Huitzilopochtli. Xiuhcoatl is a Classical Nahuatl word that translates as "turquoise serpent" and also carries the symbolic and descriptive translation of "fire serpent".
The Ollamaliztli was a sport with ritual associations played since at least 1650 BC by the pre-Columbian people of Ancient Mesoamerica. The sport had different versions in different places during the millennia, and a modernized version of the game, ulama, is still played by the indigenous populations in some places.
A tzompantli or skull rack was a type of wooden rack or palisade documented in several Mesoamerican civilizations, which was used for the public display of human skulls, typically those of war captives or other sacrificial victims. It is a scaffold-like construction of poles on which heads and skulls were placed after holes had been made in them. Many have been documented throughout Mesoamerica, and range from the Epiclassic through early Post-Classic. In 2017 archeologists announced the discovery of the Hueyi Tzompantli, with more than 650 skulls, in the archeological zone of the Templo Mayor in Mexico City.
Mesoamerican pyramids form a prominent part of ancient Mesoamerican architecture. Although similar in some ways to Egyptian pyramids, these New World structures have flat tops and stairs ascending their faces. The largest pyramid in the world by volume is the Great Pyramid of Cholula, in the east-central Mexican state of Puebla. The builders of certain classic Mesoamerican pyramids have decorated them copiously with stories about the Hero Twins, the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl, Mesoamerican creation myths, ritualistic sacrifice, etc. written in the form of Maya script on the rises of the steps of the pyramids, on the walls, and on the sculptures contained within.
The Aztec religion encompasses a complex range of practices and beliefs, being generally polytheistic while also embracing a certain tendency towards monistic pantheism. To some practitioners within the empire, the Nahua concept of teotl was represented most purely as the supreme dual god Ometeotl, while the empire’s official religion also included a vast and diverse pantheon of gods with various attributes and tutelary associations. The popular religion tended to embrace the mythological and polytheistic aspects, even as the Aztec Empire's elite state religion sponsored both the monism of the upper classes and the popular heterodoxies.
Mesoamerican architecture is the set of architectural traditions produced by pre-Columbian cultures and civilizations of Mesoamerica, traditions which are best known in the form of public, ceremonial and urban monumental buildings and structures. The distinctive features of Mesoamerican architecture encompass a number of different regional and historical styles, which however are significantly interrelated. These styles developed throughout the different phases of Mesoamerican history as a result of the intensive cultural exchange between the different cultures of the Mesoamerican culture area through thousands of years. Mesoamerican architecture is mostly noted for its pyramids, which are the largest such structures outside of Ancient Egypt.
The Coatlicue statue is one of the most famous surviving Aztec sculptures. It is a 2.52 metre (8.3 ft) tall andesite statue by an unidentified Mexica artist. Although there are many debates about what or who the statue represents, it is usually identified as the Aztec deity Coatlicue ("Snakes-Her-Skirt"). It is currently located in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. Originally displayed in the Mexica city of Tenochtitlan, the momentous statue was buried after the 1521 Spanish conquest of the city and excavated roughly 270 years later in 1790.
The Coyolxāuhqui Stone is a carved, circular Aztec stone, depicting the mythical being Coyolxāuhqui ("Bells-Her-Cheeks"), in a state of dismemberment and decapitation by her brother, the patron deity of the Aztecs, Huitzilopochtli. It was rediscovered in 1978 at the site of the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan, now in Mexico City. This relief is one of the best known Aztec monuments and one of the few great Aztec monuments that have been found fully in situ.
The pre-Columbian history of the territory now making up the country of Mexico is known through the work of archaeologists and epigraphers, and through the accounts of Spanish conquistadores, settlers and clergymen as well as the indigenous chroniclers of the immediate post-conquest period.
The Teocalli of the Sacred War is the name given by archaeologist Alfonso Caso to a monolithic pre-Columbian miniature of an Aztec temple, thought by some to have served as a throne for Motecuhzoma II.
Chichen Itza and Tula have numerous architectural similarities in a number of their constructions. This Toltec-Maya connection is widely considered powerful, unprecedented, and unique in Mesoamerica. Unlike most Maya sites, some of Chichen Itza's buildings have the traits of the Toltecs, a historically powerful indigenous group from modern-day Mexico. The explanation of these similarities is a point of controversy among the scholars of the Toltec and Maya fields. Certain historical records caused many early scholars of the region to assume that a Toltec invasion from Tula, Hidalgo, usually placed in the ninth or tenth centuries, was responsible for a new wave of Mexican-style Maya buildings after the rest of the buildings in Chichen Itza were built. Other historical accounts imply a migration from Tula to Chichen Itza. An account of the Tula records a ruler of the Toltecs travelling east, which, paired with another account of Chichen that records a ruler from the west coming and teaching the Maya of that city many things, supported a direct influence of the Toltecs on the Maya around 900–1000 A.D. However, recent radiocarbon dating suggests that Chichen Itza's ‘mexicanized’ and pure Maya constructions were built at the same time, and that both were built prior to any recorded Toltec invasion, and prior to the banishing of the semi-historical ruler. The precise connection between these two nations is unknown, and fiercely contested among scholars of Toltecs and Maya, but it is not disputed that no other counterparts to these two cities are found in the 800 mile distance between them. Established contradicting theories and a lack of information cause the precise relationship between Chichen Itza and Tula, Hidalgo to be fervently contested.
In Aztec mythology, Creator-gods are the only four Tezcatlipocas, the children of the creator couple Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl "Lord and Lady of Duality", "Lord and Lady of the Near and the Close", "Father and Mother of the Gods", "Father and Mother of us all", who received the gift of the ability to create other living beings without childbearing. They reside atop a mythical thirteenth heaven Ilhuicatl-Omeyocan "the place of duality".
The Toltec Empire, Toltec Kingdom or Altepetl Tollan was a political entity in modern Mexico. It existed through the classic and post-classic periods of Mesoamerican chronology, but gained most of its power in the post-classic. During this time its sphere of influence reached as far away as the Yucatan Peninsula.
