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Eagle warriors or eagle knights (Classical Nahuatl: cuāuhtli [ˈkʷaːʍtɬi] (singular) [1] or cuāuhmeh [ˈkʷaːʍmeʔ] (plural) [1] ) were a special class of infantry soldier in the Aztec army, one of the two leading military special forces orders in Aztec society, the other being the Jaguar warriors. They were a type of Aztec warrior called a cuāuhocēlōtl [kʷaːwoˈseːloːt͡ɬ] . [2] The word cuāuhocēlōtl derives from the eagle warrior cuāuhtli and the jaguar warrior ocēlōtl [oˈseːloːt͡ɬ] . [2] These military orders were made up of the bravest soldiers of noble birth and those who had taken the greatest number of prisoners in battle. Of all of the Aztec warriors, they were the most feared. Eagle warriors, along with the jaguar warriors, were the only such classes that did not restrict access solely to the nobility, as commoners or, in Nahuatl, "mācēhualli" Nahuatl pronunciation: [maːseːwalːi] were occasionally admitted for special merit.
The life of Aztec warriors was one of constant battle, and the primary purpose of this continual warfare was to take prisoners to be sacrificed to their gods. As the Aztec Empire expanded, however, the expansion of the empire in size and power became increasingly important.
In current culture, the eagle warrior is a representation of the Aztec culture, and therefore the Mexican tradition. Some companies use the eagle warrior as a symbol that denotes strength, aggressiveness, competitiveness, and remembrance of the ancient cultures of Mexico. AeroMexico's logo, for instance, shows a cuāuhtli.
The empire was composed of different social classes: kings (thought to be gods), nobles, generals, priests, peasants, and finally slaves. Politically, the society was based around the independent city-state, called an altepetl, composed of smaller divisions (calpulli), which were again usually composed of one or more extended kinship groups. Aztec society was highly complex and stratified, composed of several hierarchies. The society depended on a rather strict division between nobles and free commoners, both of which were themselves divided into elaborate hierarchies of social status, responsibilities, and power. A commoner would not have the same rights to land and dress code as a noble would, even down to regulating the materials they were allowed to use in their clothing. [3] Economically the society was dependent on agriculture, and also to a large extent on warfare. Other economically important factors were commerce, long-distance and local, and a high degree of trade specialization.
All Aztec boys, both free commoners and nobility, learned about weaponry and warfare as part of their basic education. Until the age of fourteen, the education of children was in the hands of their parents, but was supervised by the authorities of their calpulli . Periodically, they attended their local temples, which tested their progress. However, only the best students could progress to become eagle warriors, as they are considered one of the nobility in Aztec society. At the age of 17, young Aztec men became warriors and entered formal military training. The recruits were expected to be brave and noble. Those who were of noble lineage also received training in religion, politics, or history by the priests. To achieve adult status, a young man had to capture his first prisoner.
Aztec warriors could move up in ranking by capturing enemies. One of the requirements to join the warriors is that they must capture at least four prisoners or great deeds (such as capturing foes to be used as sacrifices), they were eligible to become either a jaguar or eagle warrior.
The warriors used a number of weapons, including an atlatl , spears and daggers. The Aztec blades (macuahuitl) were made by setting obsidian within wood. Firestones were flung at enemies using slings made of wool. Most Aztec weapons were intended to stun and capture opponents rather than to kill them.
The uniforms of eagle warriors signified both courage on the battlefield and physical strength. The Aztecs wore a lightweight close-fitting breastplate which suited the Mesoamerican climate. Their shields were brightly coloured and decorated with feathers. A warrior's legs would be covered with leather strips, an archaic version of greaves or shin guards. As headgear, eagle warriors wore the heads of eagles, including an open beak, and used eagle feathers as adornments.
The Eagle warrior's successes in battle were rewarded with access and permission to wear luxurious jewelry and materials. The quality of their jewelry was also based on hierarchy. They wore expensive materials like red ochre and headdresses made of quetzal feathers. The highest warriors were given chalchiuhtentetl by the ruler himself, which is a green stone lip plug, and cuetlaxnacochtli, which are leather earplugs. [4]
Their slings were likely made from maguey fiber, either a type of ixtle from one of the agave type maguey plants such as henequen (Agave fourcroydes).
The origin of the eagle and jaguar warriors stems from the self-less acts of two deities; Nanahuatzin, meaning Pimply One, and Tecuciztecatl, meaning Lord of Snails, who sacrificed themselves to bring life to the sun. They emerged from the fire transforming into an eagle and a jaguar. [5] This cosmological belief solidifies the eagle warrior's higher position in society. This is reflected in their dress as well. The eagles were soldiers of the Sun, for the eagle was the symbol of the Sun. Eagle warriors dressed like eagles, adorning themselves with eagle feathers, and wearing headgear with an eagle head on it.[ citation needed ] The Eagle Warriors are among the highest ranking warriors in Aztec society. Sacrifice in Aztec society is extremely important, as they believe that it is their duty to nourish the sun through human blood. The warriors supply the captives they need to use for sacrifice. This relates back to the origin of the Eagle Warriors and their connection to the Divine. [6]
Eagle and jaguar warriors were two of the only types of warriors who were recognized as having a full-time professional capacity. Thanks to their elite training and education, they were leaders and commanders both on and off the battlefield. On reaching this rank they were peers of nobles and other elite members of Aztec society, therefore the warrior's path was a way to raise one's social status in Aztec culture guaranteeing many of the same privileges as nobles. The graduate warrior was allowed to drink pulque , keep concubines, and dine at the royal palace. At a civic level, they would also become full-time warriors working for the city-state to protect merchants and policing the city itself. Accordingly, they were the civil or police force of Aztec society. Due to these corps, the Aztecs were able to defeat the Spanish in La Noche Triste.
The Eagle Warrior Temple is located in Malinalco, Mexico. The temple sits upon a hill and is completely carved out of bedrock. The temple is a circular structure with an entrance containing 13 steps, and includes two jaguar sculptures. The entrance to the temple was a carved open mouth of an Aztec earth monster. The temple was situated next to the ruler's palace, serving as a headquarters for the Eagle Warriors and a place to plan combat strategies. [3]
The temple has a long extended bench that covers half of its inner chamber. There are carved sculptures on the bench of eagles and a jaguar. In the center of the inner chamber, there is a giant carved eagle on the floor. Some believe the centre eagle would be used as an altar or throne. The surrounding buildings contained several murals depicting the life of a warrior. In addition, there were murals of dancing eagles and jaguars within structures in Malinalco.
Tenochtitlan, also known as Mexico-Tenochtitlan, was a large Mexican altepetl in what is now the historic center of Mexico City. The exact date of the founding of the city is unclear, but the date 13 March 1325 was chosen in 1925 to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the city. The city was built on an island in what was then Lake Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico. The city was the capital of the expanding Aztec Empire in the 15th century until it was captured by the Tlaxcaltec and the Spanish in 1521.
The Aztecs were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. 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 prehispanic 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.
Tezcatlipoca Classical Nahuatl: Tēzcatlipōca ) or Tezcatl Ipoca was a central deity in Aztec religion. He is associated with a variety of concepts, including the night sky, hurricanes, obsidian, and conflict. He was considered one of the four sons of Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, the primordial dual deity. His main festival was Toxcatl, which, like most religious festivals of Aztec culture, involved human sacrifice.
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.
Jaguar warriors or jaguar knights, ocēlōtlNahuatl pronunciation:[oˈseːloːt͡ɬ] (singular) or ocēlōmeh (plural) were members of the Aztec military elite. They were a type of Aztec warrior called a cuāuhocēlōtl (derived from cuāuhtli and ocēlōtl. They were an elite military unit similar to the eagle warriors.
Aztec warfare concerns the aspects associated with the military conventions, forces, weaponry and strategic expansions conducted by the Late Postclassic Aztec civilizations of Mesoamerica, including particularly the military history of the Aztec Triple Alliance involving the city-states of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, Tlacopan and other allied polities of the central Mexican region. This united the Mexica, Apulteca, and Chichimeca people through marriages.
In pre-Columbian Aztec society, calpulli were units of commoner housing that had been split into kin-based or other land holding groups within Nahua city-states or altepetls. In Spanish sources, calpulli are termed parcialidades or barrios. The inhabitants of a calpul were collectively responsible for different organizational and religious tasks in relation to the larger altepetl. A calpul could be created based on an extended family, being part of a similar ethnic or national background, or having similar skills and tribute demands. The misunderstanding that calpulli were family units can be blamed on the fact that the word "family" refers to blood relations in English, while in Nahuatl it refers to the people whom you live with.
The Calmecac was a school for the sons of Aztec nobility in the Late Postclassic period of Mesoamerican history, where they would receive rigorous training in history, calendars, astronomy, religion, economy, law, ethics and warfare. The two main primary sources for information on the calmecac and telpochcalli are in Bernardino de Sahagún's Florentine Codex of the General History of the Things of New Spain and part 3 of the Codex Mendoza.
The Aztec religion is a polytheistic and monistic pantheism in which the Nahua concept of teotl was construed as the supreme god Ometeotl, as well as a diverse pantheon of lesser gods and manifestations of nature. The popular religion tended to embrace the mythological and polytheistic aspects, and the Aztec Empire's state religion sponsored both the monism of the upper classes and the popular heterodoxies.
Aztec society was a highly complex and stratified society that developed among the Aztecs of central Mexico in the centuries prior to the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, and which was built on the cultural foundations of the larger region of Mesoamerica. Politically, the society was organized into independent city-states, called altepetls, composed of smaller divisions (calpulli), which were again usually composed of one or more extended kinship groups. Socially, the society depended on a rather strict division between nobles and free commoners, both of which were themselves divided into elaborate hierarchies of social status, responsibilities, and power. Economically the society was dependent on agriculture, and also to a large extent on warfare. Other economically important factors were commerce, long-distance and local, and a high degree of trade specialization.
Slavery in the Aztec Empire and surrounding Mexica societies was widespread, with slaves known by the Nahuatl word, tlacotli. Slaves did not inherit their status; people were enslaved as a form of punishment, after capturing in war, or voluntarily to pay off debts. Within Mexica society, slaves constituted an important class.
Human sacrifice was common in many parts of Mesoamerica, so the rite was nothing new to the Aztecs when they arrived at the Valley of Mexico, nor was it something unique to pre-Columbian Mexico. Other Mesoamerican cultures, such as the Purépechas and Toltecs, and the Maya performed sacrifices as well and from archaeological evidence, it probably existed since the time of the Olmecs, and perhaps even throughout the early farming cultures of the region. However, the extent of human sacrifice is unknown among several Mesoamerican civilizations. What distinguished Aztec practice from Maya human sacrifice was the way in which it was embedded in everyday life.
Pochteca were professional, long-distance traveling merchants in the Aztec Empire. The trade or commerce was referred to as pochtecayotl. Within the empire, the pochteca performed three primary duties: market management, international trade, and acting as market intermediaries domestically. They were a small but important class as they not only facilitated commerce, but also communicated vital information across the empire and beyond its borders, and were often employed as spies due to their extensive travel and knowledge of the empire. There is one famous incident where a tribe declined rice from another tribe, beginning a long and bloody clan war. The pochteca are the subject of Book 9 of the Florentine Codex (1576), compiled by Bernardino de Sahagún.
Huitzilatzin was the first tlatoani (ruler) of the pre-Columbian altepetl of Huitzilopochco in the Valley of Mexico.
Aztec clothing was worn by the Aztec people and varied according to aspects such as social standing and gender. The garments worn by Aztecs were also worn by other pre-Columbian peoples of central Mexico who shared similar cultural characteristics. The strict sumptuary laws in Aztec society dictated the type of fiber, ornamentation, and manner of wear of Aztec clothing. Clothing and cloth were immensely significant in the culture.
In Aztec religion, Chantico is the deity reigning over the fires in the family hearth. She broke a fast by eating paprika with roasted fish, and was turned into a dog by Tonacatecuhtli as punishment. She was associated with the town of Xochimilco, stonecutters, as well as warriorship. Chantico was described in various Pre-Columbian and colonial codices.
The Atlantean figures are four anthropomorphic statues belonging to the Toltec culture in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. These figures are "massive statues of Toltec warriors". They take their post-Columbian name from the European tradition of similar Atlas or Atalante figures in classical architecture.
The Chīmalli or Aztec shield was the traditional defensive armament of the indigenous states of Mesoamerica. These shields varied in design and purpose. The Chīmalli was also used while wearing special headgear.
Tēlpochcalli, were centers where Aztec youth were educated, from age 15, to serve their community and for war. These youth schools were located in each district or calpulli.
Cuauhtinchan Archeological Zone or Malinalco Archeological Zone, located just west of the town center on a hill called Cerro de los Idolos, which rises 215 meters above the town. On its sides are a number of pre-Hispanic structures built on terraces built into the hill. The main structures are at the top. This is one of the most important Aztec sites and was discovered in 1933, and explored by José García Payón in 1935. The visible complex dates from the Aztec Empire but the site's use as a ceremonial center appears to be much older. The sanctuary complex was built from the mid 15th century to the beginnings of the 16th. To get to the Cerro de los Idolos one must climb 426 stairs up 125 meters. Along the stairway leading to the site, there are signs with area's history written in Spanish, English and Nahuatl. The site contains six buildings. The Cuauhcalli or House of the Eagles, which dates from 1501, is the main building, which is significant in that it is carved out of the hill itself. The building is in the shape of a truncated pyramid, built this way due to the lack of space on the hill. The monolithic Cuauhcalli has been compared to the Ellora in India, Petra on the shores of the Dead Sea and Abu Simbel in Egypt. This was a sanctuary for the Eagle Warriors for rites such as initiation. A thirteen-step staircase leading into this temple is flanked by side struts. and two feline sculptures that face the plaza in front. The Cuauhcalli consists of two rooms, one rectangular and the other circular, with an opening in the wall between the two. After being carved out of the rock, the walls and ceiling were covered in stucco and painted with murals, most of which are almost completely gone. In the upper part, the entrance is symbolized by the open jaws of a serpent, complete with fangs, eyes and a forked tongue, which was painted red. This upper portion is covered by a thatched roof of the grass the area is named for.