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A map illustrating the various stages of Aztec expansion under successive rulers in the 15th and early 16th centuries CE.

A 15th century CE vase representing the Mesoamerican god of rain, storms and agriculture Tlaloc. From the Templo Mayor in Tenochtitlan. (National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City).

The General History of the Things of New Spain or Florentine Codex, an ethnographic codex by Bernardino de Sahagún, Book 7, Folio 9v, Mexico, 16th century. Written in the mid- to late 16th century, this collection of images and histories...

Aztec god Quetzalcoatl and a hummingbird, book illustration included in the Codex Magliabechiano by unknown artist, p. 61r, c. 1550. Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence.

The Toltec civilization flourished in ancient central Mexico between the 10th and mid-12th centuries. Continuing the Mesoamerican heritage left to them by earlier cultures, the Toltecs built an impressive capital at Tollan. Ultimately, they...

The gods of the Aztecs (1345-1521 CE) were many and varied and, as with many other ancient cultures, deities were closely associated with things and events important to the culture and the general welfare of the community. These include gods...

The striking turquoise mask now in the British Museum in London is thought to represent Xiuhtecuhtli, the Aztec god of fire, and dates to the final century of the Aztec empire, c. 1400-1521 CE. It is made from hundreds of small pieces of...

European explorers began to probe the Western Hemisphere in the early 1500s, and they found to their utter amazement not only a huge landmass but also a world filled with several diverse and populous indigenous cultures. Among their most...

A colossal basalt statue of Coatlicue ('Serpent Skirt'), the Aztec mother-earth goddess and mother of Huitzilopochtli. The goddess is represented with a severed head replaced by two snake heads, wearing a necklace of severed hands and human...

The 3.2m diameter stone disk which depicts the decapitated and dismembered corpse of Coyolxauhqui. According to Aztec mythology the war god Huitzilopochtli chopped up the goddess when she tried to lead a rebellion against the gods. Her head...