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This game will ask you some questions and if you get all of them right you will be able to fling the teacher.

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The Aztecs Fling the Teacher Game | School History

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This will teach you about the games the Aztecs would play back then.

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More 'down-to-earth' (literally) were gentle, homely games similar to our Jacks and Marbles - throwing balls along the ground at another ball or globe in the centre (in later versions a throwing line was marked in), or tossing a small stone into the air, trying to hit clay balls, stones or seeds laid out on a mat.

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This will teach you all about the sacrifices the Aztecs would do to keep their gods happy.

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Aztec sacrifices were famously a part of the Aztec culture, famous in part because of deliberate propaganda out of the Spanish conquistadors in Mexico, who at the time were involved in executing heretics and opponents in bloody ritual displays as part of the Spanish Inquisition. The over-emphasis on the role of human sacrifice has led to a distorted view of Aztec society: but it is also true that violence formed a regular and ritualized part of life in Tenochtitlan.

How Common Was Human Sacrifice?

As many Mesoamerican people did, the Aztec/Mexica believed that sacrifice to the gods was necessary to ensure the continuity of the world and the balance of the universe. They distinguished between two types of sacrifice: those involving humans and those involving animals or other offerings.

Human sacrifices included both self-sacrifice, such as bloodletting, in which people would cut or perforate themselves; as well as the sacrifice of the lives of other human beings. Although both were quite frequent, the second one gained the Aztecs the fame of being a bloodthirsty and brutal people who worshiped cruel deities.

Meaning of Aztec Sacrifices

For the Aztecs, human sacrifice fulfilled multiple purposes, both at the religious and socio-political level. They considered themselves the "elected" people, the people of the Sun who had been chosen by the gods to feed them and by doing so were responsible for the continuity of the world.

On the other hand, as the Mexica became the most powerful group in Mesoamerica, human sacrifice acquired the added value of political propaganda: requiring subject states to offer up human sacrifice was a way to maintain control over them.

The rituals connected with the sacrifices included the so-called "Flowery Wars" intended not to kill the enemy but rather to obtain slaves and live war captives for sacrifices.

This practice served to subjugate their neighbors and send a political message to both their own citizens as well as foreign leaders. A recent cross-cultural study by Watts et al. (2016) argued that human sacrifice also propped up and supported the elite class structure.

But Pennock (2011) argues that to simply write off Aztecs as bloodthirsty and uncivilized mass murderers misses the central purpose of human sacrifice in Aztec society: as a deeply held belief system and part of the requirements for the renewal, sustaining and refreshing of life.

Forms of Aztec Sacrifices

Human sacrifice among the Aztec usually involved death by heart extraction. The victims were chosen carefully according to their physical characteristics and how they related to the gods to whom they would be sacrificed. Some gods were honored with brave war captives, other with slaves. Men, women, and children were sacrificed, according to the requirements. Children were specially chosen to be sacrificed to Tlaloc, the rain god. The Aztecs believed that the tears of newborn or very young children could ensure rain.

The most important place where sacrifices took place was the Huey Teocalli at the Templo Mayor (Great Temple) of Tenochtitlan.

Here a specialist priest removed the heart from the victim and threw the body down the steps of the pyramid; and the victim's head was cut off and placed on the tzompantli, or skull rack.

Mock Battles and Flowery Wars

However, not all sacrifices took place on top of pyramids. In some cases, mock-battles were organized between the victim and a priest, in which the priest fought with real weapons and the victim, tied to a stone or a wooden frame, fought with wooden or feathered ones. Children sacrificed to Tlaloc were often carried to the god's sanctuaries on top of the mountains that surround Tenochtitlan and the Basin of Mexico in order to be offered to the god.

The chosen victim would be treated as a personification on earth of the god until the sacrifice took place. The preparation and purification rituals often lasted more than one year, and during this period the victim was taken care of, fed, and honored by servants.

The Sun Stone of Motecuhzoma Ilhuicamina (or Montezuma I, who ruled between 1440-1469) is an enormous carved monument discovered at the Templo Mayor in 1978. It features elaborate carvings of 11 enemy city-states and likely served as a gladiatorial stone, a dramatic platform for gladiatorial combat between Mexica warriors and captives.

Most ritual killings were practiced by religious specialists, but Aztec rulers themselves often took part in the dramatic ritual sacrifices such as the dedication of Tenochtitlan's Templo Mayor in 1487. Ritual human sacrifice also took place during elite feasting, as part of a display of power and material wealth.

Categories of Human Sacrifice

Mexican archaeologist Alfredo López Austin (1988, discussed in Ball) described four types of Aztec sacrifice: "images", "beds", "owners of skin" and "payments". Images (or ixpitla) are sacrifices in which the victim was dressed like a particular god, becoming transformed into the deity at a magic ritual time. These sacrifices repeated the ancient mythical time when a god died so his force would be reborn, and the death of the human-god impersonators allowed the rebirth of the god.

The second category was what López Austin called the "beds of the gods", referring to retainers, those victims killed in order to accompany an elite personage to the underworld. The "owners of skins" sacrifice is that associated with Xipe Totec, those victims whose skins were removed and worn as costumes in rituals. These rituals also provided body part war trophies, in which the warriors who captured the victim were awarded a femur to display at home.

Human Remains as Evidence

Apart from the Spanish and indigenous texts describing rituals involving human sacrifice, there is also ample archaeological evidence for the practice. Recent investigations at the Templo Mayor have identified the burials of high-ranking personages who were ritually buried following cremation. But the majority of human remains found in Tenochtitlan excavations were sacrificed individuals, some beheaded and some with their throats cut.

One offering at the Templo Mayor (#48) contained the remains of approximately 45 children sacrificed to Tlaloc. Another at Tlatelolco's Temple R, dedicated to the Aztec god of the rain, Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl, contained 37 children and six adults. This sacrifice was carried out at Temple R's dedication during the great drought and famine of AD 1454-1457. The Tlatelolco project has identified thousands of human burials which were ritually deposited or sacrificially offered. In addition, evidence of human blood residue at the House of the Eagles in Tenochtitlan's ceremonial precinct indicates bloodletting activities.

López Austin's fourth category was sacrificial debt payments. These types of sacrifices are epitomized by the creation myth of Quetzalcoatl (the "Feathered Serpent") and Tezcatlipoca ("Smoking Mirror") who transformed into serpents and tore apart the earth goddess, Tlaltecuhtli, angering the rest of the Aztec pantheon. To make amends, the Aztecs needed to feed Tlaltecuhtli's endless hunger with human sacrifices, thereby staving off total destruction.

How Many?

According to some Spanish records, 80,400 people were slaughtered at the dedication of the Templo Mayor, a number likely exaggerated by either the Aztecs or the Spanish, both of whom had reason to inflate the numbers. The number 400 had a significance to Aztec society, meaning something like "too many to count" or the biblical notion involved in the word "legion". There is no doubt that an unusually high number of sacrifices did occur, and 80,400 could be construed to mean 201 times "too many to count".

Based on the Florentine codex, scheduled rituals included a figure of around 500 victims a year; if those rituals were conducted in each of the calpulli districts of the city, that would be multiplied by 20. Pennock (2012) argues persuasively for an annual number of victims in Tenochtitlan of between 1,000 and 20,000.

Sources

Edited and updated by K. Kris Hirst

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Were the Aztecs as Bloodthirsty as They Are Said to Be?

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Aztec sacrifices were famously a part of the Aztec culture, famous in part because of deliberate propaganda out of the Spanish conquistadors in Mexico, who at the time were involved in executing heretics and opponents in bloody ritual displays as part of the Spanish Inquisition.

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This article will teach you all about the religion of the Aztecs.

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Ancient Aztec Religion

Ancient Aztec religion hymn:
Huitzilopochtli is first in rank, no one, no one is like unto him: not vainly do I sing (his praises) coming forth in the garb of our ancestors;
I shine; I glitter.
~The Hymn of Huitzilopochtli (trans. by Daniel G. Brinton)

Ancient Aztec religion was a complex interaction of gods, dates, directions and colours. It seems that most of the preoccupation in the religion had to do with fear of the nature, and a fear of the end of the world.

By the time the Mexica's Empire (Mexica is the proper name for the tribe at the heart of the Aztec empire) was at its height, the political and religions systems were in close interaction. The actions of the ruling classes and common people can be best understood if we look way back to the Mexica understanding of the creation, or rather creations, of the world. Because the religion was a mixture from various peoples, there are variations. We'll give a general overview here.

In the Beginnings

According to ancient Aztec religion, it took the gods 5 tries to create the world. These attempts were foiled because of infighting among the gods themselves. After he was knocked from his exalted position by rivals, the first creator, Tezcatlipoca, turned into a jaguar and destroyed the world. Under similar circumstances, the world was created and then destroyed with wind, and then two floods.

Each time a creator-god would take a turn being the sun. ( Read more about the various Aztec sun gods here) Finally the gods had a council, and decided one of them would have to sacrifice himself to be the new sun. Nanauatl, a lowly, humble god became the sun, but there was a problem - he wasn't moving. The gods realized that they all must sacrifice themselves so that humans could live. The god Ehecatl sacrificed the others, and a mighty wind arose to move the sun at last.

This was no free sacrifice, however. Not only would the people have to help this weak sun to keep moving, they would also be responsible to repay the sacrifice. The world remained in a precarious position!

Once the sun was dealt with, the world had to be recreated. Quetzalcoatl (meaning feathered serpent) was the one who would create humans. Of course, people had been created several times before, so Quetzalcoatl descended into the underworld to retrieve their bones. He tripped as he fled, and the bones shattered into different sized pieces, which is why people are all different sizes. By adding his own blood to the mix, people came to life.

For another variation and more detail, see the Aztec creation story here.

The calendar and the sun

The ancient Aztec religion was highly focused on keeping nature in balance. One false step could lead to natural disaster. The weak sun could stop moving. In the sky was a constant battle between light and darkness, a battle that would someday be lost.

Huitzilopochtli ( Hummingbird of the South) was the warrior sun (either the sun god or the one who fights for the sun god, Tonatiuh (the name given to Nanauatl)). Huitzilopochtli (or Tonatiuh) needed blood sacrifice in order to win the battle against darkness. Either there would be ritual blood-letting, or actual people would be sacrificed. Those sacrificed would rise to fight with him. And so human sacrifices became more and more common in Mexico. Often battles would be fought just to capture prisoners to sacrifice - the Aztec flower war (or Aztec flowery war).

Every 52 years, the people were terrified that the world would end. All religious fires were extinguished, people all over the empire would destroy their furniture and precious belongings and go into mourning. When the constellation of the Pleiades appeared, the people would be assured that they were safe for another 52 years.

The world in ancient Aztec religion was divided up into 4 quadrants, and the center - their city Tenochtitlán. The heavens were divided into 13 ascending layers, and the underworld 9 descending layers. The heavens and underworld may be better described as wheels within wheels, a more common form for the Aztecs than layers or lines. The temple in Tenochtitlán was also the place where the forces of heaven and earth intersected.

The end

Prophecies were a part of the ancient Aztec religion. Many scholars today believe that the Aztec people thought that the conquerer Hernan Cortes was their god-hero Quetzalcoatl, who had been banished. Whether or not the more educated upper class shared this belief is questionable.

The afterlife of a person was based mostly on how they died. Some, such as those sacrificed to Huitzilopochtli, would join the battle against the darkness. In ancient Aztec religion, some would eventually be reincarnated as birds or butterflies, or eventually humans. Some would be, for a time, disembodied spirits roaming the earth. Most at some point would have to make the long journey through the 9 levels of the underworld. People would be buried in a squatting position, with items that would help them in their journey. In the end they would live in darkness.

To summarize

Ancient Aztec religion was focused on how the gods, humans and nature were interconnected. There was a strong emphasis on the worship of Huitzilopochtli. The military conquest and ritual sacrifices were all related, and in a great part focused on helping Huitzilopochtli keep the sun strong so that disaster could be averted every 52 years.

For more on Aztec religion:

Ancient Aztec Religion with childrens' study guides from Lorna Dils at the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute

Ancient Aztec songs - translated by Daniel G. Brinton

Aztec gods - general info and details on the key ones

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Ancient Aztec religion hymn: Huitzilopochtli is first in rank, no one, no one is like unto him: not vainly do I sing (his praises) coming forth in the garb of our ancestors;I shine; I glitter. ~The Hymn of Huitzilopochtli (trans. by Daniel G. Brinton) Ancient Aztec religion was a complex interaction of gods, dates, directions and colours.

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This article provides you with facts about the Aztec Empire and The Invasion ans more about the history

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The Aztecs, who probably originated as a nomadic tribe in northern Mexico, arrived in Mesoamerica around the beginning of the 13th century. From their magnificent capital city, Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs emerged as the dominant force in central Mexico, developing an intricate social, political, religious and commercial organization that brought many of the region's city-states under their control by the 15th century. Invaders led by the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés overthrew the Aztec Empire by force and captured Tenochtitlan in 1521, bringing an end to Mesoamerica's last great native civilization.

Early Aztec History

The exact origins of the Aztec people are uncertain, but they are believed to have begun as a northern tribe of hunter-gatherers whose name came from their homeland Aztlan, or "White Land" in the Aztec language of Nahuatl. The Aztecs were also known as the Tenochca (from which the name for their capital city, Tenochtitlan, was derived) or the Mexica (the origin of the name of the city that would replace Tenochtitlan, as well as the name for the entire country). The Aztecs appeared in Mesoamerica-as the south-central region of pre-Columbian Mexico is known-in the early 13th century. Their arrival came just after, or perhaps helped bring about, the fall of the previously dominant Mesoamerican civilization, the Toltecs.

Did you know? The Aztec language, Nahuatl, was the dominant language in central Mexico by the mid-1350s. Numerous Nahuatl words borrowed by the Spanish were later absorbed into English as well, including chile or chili, avocado, chocolate, coyote, peyote, guacamole, ocelot and mescal.

When the Aztecs saw an eagle perched on a cactus on the marshy land near the southwest border of Lake Texcoco, they took it as a sign to build their settlement there. They drained the swampy land, constructed artificial islands on which they could plant gardens and established the foundations of their capital city, Tenochtitlán, in 1325 A.D. Typical Aztec crops included maize (corn), along with beans, squashes, potatoes, tomatoes and avocadoes; they also supported themselves through fishing and hunting local animals such as rabbits, armadillos, snakes, coyotes and wild turkey. Their relatively sophisticated system of agriculture (including intensive cultivation of land and irrigation methods) and a powerful military tradition would enable the Aztecs to build a successful state, and later an empire.

The Aztec Empire

In 1428, under their leader Itzcoatl, the Aztecs formed a three-way alliance with the Texcocans and the Tacubans to defeat their most powerful rivals for influence in the region, the Tepanec, and conquer their capital of Azcapotzalco. Itzcoatl's successor Montezuma (Moctezuma) I, who took power in 1440, was a great warrior who was remembered as the father of the Aztec empire. By the early 16th century, the Aztecs had come to rule over up to 500 small states, and some 5 to 6 million people, either by conquest or commerce. Tenochtitlán at its height had more than 140,000 inhabitants, and was the most densely populated city ever to exist in Mesoamerica.

Bustling markets such as Tenochtitlan's Tlatelolco, visited by some 50,000 people on major market days, drove the Aztec economy. The Aztec civilization was also highly developed socially, intellectually and artistically. It was a highly structured society with a strict caste system; at the top were nobles, while at the bottom were serfs, indentured servants and slaves.

Aztec Region

The Aztec faith shared many aspects with other Mesoamerican religions, like that of the Maya, notably including the rite of human sacrifice. In the great cities of the Aztec empire, magnificent temples, palaces, plazas and statues embodied the civilization's unfailing devotion to the many Aztec gods, including Huitzilopochtli (god of war and of the sun) and Quetzalcoatl ("Feathered Serpent"), a Toltec god who served many important roles in the Aztec faith over the years. The Great Temple, or Templo Mayor, in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan was dedicated to Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, the rain god.

The Aztec calendar, common in much of Mesoamerica, was based on a solar cycle of 365 days and a ritual cycle of 260 days; the calendar played a central role in the religion and rituals of Aztec society.

European Invasion & Fall of the Aztec Civilization

The first European to visit Mexican territory was Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba, who arrived in Yucatan from Cuba with three ships and about 100 men in early 1517. Cordobars reports on his return to Cuba prompted the Spanish governor there, Diego Velasquez, to send a larger force back to Mexico under the command of Hernán Cortés. In March 1519, Cortes landed at the town of Tabasco, where he learned from the natives of the great Aztec civilization, then ruled by Moctezuma (or Montezuma) II.

Defying the authority of Velasquez, Cortes founded the city of Veracruz on the southeastern Mexican coast, where he trained his army into a disciplined fighting force. Cortes and some 400 soldiers then marched into Mexico, aided by a native woman known as Malinche, who served as a translator. Thanks to instability within the Aztec empire, Cortes was able to form alliances with other native peoples, notably the Tlascalans, who were then at war with Montezuma.

In November 1519, Cortes and his men arrived in Tenochtitlan, where Montezuma and his people greeted them as honored guests according to Aztec custom (partially due to Cortes' physical resemblance to the light-skinned Quetzalcoatl, whose return was prophesied in Aztec legend). Though the Aztecs had superior numbers, their weapons were inferior, and Cortes was able to immediately take Montezuma and his entourage of lords hostage, gaining control of Tenochtitlan. The Spaniards then murdered thousands of Aztec nobles during a ritual dance ceremony, and Montezuma died under uncertain circumstances while in custody.

European diseases like smallpox, mumps and measles were also powerful weapons against the local population, who lacked immunity to them. A Franciscan monk traveling with Cortés observed the impact of smallpox on the Aztecs: "They died in heaps...In many places it happened that everyone in a house died, and as it was impossible to bury the great number of dead, they pulled down the houses over them, so that their homes became their tombs." By 1520, smallpox had reduced the population of Tenochtitlan by 40% in just one year.

Cuauhtemoc, Montezuma's young nephew, took over as emperor, and the Aztecs drove the Spaniards from the city. With the help of the Aztecs' native rivals, Cortes mounted an offensive against Tenochtitlan, finally defeating Cuauhtemoc's resistance on August 13, 1521. In all, some 240,000 people were believed to have died in the city's conquest, which effectively ended the Aztec civilization. After his victory, Cortes razed Tenochtitla and built Mexico City on its ruins; it quickly became the premier European center in the New World.
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The Aztecs, who probably originated as a nomadic tribe in northern Mexico, arrived in Mesoamerica around the beginning of the 13th century. From their magnificent capital city, Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs emerged as the dominant force in central Mexico, developing an intricate social, political, religious and commercial organization that brought many of the region's city-states under their control by the 15th century.

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Video: 25 Unbelievable Facts About The Aztecs That Might Surprise You

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Video: 25 Unbelievable Facts About The Aztecs That Might Surprise You

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This video will provide you with more information of the Aztec history and languages.

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25 Unbelievable Facts About The Aztecs That Might Surprise You

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This video teaches you a little bit about the religion and sacrifices of the Aztecs