The origins of a civilizationThe great capitals of the classic periodFrom the fall of the classic states to the rise of the Toltec stateThe populations of the northThe Aztecs.ChronologyThe origins of a civilizationThe great capitals of the classic periodFrom the fall of the classic states to the rise of the Toltec stateThe populations of the northThe Aztecs.

Conceived as a contribution to the continuous construction of the identity of the Codex Mendoza, the present volume is organized around three axes: material analysis, textual and stylistic interpretation, and reception and circulation studies. The works of Barker-Benfield and MOLAB further our objective of understanding the manuscript's materiality. The re-binding and conservation process registered by Barker-Benfield has allowed us to do away with speculation regarding the method of production used to create the manuscript and its previous bindings. This, in turn, has allowed heretofore accepted connections, such as the authorship of Francisco Gualpuyogualcal, to be reexamined. Similarly, the analysis undertaken by the MOLAB team and headed by Davide Domenici has settled the debate on the nature of the pigments used in the production of the manuscript. This has added additional layers of nuance to previously held interpretative hypotheses on the meaning of specific pigments and the strictness of their application in the tlacuilolli. While color holds meaning for the tlacuilo, color is not inexorably linked to its materiality. These observations have the potential to inspire a new generation of interpretative studies, based on ever more accurate data regarding the material nature of the Codex Mendoza. Interpretative studies of the manuscript in this volume represent a line of inquiry that, by considering the manuscript from the complex perspectives of the work of art, literature, and bibliography, complement previous anthropological and historical readings of the Codex Mendoza. My essays as well as those by Diana Magaloni and Daniela Bleichmar reconsider the number and style of the artists who produced the manuscript in order to understand both the process by which it was created as well as the place it occupies in the artistic context of the early viceroyalty. Far from entering a binary relation between subjugator and subjugated, the decisions made by these artists and intellectuals manifest the forms of thinking and seeing time and space in the Mesoamerican world. I demonstrate that the pictures in the Codex Mendoza were painted in a workshop in which one, two, or more individuals collaborated on each page to create a single composition; as such, the creation of these pictures took on an air of rituality and functioned as "an instrument to recreate, reactualize, and make coherent the historical becoming linked to territory with cosmic patterns" (Magaloni, this volume). This last observation complements and reinforces Joanne Harwood's proposed reading of the third section of the manuscript. For Harwood, notwithstanding the originality of the visual solutions used to compose this section of the manuscript, the Codex Mendoza's pre-Columbian model resonates with a Mesoamerican religious genre: the teoamoxtli.

Modern peoples have always been fascinated with the iconic architecture, mystical religious beliefs, and once-thriving societies of the ancient Aztecs. From the fertile areas of the Oaxaca Valley and the Valley of Mexico to the great deserts of the north, this authoritative resource explores the development of the ancient civilizations of the Aztecs and their predecessors. Organized chronologically, it describes the native cultures, from the earliest farming villages to the establishment of great states and urban civilizations such as Teotihuacan and Monte Alban. By investigating the connections between these civilizations and the more obscure civilizations of northern Mexico, it offers readers insight into the birth of new cultures such as the Toltec Empire. An engagingly written, thoroughly researched text and superb photography explore, in-depth, such topics as the Aztec calendar, religion, society, and political organization, providing fresh insight into the rich cultural and artistic heritage of the Aztecs.

"The great number of civilizations that developed on the American continents before the arrival of Europeans depends on the vast extension of the territory. The purpose of this book is certainly not to mention all of them, nor to provide a definitive study of any of them. Instead, the purpose is to provide an overview of the great variety of styles, materials and techniques employed in the arts of the different areas, from prehistory to the sixteenth century, by presenting some of the most significant works that were produced. Although the selection dedicates more images to the most famous of the pre-Columbian cultures located in Mesoamerica and the Andes, it also takes in numerous other cultures among all of those that occupied the Americas. The Spanish and Portuguese conquests and later those of the English, French and Dutch, led to an abrupt change in the lives of the populations that touched and, in many cases, to a more or less sudden interruption of their culture and artistic production. It is only thanks to archaeological research and those few materials that were saved from the destructive fury of the conquerors ? in some cases because they were sent to European sovereigns as gifts - that today it is possible to admire the splendour of these works of art and to perceive, if only from a distance, the artistic sensibility of the men who made them" -- Provided by publisher.

Conceptualizado como una contribución a la continua construcción de la identidad del Códice mendocino, el presente volumen está organizado en torno a tres ejes: el análisis material, la interpretación textual y estilística, y la recepción y transmisión del manuscrito. Los estudios de Barker Benfield y MOLAB abren una ventana hacia el entendimiento objetivo de la materialidad del manuscrito. El proceso de conservación y reencuadernamiento del Mendocino registrado por Barker Benfield ha disipado especulaciones en cuanto al método de construcción del manuscrito y sus posibles encuadernaciones previas, permitiendo que conexiones antes aceptadas, como la autoría de Francisco Gualpuyogualcal, sean reexaminadas. Asimismo, el análisis llevado a cabo por el equipo de MOLAB —liderado por Davide Domenici— ha sacado del ámbito de la especulación la naturaleza de los pigmentos del manuscrito, así como ha permitido que hipótesis interpretativas —previamente articuladas al respecto del significado de pigmentos específicos y lo estricto de su aplicación en el tlacuilolli— sean refinadas y contenidas. Si bien el color tiene significado para el tlacuilo, este no está directa y necesariamente ligado a su materialidad. A partir de estas observaciones se puede desarrollar una nueva generación de estudios interpretativos cuyas propuestas se basen en datos cada vez más certeros acerca de la naturaleza material del Mendocino. Los estudios interpretativos del manuscrito que ocupan el presente volumen representan una línea de investigación que, al considerar al manuscrito desde la perspectiva compleja de la obra de arte, bibliográfica y literaria, complementa las lecturas antropológicas e históricas que se han hecho del Mendocino en estudios anteriores. Así, los ensayos de Diana Magaloni, Daniela Bleichmar y Jorge Gómez Tejada, editor del libro, reconsideran el número y estilo de los artistas que crearon el manuscrito para entender tanto el proceso de creación del mismo como el lugar que este ocupa en el contexto artístico del virreinato temprano. Las decisiones que estos artistas e intelectuales toman en el Mendocino, lejos de insertarse en una relación binaria dominante-dominado, se presentan como una manifestación de los modos de pensar y ver el espacio y el tiempo en el mundo mesoamericano. Las pinturas del Mendocino —ejecutadas a manera de taller en donde uno, dos o más individuos intervienen en una misma página para crear de manera sincronizada una sola composición, tal como demuestra quien escribe— toman visos de ritualidad y funcionan como "instrumento para re-crear, reactualizar y hacer coherente el devenir histórico ligado al territorio y los patrones cósmicos" (ver Capítulo 4). Esta última observación complementa y refuerza la lectura de la tercera sección del manuscrito propuesta por Joanne Harwood, para quien, independientemente de lo original de las soluciones visuales utilizadas para componer esta sección del manuscrito, su modelo prehispánico se encuentra en un género de resonancia religiosa mesoamericana: el teoamoxtli.

From the legendary Teotihuacán, to the mysterious El Tajín, from Palenque to Chichen Itzá, the most famous Mexican archeological sites are studied in these pages. Enormous architectural complexes, monumental sculptures, sophisticated ceramic pieces and stupendous jewels are the testimony of the richness and refinement of the cultures of the people who lived here before the arrival of Columbus in this part of pre-Columbian America. The book is divided into chapters that study the distinct regions and archeological sites. Text and footnotes, rigorous but very clear, are accompanied by splendid photographic images and three dimensional reconstructions, drawings and various maps.

Presents an illustrated guide to the history and culture of the Maya, from their roots in ancient pre-classic Mesoamerican civilization, through their growth and decline, and final conquest at the hands of the Spaniards.