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Aztec

(Encyclopedia)Aztec ăzˈtĕkˌ [key], Indian people dominating central Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest. Their language belonged to the Nahuatlan subfamily of Uto-Aztecan languages. They arrived in the V...

Aztec Ruins National Monument

(Encyclopedia)Aztec Ruins National Monument, 318 acres (129 hectares), NW N.Mex., near Farmington; est. 1923. Ruins of a 12th-century Pueblo town contain interesting kivas, one of which has been completely restored...

Nahuatlan

(Encyclopedia)Nahuatlan näˈwŏtˌlən [key], group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan branch of the Aztec-Tanoan linguistic stock of North and Central America. A Nahuatlan language of great historical importance is ...

Chichimec

(Encyclopedia)Chichimec chēchēmĕkˈ [key], general term for the peoples of the Valley of Mexico between the periods of Toltec ascendancy and Aztec ascendancy. Before the 11th cent. the Chichimec were nomadic peo...

civilization

(Encyclopedia)civilization, culture with a relatively high degree of elaboration and technical development. The term civilization also designates that complex of cultural elements that first appeared in human histo...

National Museum of Anthropology

(Encyclopedia)National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City. The present building, designed by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez and inspired by ancient Mexican architecture, was opened in 1964 and houses choice and extensive...

Tenochtitlán

(Encyclopedia)Tenochtitlán tānōchtētlänˈ [key], ancient city in the central valley of Mexico. The capital of the Aztec, it was founded (c.a.d. 1345) on a marshy island in Lake Texcoco. It was a flourishing ci...

Toltec

(Encyclopedia)Toltec tŏlˈtĕk [key], ancient civilization of Mexico. The name in Nahuatl means “master builders.” The Toltec formed a warrior aristocracy that gained ascendancy in the Valley of Mexico c.a.d. ...

snake worship

(Encyclopedia)snake worship. The snake has been variously adored as a regenerative power, as a god of evil, as a god of good, as Christ (by the Gnostics), as a phallic deity, as a solar deity, and as a god of death...

Zapotec

(Encyclopedia)Zapotec zäˈpətĕk, säˈ– [key], indigenous people of Mexico, primarily in S Oaxaca and on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Little is known of the origin of the Zapotec. Unlike most native peoples of ...