Aztec Art and Culture :: essays papers

Aztec Art and Culture The Aztec nation is one of the largest and most advanced Indian nations to ever exist on earth. Just about every part of the Aztec life was advance to such a state that at that time of the world the people were living better than many European nations. The Aztec nation is unique in its history, economy, environment, and way of life then any other nation at that time. The Aztec Indians, who are known for their domination of southern and central Mexico, ruled between the 14th and 16th centuries. They built a great empire and developed very modernized ways of doing things. The Aztecs had phenomenal architectural skills and waterway systems. The Indians also had very developed social class and government systems and practiced a form of religion. To begin with, the Aztecs were very skilled in the art of Architecture and waterway systems. â€Å"An example of the monumental architecture within the Aztec society is the great pyramid of Tenochtitlan. Montezuma I, who was the ruler of the Aztecs in 1466, created it. The pyramid was not finished until the rule of Montezuma II, around 1508. Aztec cities and towns also had working drinking water and waste treatment systems. An intricate plumbing system using clay pipes ran down from the mountains around Mexico valley to all of the towns and cities in the valley. As the water ran into each town or city it was dispersed to 10 or 12 places around town were it flowed into a pool for drinking water or was pumped into public baths and toilets. Only nobles had working drinking and bathing systems with running water in their homes. The sewage system worked much like today, having human wastes carried to a collection pool where solids were collected, and then having liquids run off into a series of terraces which filtered the water. Solid wastes were allowed to sit in a collection pool for about six months and then were brought to the lake gardens to be used as fertilizer†(Jennings, Aztec, Pg. 220). At the bottom of the heap were slaves and serfs, or the Tlacotli, who worked the private lands of the nobility. Next came the Macehualtin, ‘the fortunate,’ as they were called because they were equally free of the heavy responsibility of the nobility and of the slave’s liability to being basely used. They were the merchants, shopkeepers and artisans that made up the bulk of the population.