Research Catalog

Title

Aztec city-state capitals / Michael E. Smith ; foreword by Marilyn A. Masson and John W. Janusek.

Author

Smith, Michael Ernest, 1953-

Publication

Gainesville : University Press of Florida, c2008.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

• Masson, Marilyn A.
• Janusek, John Wayne, 1963-

Description

xv, 255 p. : ill., maps; 24 cm.

Summary

"Aztec City-State Capitals advances Mesoamerican scholarship by focusing attention on the urban centers outside the empire's capital of Tenochtitlan. Dozens of smaller cities were central hubs of political, economic, and religious life, integral to the grand infrastructure of the Aztec empire. Through this detailed examination, Michael E. Smith demonstrates the synchronicity of politics and urban design within the Aztec realm."--Jacket.

Series Statement

Ancient cities of the new world

Uniform Title

Ancient cities of the New World

Subject

• Urban Aztecs
• Aztec architecture
• Aztecs > Antiquities
• City planning > Mexico > History
• City-states > Mexico > History
• Mexico > Antiquities

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [213]-247) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

• 1. City and society in Aztec central Mexico. What is a city? ; The four dimensions of Mesoamerican urbanism ; Theoretical approach ; Aztec society and Aztec cities ; Sources of evidence ; Historical context : Toltecs and Aztecs -- 2. The roster of Aztec cities. Early Aztec capitals ; Major late Aztec capitals ; Other cities in the Basin of Mexico ; Cities in Morelos ; Cities in other valleys ; Small towns ; Isolated temples and ritual compounds ; The imperial capital -- 3. The founding of cities and dynasties. Aztec concepts of cities and urbanism ; Identity politics : Chichimecs and Toltecs ; Chichimecs from the North ; Foundation rituals ; The Toltec heritage ; Organization of the Altepetl -- 4. Public architecture and the urban townscape. Construction materials and methods ; Single-temple pyramids ; Double-temple pyramids ; Circular temples ; Ballcourts ; Shrines ; Portable altars and sacrificial stones ; Palaces ; Other public buildings ; Urban public architecture --^
• 5. Form, meaning, and urban planning. Urban planning in ancient cities ; Aztec urban planning ; Levels of meaning in the built environment ; High-level meanings : cosmology and the Gods ; High-level meanings : astronomical alignments ; Architectural communication and middle-level meanings ; Form and meaning in the Aztec townscape -- 6. Life in Aztec cities. The size of cities ; Social classes ; Public life : townscape interaction ; Private life : houses and households ; Public life, private life, and civic ritual ; Rural and urban ; Aztec urban life -- 7. Cities and their hinterlands : urban functions. Farming and urban food supply ; Markets and commerce ; Craft production ; Cities as religious centers ; Education and elite culture ; Urban functions and the Altepetl --^
• 8. Cities, city-states, and Aztec urbanism. Aztec cities as political capitals ; Kings, nobles, commoners, and cities : insights from political economy ; Models, reality, and the destruction of archaeological sites ; Aztec cities and the Mesoamerican urban tradition ; The functional approach to ancient urbanism.

ISBN

• 9780813032450 (alk. paper)
• 0813032458 (alk. paper)

LCCN

^^2007051493

OCLC

185033302

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library