Ancient Web: The Aztec Empire Index Organized Codices and Archaeology by Hand

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.

One historian's old-fashioned Web index can hold a small museum's worth of reading paths. On the Aztec Empire page, the collections are not arranged behind search filters. They are laid out as a long table of doors.

Visit the Aztec Empire index.

The page belongs to historian Antonio de la Cova's LatinAmericanStudies.org, a hand-maintained research site begun in 1997. The broader project already has its own story; this section is a specific reference collection about Mexica history, art, religion, and the archaeology of Mexico City.

Its categories range from dynastic history to archaeological sites such as Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Tenayuca, and Texcotzingo. Artifact listings separate masks, braziers, vessels, figurines, musical instruments, jewelry, and obsidian blades. A second group covers objects connected with rulers, including the Tizoc Stone and the feathered headdress associated with Moctezuma.

The codices get their own shelves

The codex section links separate pages for the Aubin, Borgia, Mendoza, Florentine, Borbonicus, and other manuscripts. The Aubin Codex page is primarily an image-led gallery, while the origins page places pictures from different manuscripts beside short captions about Aztlan and the founding of Tenochtitlan.

Religion, agriculture, family life, trade, education, and warfare also appear as navigable headings. The site makes room for scholarly essays, historical illustrations, museum links, and documentary videos in English and Spanish.

This is not a unified scholarly edition. Image captions and identifications should be checked against museum catalogs and current scholarship, particularly on disputed interpretations of pre-Columbian artifacts. The site's value is as a visibly curated research map: it reveals which objects and sources its compiler considered worth putting together.

A present-day visitor can trace related topics by following links, rather than trusting a single algorithmically assembled answer. Some destinations are external and may no longer be available; the directory itself remains the historical object.

Explore the codex links and archaeological site index.

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.