TOZZER— DOMAIN OF THE AZTECS 



established. Spinden (1915) considers it was Nahuatl; but the 

 archaic type is found in territory where Totonac, Tarascan, Huaxteca, 

 a dialect of Maya, and Zapotec are spoken. It is significant however, 

 as Spinden points out, that in many places where the archaic is found 

 in Salvador and Nicaragua, Nahua-speaking colonies are found. 



Returning to the Valley of Mexico we find above the archaic a 

 culture to which we apply the term "Toltec" or "Teotihuacan". 

 To this culture is assigned the ruins of San Juan Teotihuacan, Cho- 

 lula, and other sites in Mexico. This is a culture technically far 

 ahead of the archaic. It is practically impossible to distinguish the 

 greater number of pottery heads of Teotihuacan from those from 

 the middle stratum in the Valley of Mexico. There are a few types 

 however which seem to be found in each of these areas. We know 

 the Toltecs spoke Nahuatl. 



The influence of the Toltecs is seen very strikingly at Chichen 

 Itza, a Maya site in northern Yucatan. The Toltecs were employed 

 by the Itzas as mercenaries in their wars with other Maya cities. 

 The Toltec influence in Yucatan was from about 1200 to 1450 a.d. 

 We have here a bond between the Maya and the Toltec civilization. 

 Chichen Itza is a very late site, and the latest period in the history 

 of the city shows the Toltec influence. The Toltec culture, therefore, 

 is late relative to that of the Maya, which goes back at least to the 

 first century of our era. Tula was, according to the tradition, as 

 has been stated, established by the Toltecs in 752 and destroyed in 

 1064. These dates have usually been considered too late to be 

 regarded as historic. From the fact that the Toltec influence at 

 Chichen Itza probably began only about 150 years after the de- 

 struction of Tula, we may perhaps argue that these dates may not 

 be far wrong after all. 



The Toltecs have often been regarded as the carriers of civil- 

 ization throughout Middle America and as the inventors of the 

 calendar. They appear too late in history to be regarded in this 

 light. Either the Mayas invented the calendar, or, as seems to this 

 writer possible, the beginning of the idea of a calendar was present 

 among the archaic peoples and it was they who distributed the idea 

 over the greater part of Middle America. 



Returning to the Valley of Mexico, we come finally to the top- 

 most stratum of occupancy, the Aztec. We use the term here to 

 include not only the Aztec of Tenochtitlan but also the contempor- 

 aneous cultures of the Colhuacans, Tepanecos, the Tezcocans, and 

 other allied peoples. We note individual differences throughout all 

 the latest sites in the Valley; the pottery of Colhuacan differs from 



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