156 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 



first date 674 A.D. and the last one 1018 A.D. This 

 seems unjustifiable in view of the continuous counting 

 of every year in this chronicle down to the coming of the 

 Spaniards in 1519. 



Of course this summary does not actually cover the 

 range of Toltecan history. Such cities as Teotihuacan 

 and Xochicalco may well have seen their prime before 

 Tula became important while certain other popula- 

 tions such as Colhuacan, Atzcapotzalco and Cholula 

 doubtless carried the civilization of the Toltecs down 

 into times much later than the suicide of Huemac. 

 Indeed, there is reason to believe that Teotihuacan 

 was the original Tollan, and that Tula was the last 

 capital of the defeated nation. Checking up Mexican 

 dates with the more accurate chronology of the Mayas 

 it may be pointed out that the period of Mexican 

 influence in Northern Yucatan seems to have begun 

 about 1200 A.D. This date is 130 years after the 

 recorded downfall of Tula, yet certain structural and 

 decorative details of the buildings erected at Chichen 

 Itza by these foreign overlords find their closest ana- 

 logues at Tula. Other details point to the somewhat 

 later epoch of Tezcoco. Curiously enough, no record 

 of the far-reaching conquest of Yucatan seems to have 

 been preserved on the highlands of Mexico. 



Archaeology tells a more convincing tale as regards 

 the Toltecs than does history herself. In the stratified 

 remains at Atzcapotzalco the objects made by the 

 Toltecs overlie those of the first potters of the Archaic 

 Period and are in striking contrast to them. The prin- 

 cipal motives seen in Toltecan decorative art owe an 

 obvious debt to the earlier and more brilliant work of 

 the Mayas. 



The pyramids of the Toltecs exceed in size those of 

 the Mayas, but are of inferior construction, adobe bricks 



