Tula And Teotihuacan Influence On The Aztec Culture

The ancient cities of Tula and Teotihuacan played a critical role in the development of the Aztec Empire. The Aztecs never knew the original inhabitants of Teotihuacan, but that did not stop them from deriving inspiration and mythology from the ancient city. The more recent Toltec civilization was also revered by the Aztecs and served as a source of the tlatoani’s legitimacy by descent. The Aztecs imitated both ideological and material aspects of these cultures when building their empire. Pre-Aztec Mesoamerican peoples contributed rituals of self-sacrifice, deities, and other cultural traditions to Aztec ideology. The Aztecs envisioned the soul of the fallen warrior as a butterfly, a concept that can be traced to Teotihuacan, whose art depicts the same motif. In Tenochtitlan, Tula, and Teotihuacan artists also portray a warrior who has committed a self-sacrifice as a butterfly in flame, in imitation of the creation of the Fifth Sun when Nanahuatzin sacrificed himself by fire to become the sun (Carrasco et al 302). The influence of Tula and Teotihuacan can also be seen in the Aztec pantheon of gods. Tlaloc and Quetzalcoatl are two of the more well known deities of the Aztec mythology, and both are identifiable in the art of the Toltecs and

Aztec architecture, both civic and religious, shares many traits with that of Tula and Teotihuacan, “including the use of balustrades and beam-and-mortar roofs” (Carrasco et al 269). In addition, the city of Tenochtitlan incorporated their myth of the Fifth Sun (which originated in Teotihuacan) in its layout. To insure the welfare and standing of Tenochtitlan the Aztecs associated it “in orientation, space, and myth with the most important and influential metropolis in the central Mexican world of the Classic period” (Carrasco et al 169). These physical aspects of Aztec culture come directly from the Toltec and Teotihuacan