Toltec culture

The Toltec culture or Toltec civilization —a term of Nahuatl origin that has several meanings, the main ones being 'inhabitant(s) of Tollan/Tula' ('Place de tules') or 'artist, civilized, teacher' (his self-designation is unknown)—, is one of the archaeological pre-Hispanic cultures of Mesoamerica. Its first records date back to the middle of the S. vii (AD 650, Mesoamerican Epiclassic period [c. 600-900 AD]) and culminated in the middle of the S. xii d. C. (1150 AD, Early Postclassic Period [c. 900-1200 AD], or 1168 AD/1-tecpatl). They settled mainly in the Mezquital Valley area in the current state of Hidalgo, while that its cultural, artistic and religious influence spread to La Quemada and Chalchihuites (Zacatecas) to the north and to the Zona Maya (Chichén Itzá, Yucatán) and Nicoya (Costa Rica) to the south. Some of its main centers were Huapalcalco (Tulancingo de Bravo, Hidalgo), Tulancingo (ibid.) and its capital city, Tollan-Xicocotitlan (Tula de Allende, Hidalgo). This city is famous for its unique stone statues, called atlantes and is the quintessential Toltec site.

Both the mythical history as well as the archaeological one denote that these peoples who spoke an Uto-Aztecan language (the Nahuatl language) came from the north, and migrated to the south, more specifically to Central Mexico, between the ss. vi-vii. They most likely played an important role in the political, economic, social, religious and cultural processes that led to the fall of Teotihuacán when Tula Chico was beginning to urbanize and flourish (c. 650-750 d. C.) From that moment, the Nahua influence, brought by the Coyotlatelco Culture, was evident and most likely intense throughout the region.

They refounded the city by settling in the larger urban center, known as Tula Grande, around AD 960. C. and until 1000 d. C., they managed to establish a city-state in it, based on sociopolitical and religious ideologies of a deeply militaristic nature. They carried out several expansionist campaigns with which they managed to conquer and control the contemporary lordships of the Central Highlands, thus forming the most vast and powerful empire in Mesoamerica during the entire early postclassic period.

They had a total of nine tlatoque in Tula, of which Ce Ácatl Topiltzin Quetzalcóatl (¿ss. x-xi?), a legendary religious leader and cultural hero of the Nahua religion, whose true historical identity is unknown and debated. The myth states that he was banished from the city and promised to return one day.

Etymology and terminology

Toltec is a word of Nahuatl origin; In Nahuatl the Toltecs were called Tōltēcah (plural; singular Tōltēcatl). then Toltec means Tula Viewpoint', from Tōllān ('Tula' or 'Place of Tula') and Tēcatl< i> ('warrior dweller').

Other versions, including one from the Balsas Náhuatl Dictionary, state that toltekatl means "artist".

History

The Toltecs begin their pilgrimage from a place they call Huehuetlapallan (Old Blue Land), country of the kingdom of ancient Tollan, in the year of Técpatl 511 AD. C. and wander for 104 years, guided by seven lords: Zacatl, Chalcatzin, Ehecatzin, Cohualtzin, Tzihuacoatl, Metzotzin and Tlapalmetzotzin. They finally reached Tollantzinco, but abandoned it 17 years later, retiring fourteen leagues to the west where they founded Tollan (Tollan-Xicocotitlan) or Tula, from the name of their homeland. Its monarchy began in the year 7 acatl 667 AD. C. and lasted 384 years, having 8 rulers or tlahtoques.

List of Governors

Chalchiutlanetzin 667-719 d. C.

Ixtlicuechahuac 719-771 d. C.

Huetzin 771-823 d. C.

Totepeuh 823-875 d. C.

Nacaxxoc 875-927 d. C.

Mitl 927-976 d. C.

Xiuhtzatzin (rein) 976-980 d. C.

Tecpancaltzin 980-1031 d. C.

Tōpīltzin 1031-1052 died in 2 Tecpatl.

The Toltecs reached their heyday between AD 900 and 1200. C. They were the dominant group of a state whose influence extended to the current state of Zacatecas, and to the southeast in the Yucatan peninsula. The relationship between the Toltecs and the Maya of the postclassic period has been the subject of controversy. Long after the fall of Teotihuacán, around the year 700, there were several centuries of darkness and confusion in Mesoamerica, the nature of its civilization changed, cities without fortifications and governed by religious elites crumbled, giving rise to warring cities and most warlike religions.

Although it is true that the Toltecs had a great influence among the Mayans, it is not proven that there was a military presence in the Yucatan peninsula. Nor vice versa, although some authors thought that Tula had been founded by Mayans from Yucatan. One can speak of a great commercial and political-religious influence of the Toltecs in Chichén Itzá, an influence that is basically reflected in the architecture of many structures such as the Castle, the Temple of the Warriors (which shows a fusion of the Puuc style (surely influenced by Uxmal) with Toltec design, as well as the presence of the so-called chac-mool typical of Tula. The incursion of Quetzalcóatl as a deity is another important Toltec element reflected in Kukulkan among the Maya: They were very talented in building, and their influence spread extended to much of Mesoamerica in the Postclassic period. Among the Nahua peoples of the time of the conquest, the word Toltec meant someone wise who mastered the arts and crafts. And the word "toltequity" was equivalent to what we would call, high culture.

In 1941 a group of Mexican anthropologists designated the city of Tula, in the state of Hidalgo, as Tollan, the mythical capital of the Toltecs, but some archaeologists, such as Laurette Séjourné, criticized the decision, pointing out that after several stages of excavation, a sufficient city had not been revealed to justify the legend of the Toltecs, pointing out that the origin of Tollan and of the legend should be located in Teotihuacán, being the town of Tula one of the refuges of the survivors of Teotihuacán, which for this reason they flaunted as Toltecs.

The Mexican historian Enrique Florescano, from the National Institute of Anthropology and History, has taken up this interpretation, based on the mention of Mayan texts prior to Tula, which refer to Teotihuacán as Tollan. Some claim that the city of Tula is a map of the translation of Venus, that is, of its path around the sun. Near the city is a mountain called Xicuco (Shicuco) which in Nahuatl means "navel".

These cycles refer to the stages of Quetzalcóatl in order to be man - god, which represent the stages of humans (in Catholicism, birth - life - resurrection). This culture was very special, since all these stages are represented in the Atlantean costume, like the black mirror that makes Quetzalcóatl see his mistakes to purify himself. Another important piece is the Chacmool, which represents Quetzalcóatl himself coming out of the stage of fire, hidden under the earth. He appears depicted as he himself delivers the fire to the surface, which is when Venus does not appear on the horizon and then reappears on the horizon.

This city was envied by the Aztecs who, in contrast to the Toltecs, had another vision that Quetzalcóatl had taught them.

Culture

Art

His art, embodied in statues and wall reliefs, is closely linked to architecture. They represented their gods and characters in stone sculptures, murals, ceramics, paintings and in crafts such as large statues.

Architecture

There is no doubt that the Toltecs brought important changes in terms of the architectural norms that existed in Mesoamerica in the 9th century; one of them is the use of anthropomorphic sculptures that supported the ceiling of a room with their heads, thus achieving a large interior space, as can be seen in the temple of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli El Señor del Alba.

It is estimated that Tula housed around 30,000 inhabitants, who lived in large one-story complexes with flat roofs basically made of stone, earth and finished in adobe. Excluding the usual area of Tula, it reflects a grid plan that clearly defined the different neighborhoods. Of the most significant architectural elements, pyramid B stands out, with its misnamed Atlantes, which are 4.6 m high figures that once supported the roof of a temple. According to studies, these Atlanteans were decorated with jeweled mosaics and feathers. Remains of paint indicate that they were probably painted to represent the Toltec-Chichimeca warrior Mixcóatl (father of Quetzalcóatl) or the morning star god Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli. They also built columns in the shape of a feathered serpent, with its head on the ground and its tail up, supporting the lintel that formed part of the entrance to a large room.

In the domestic sphere, they had three different types of housing complexes, the group of houses, the residential units and the palatial residences.

Gastronomy

According to research carried out in Tepatitlán, a rural area of Tulancingo, Hidalgo, the specialists Guadalupe Mastache and Robert Cobean discovered that amaranth was essential in the diet of the Toltec culture, since it prevented these tribes from going hungry during the times of droughts. Currently, amaranth produces "alegrías", a mixture of this product with honey, peanuts and raisins; Amaranth, huautli or joy, the name by which it is known today, was in pre-Hispanic times a basic crop in various cultures of the country, including the one that settled in Tula, Hidalgo, as reported by archaeological evidence and ethno data. -historical about its cultivation. For her part, Nadia Vélez Saldaña, an archaeologist specializing in paleobotany and member of the Tula Archaeological Zone research team, explained that this seed was not only important for this population in Hidalgo, but also throughout Mesoamerica, because it was a plant easy to grow, in addition to having a high degree of resistance to dry and frost seasons:

The amaranth is more resistant, and grows in all kinds of fertilized land, therefore, in the absence of grain, the huautli was the one that covered the food needs of the population.

Nadia Vélez Saldaña

Another of the characteristics of amaranth is its ability to be stored in clay pots for long periods of time, without decomposing. This, associated with its high nutritional value, led it, on occasions, to be considered the most important crop in Tula, even more than corn, in fact, one of the tributes that the provinces of Ajacuba and Jilotépec, among which Tula was included during the Late Postclassic (between 1200 and 1521), they gave the Triple Alliance ―in addition to corn and beans― it was precisely amaranth, which indicates that this plant was an important crop during that period. Amaranth was not only used as food, but also as part of offerings and rituals; In this sense, Vélez Saldaña mentioned that the use of the grain was documented by Bernardino de Sahagún and other chroniclers, who describe its use in some ceremonies where figurines made with agglutinated amaranth were used. The ritual huautli figurines were made with the technique that is used today to make amaranth sweets, the researcher said. They roasted the amaranth and then mixed it with maguey honey to obtain a malleable mass to form the anthropomorphic figures of some deities, which were used in ceremonies.

Finally, Vélez Saldaña pointed out that, apparently, its ritual importance could have been the cause of its prohibition after the conquest, its cultivation decreasing until it almost disappeared from some regions during the colonial era.

Geographic location of the Toltecs

The Toltecs were a nomadic people who had also included the ancestors of the Chichimecas. The Toltecs conquered the city of Teotihuacán in the year 750 AD. C. approximately and then they settled in this, its population and its culture. They settled in the central plateau (in the area now covered by the Mexican states of Tlaxcala, Hidalgo, Mexico City, the State of Mexico, Morelos, and Puebla), where a military caste would replace the religious ones in the administration, forming a militaristic government. Its capital, Tollan-Xicocotitlan, would be conquered by the Chichimecas in the year 1168 AD. c.

Social Structure

The Toltec society was divided into two classes:

• The privileged group: composed of hierarchs, soldiers, officials, the supreme ruler and the priests, who were in the service of the military caste and were in charge of serving the cult, calendars and account of time.
• The working class: made up of agricultural workers and artisans: masons, potters, carpenters, hilanders, stoneware, painters and weavers, among others.

Economy

The economy was based on the agriculture of extensive cultivated fields irrigated by complex canal systems, where corn, beans and amaranth were the main crops. As in other Mesoamerican states, trade played a fundamental role in obtaining raw materials and goods from very distant places.