Wikipedia:WikiProject Aztec

The Aztecs were a Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican people of central Mexico in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. They called themselves Mexicas (Classical Nahuatl: Mēxihcah, IPA: [meːˈʃihkaʔ]).

The capital of the Aztec empire was Tenochtitlan, built on raised islets in Lake Texcoco. The capital of Mexico, Mexico City, is built on the ruins of Tenochtitlan.

The Aztec civilization had a vibrant culture which included mandatory education and a rich and complex mythology. For Europeans, the most striking element of the Aztec culture was the practice of human sacrifice which was practiced throughout Mesoamerica prior to the Spanish conquest.

In what is probably the most widely known episode in the Spanish colonization of the Americas, Hernan Cortes conquered the Aztecs in 1521 thus immortalizing himself and the Aztec Huey Tlatoani , Moctezuma II (Montezuma II).

WikiProject Aztec (or WP:AZTEC for short) is intended to provide a common forum for Wikipedia editors interested in improving and maintaining articles related to the Aztec civilization.

Activities for discussion on this forum include: identifying in-scope articles and topics, discussing ways to improve article standards and topical coverage, coordinating and prioritising improvement efforts, developing standards and guidelines designed to achieve consistency between related articles, documenting article coverage by topical areas, rating articles by appropriate standards, organising the articles by meaningful categories and links, and sundry other activities to be further refined.

Project structure: WP:AZTEC has three main pages:

1. Project Definition (background, description and resources),
2. Project Activities (open tasks, to-do lists, collaborations and sub-projects),
3. Project Catalogue (inventory and survey of articles, lists, templates, categories, and an assessment of their current status).

Each are composed of a number of subpages. These main pages contain relevant navigational links and views their subpages' contents. Taken together, they are intended to function somewhat similarly to a Portal, in that the mainpages provide a common access points for associated documentation, activities and discussions. All of the actual detailed work and documentation takes place on the Project's separate subpages, however the main aspects of this work can be viewed directly and all at once from the main pages. Note that what appears in a particular window or box here may be a summary of more extensive material, which can be seen in full using the links and 'edit' tags provided.

The primary motivation in establishing this WikiProject is to provide interested editors with a central forum to discuss issues and ideas for improvement, and avoid having to disperse such discussion across multiple talk pages (note, however, that discussion on relevant talk pages is of course still encouraged, particularly where major changes are being considered; the Project's workspace is intended to complement, and not replace, editor best practices).

With this in mind, the proposed goals of this WikiProject may be stated as follows:

• improve and maintain Aztec-related articles: fact checking, prose checking, expanding, citation and referencing, NPOVing, bringing up to Good article or Featured article status;
• expand wikipedia coverage of Aztec-related articles: identify gaps, check for completeness of coverage, start new articles, expand entries on little-known or neglected, but still notable, subjects;
• apply sensible organisational structure to articles: Within articles, similar articles can have a similar structure, coverage and presentation. Across articles, maintaining categories, lists and links so related articles are easier to locate;
• ensure consistency of information and terminology across articles: where similar facts and data are cited or mentioned in several different articles, they should as far as possible be consistent and not contradict. Terminology and the orthography used for names and places should be consistently applied;
• propose and establish guidelines for editing: produce materials to assist others in understanding any guidelines or standards;
• develop tools and resources for others to use in article production: such as, templates, navboxes, infoboxes, 'what to include' checklists, diagrams, base maps, image catalogues, useful and commonly used references;
• facilitate coordination and collaboration: between Projects and editors, establish priorities, where possible avoid duplication of effort, apply WP:AGF, WP:CIVIL, WP:CON, WP:NPA, and others.

WikiProject Aztec is intended to provide a common forum for Wikipedia editors interested in improving and maintaining articles related to the Aztec civilization.

Activities for discussion on this forum include: identifying in-scope articles and topics, discussing ways to improve article standards and topical coverage, coordinating and prioritising improvement efforts, developing standards and guidelines designed to achieve consistency between related articles, organising the articles by meaningful categories and links, and sundry other activities to be further refined as we go along.

The scope of this WikiProject is proposed to include articles, lists, categories, templates, and the like, with some direct relevance to the Aztec civilization.

Primary focus

Primary scope thus includes articles, lists, etc. related to:

1. the Aztec civilization, culture and people; their description, history, characteristics,
2. the conquest of the Aztec empire by Hernan Cortes

In the initial setup phases for this project, the main forum for now will be the Project's talk page. As the project develops, discussion may be moved to other areas.

• /Terminology: Discussion forum for terminology and translation issues.
• /Strategy: Strategy and structure. For policy discussions on how to title articles, how to categorise, etc.
• /Community: Noticeboard for editors interested in articles about the Aztec civilization. Basically, a community forum: use it to list articles you'd like other participants to take a look at or get a second opinion on, call attention to content disputes, post alerts, or advertise your willingness to meet up in (e.g.) Mexico City next month.

Please add your signature to the list here if you are interested in getting involved. Optionally, you can also briefly describe any particular areas of interest or expertise you may have, or ways in which you'd like to contribute.

• --Richard 07:43, 6 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• --Nanahuatzin 07:00, 8 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• Piet 19:59, 11 May 2006 (UTC) — Sorry I'm late.[reply]
• cjllw 08:22, 12 May 2006 (UTC). Mostly pan-Mesoamerican focus articles I expect, but happy to work on Aztec-specific aspects of these.[reply]
• Eisenhower ▲ ▼ (at war or at peace♥) 00:24, 14 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• Wootking "Tom 22:27, 21 May 2006 (UTC)"[reply]
• Tubezone 00:39, 13 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• MRB 02:13, 4 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
• Billycuts 16:33, 9 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]
• Xuchilbara 16:40, 13 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]
• cuellared 19:44, 29 November 2007 (utc)
• ·Maunus· ·ƛ· 07:54, 8 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
• mom086 14:45, 21 January 2009 [Conquest of Mexico]
• Giggette (talk) 09:40, 1 September 2012 (UTC) (Aztec mythology)[reply]
• RileyXeon 09:59, 19 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

This page is intended as a repository of details and links to resources, references, tools and other materials commonly used when editing Mesoamerica-related articles.

Internal (wikipedia/project) resource pages

The project subpage WP:MESO/CITE contains commonly used reference works on Mesoamerican topics, with pre-filled citation templates containing the full reference details. The pre-filled template may be copied and conveniently pasted direct into the "references" section of articles which use them, for consistency and completeness.

Please add more as you find/need them.

The project subpage WP:MESO/J contains a listing of journals and other periodicals in which papers may be published on Mesoamerican topics. Contains links to online resources for the journals, plus pre-filled citation templates for each journal, that may be used when citing in a particular article.

Please add more as you find/need them.

Accessible (external) resources.

links to primary source documents (reproductions of codices, indigenous and Spanish accounts from pre-Columbian, conquest and colonial eras, etc.), and secondary/historical documents.

• Anonymous Conqueror (1550). Narrative of Some Things of New Spain and of the Great City of Temestitan . Reported eyewitness accounts (possibly a compilation) of Cortes' expedition & description of Central Mexican peoples. FAMSI reproduction of 1917 translation.
• Cervantes de Salazar, Francisco (1560?). Crónica de la Nueva España. Spanish encounters and description of Mesoamerican cultures. Readme.it edition. (in Spanish)
• Martyr d'Anghiera, Peter (ca. 1504–1526). De Orbe Novo. First collected accounts of the New World. Project Gutenberg reproduction.
• VARIOUS conquistador sources. Crónicas de América. Complete online texts compiled by the arteHistoria online mag (govt. of Castille y León): incl. Hernan Colon, Cristobal Colon, Hernan Cortes, Diaz del Castillo, Cabeza de Vaca, Fernando Ixtlilxochtitl, Rodriguez Freyle, Quiros, Francisco Hernandez, Gamboa, Vision de los vencidos, Lopez de Gomara, Toribio de Benevente, Origen de los mexicanos, Villagra, Sahagun, Alvaro Tezozomoc.
• VARIOUS explorer sources. Early Modern Spain (King's College London). Online texts of Cabeza De Vaca's Naufragios, Las Casas' Brevísima relación, Columbus' diario of 1492/93 and 1st voyage letter, Cortés' five Cartas de relaciónes, Oviedo y Valdés' Historia general y natural de las Indias.
• Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections Division
  • Digitized LoC Materials
  • Jay I. Kislak Collection, MSS., signatures, conquest-era docs
• New York Public Library, digital collection (searchable); facsimiles of drawings, publs.
• LUNA Commons, accumulator of digital collections
  • John Carter Brown Library, Archive of Early American Images,
• Old Manuscripts & Incunabula, List of facsimile edns of precolumbian & Age of Discovery works and sources
• Biblioteca Digital Mundial, maps, facsimiles of original source texts

• Brinton, Daniel G. (Ed.) (1890). Rig Veda Americanus. Nahua/Aztec songs and poems. Project Gutenberg reproduction. (in Nahuatl languages and English)
• Kerr, Robert (1824). A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. IV. Has some sections on early Spanish conquistador encounters. Project Gutenberg reproduction.

• SUP-INFOR excellent collection of searchable databases for Nauhatl & other Mesoamerican languages, dictionaries, and reproductions of a number of codices. DBs can be downloaded (PC-only support). (in French, Nahuatl languages, Spanish, and English)(some pages)
• Dictionnaire de la langue Nahuatl Classique, by Alexis Wimmer, based on dictionary compiled by Simeon. Comprehensive, with cross-referencing of terms found in the Florentine Codex. (in French and Nahuatl languages)
• Nahuatl Vocabulary, searchable db of en, es & nah terms at Wired Humanities Project, UO
• The Mayan Languages - A Comparative Vocabulary online searchable database of Mayan vocabulary, Univ. of Southern Denmark
• Dictionary-Concordance of Yucatecan Mayan language by David Bolles, at FAMSI
• AILLA, Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America, U.Texas. Contains some texts in a number of Mesoamerican langs.
• ALMG Academia de Lengues Mayas de Guatemala. Authority on Mayan languages, its orthography is used by many Mayanist sources. (in Spanish)
• OKMA, La Asociación Oxlajuuj Keej Maya’ Ajtz’iib’, Guatemalan organisation for investigation and documentation of Mayan langs.
• PDLMA, Project for the Documentation of the Languages of Mesoamerica, by Kaufman, Justeson & Maldonaldo. Online database, some papers.

• Electronic Atlas of Ancient Maya Sites extremely detailed downloadable maps (PDF) of Maya site locations (over 4400 !)
• AUM Carnegie Explorer some sample maps & site reports from Carnegie Institution
• Atlas Arquelógico de Guatemala some maps and a very good repository of Guatemalan archaeological papers published in various sources, all downloadable as PDFs (in Spanish)

• FAMSI Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc., just about the most comprehensive source for academic papers, monographs and Mesoamerican resources.
  • online Bibliografía Mesoamericana, FAMSI Research Materials.
  • online Maya Hieroglyph Dictionary, Mathews and Bíró, FAMSI Research Materials.
  • online Maya Vase Database, Justin Kerr, FAMSI Research Materials.
  • AZTLAN mailing list, discussion forum archives
  • NAHUATL-l mailing list, discussion forum archives
• MESOWEB large repository of many recent academic papers on Mesoamerican studies.
  • PARI Precolumbian Art Research Institute; incl. papers from Palenque Mesa Redonda ("Round Table") meetings
• MARI Middle America Research Institute, Tulane University
• MARL Mesoamerican Archaeological Research Laboratory, UT Austin. Publishes mono y conejo journal, & some site reports
• CMHI, Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions by Peabody Museum, now has some good info & reproductions online
• Mesoamerican img archives Repository of photos from various Mesoamerican sites, by David R. Hixson. Imgs are copyrighted, but could be approached for use in WP.
• Puuc (Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil and Labna) docs & imgs, by Charles Rhyne & Reed College; many scans of old (Pub Domain) imgs and maps, also modern ones, of the region; + extensive annotated biblios in PDFs
• La Milpa Archaeological Project, Boston University
• Traditional High Cultures, by EcoLinguistics (Lloyd Anderson); Mesoamerican writing links & articles
• Jay I. Kislak Foundation, non-profit institution for pre-Columbian art and research collections; some papers online
• University of Utah Digital Collections, facsimiles & commentary for codices Laud & Magliabecchi
• Dumbarton Oaks, Research Library and Collection, pre-Columbian-Mesoamerican publications, a few important ones downloadable
• SAA, Society for American Archaeology, pan-Americas but has papers/material relevant to Mesoam. Publishes notable journals:
  • Latin American Antiquity, Abstracts, backissues on JSTOR.
  • American Antiquity, Abstracts, backissues on JSTOR.
  • The SAA Archaeological Record, PDFs. More 'in-house', but some useful stuff.
  • SAA Bulletin, online, replaced 2001 by SAA Archaeological Record.
• AMNH American Museum of Natural History papers, includes some rare papers on Mesoamerican topics, among others
  • Anthropological Papers, Anthropological papers of the AMNH
• WHP, Wired Humanities Project, University of Oregon; collection of Mesoam resources and text digitisation projects (some under constr; some pwd protected, others accessible)
  • VMA Virtual Mesoamerican Archive, a portal maintained by University of Oregon's Wired Humanities Project, with extensive material, links, and search facilities specific to Mesoamerican material available online
• HLAS Online, Handbook of Latin American Studies (online), by Library of Congress; searchable database of annotated bibliographies, journals etc
• ArchaeoSeek Mesoamerica, listing of Mesoamerican archaeological sites (nb, WP:MESO gets a guernsey!)

• WAYEB European Association of Mayanists
• IAI-PK, Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut, Preussischer Kulturbesitz; Library, catalogue & some details on Mesoamerican docs, research and collections (in German and Spanish)
  • Online-Katalog der Bibliothek des Ibero-Amerikanischen Instituts Preußischer Kulturbesitz
  • Biblioteca del Instituto Ibero-Americano, catalogues & dbs; some online material; "largest Latin-American library in Europe"
  • Current-Contents, db listing TOCs of each vol for most ethnohistorical & arch. periodicals
  • Cibera, "is an interdisciplinary search facility for specialised scientists and students of culture, history, politics, economics and sociology of Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries and the Caribbean"
• Arbeitskreis Mesoamerika, University of Vienna, Austrian academic Mesoamericanists (in German, English, and Spanish)
  • Museums and collections in the German-speaking world, links & info re Mesomerican materials in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland
• Учебно-научный Мезоамериканский центр им. Ю. В. Кнорозова, Mesoamerican studies centre "YV Knorozov", at the Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH/RGGH), director Galina Ershova. (in Russian)
• Месоамерика, Russian site on Americanist/Mesoamericanist research, materials, by some scholars/students; good info on Maya sites in particular (in Russian)
• Меxicolore, UK-based educational resource for teachers and students of all ages on the Aztecs/Mexica; the website supports a teaching team that have run over 2,000 school workshops on the Aztecs in schools and museums in England since 1980 (in English and Spanish)

• Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, online repository of historical etc works relating to Spanish-speaking cultures
  • Biblioteca Americana, Americas historical source docs online/catalogue
  • Biblioteca Historia, general historical source docs online/catalogue
• Crónicas de América, at arteHistoria by the Junta de Castile y León. Texts of original conquistador sources, biographies of authors and participants, images (many presumably PD), maps, and links.
• SOMNI, digital facsimiles collection of historical works held at Universitat de València

• INAH Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico. Main govt organisation overseeing cultural patrimony and research. A number of recent papers (in Spanish)
  • Dimensión Antropológica, quarterly online journal by INAH, contains many full papers on Mesoam. anthropology, history & linguistics (in Spanish)
• INALI, Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas, national institute for indigenous peoples, languages, stats, laws
  • Catálogo de las lenguas indígenas nacionales, 2007 official catalogue defining indigenous langs, their distribution, etc
• INAFED, Instituto Nacional para el Federalismo y el Desarrollo Municipal, national institute for municipal govts, stats, laws, info
  • Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México, online (2005) edition of the EMM by INALI, stats & history info for all municipios
• INEGI, Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, National statistics & geography institute
  • Mapa digital de México, INEGI's searchable configurable digital map
• UNAM, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México main site
  • UNAM library catalogue, historical documents holdings
  • UNAM colleciones mexicanas, materials relating to Mexican history
  • UNAM Latindex, Latin American studies links and journals
  • UNAM e-journals, includes a few online ones that are relevant to Mesoamerican studies
  • UNAM H-Mexico, History of Mexico online resources (in Spanish)
  • UNAM-IIE, Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, art history research institute (incl. Pre-columbian) (in Spanish)
    • UNAM-IIE Imágenes, Revista electrónica of the IIE, has some precolumbian & colonial articles (in Spanish)
    • UNAM-IIE La pintura mural prehispánica de México, IIE Bulletin and project on precolumbian murals, all articles online, + other info (in Spanish)
    • UNAM-IIE Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, biannual journal, has some full text articles (incl. precolumbian/colonial) (in Spanish)
• UADY, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán main site
  • UADY Yucatan identidad y cultura Maya, Yucatan and Maya historical and anthropological studies
• Biblioteca Virtual de Yucatán, gobierno del estado de Yucatan; literature, history, maya language works

• Asociación Tikal, many online full PDFs of just about all papers at the annual Simposios de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala (SIAG)
• ALMG Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala. Authority on Mayan languages, its orthography is used by many Mayanist sources. (in Spanish)
• OKMA, La Asociación Oxlajuuj Keej Maya’ Ajtz’iib’, Guatemalan organisation for investigation and documentation of Mayan langs.
• Atlas Arquelógico de Guatemala Govt. site, some maps and a very good repository of Guatemalan archaeological papers published in various sources, all downloadable as PDFs (see in particular "Otras publicaciones") (in Spanish)
• MUNAE Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología de Guatemala, has imgs and occasional info on exhibits

• IHAH, Instituto Hondureño de Antropología e Historia, Honduras. Main govt organisation overseeing cultural patrimony and research.

• Congreso Centroamericano de Arqueología en El Salvador, papers from central american archaeological conferences in El Salvador

• Arqueología en Latinoamérica: historias, formación académica y perspectivas temáticas: Memorias del Primer Seminario Internacional de Arqueología Uniandes, Universidad de los Andes, Bogota.

• US/Americas-based public lectures, presentations, etc- listing updated maintained at Mike Ruggeri's website

• Parent WikiProjects
  • WikiProject Mesoamerica— direct parent of WP:AZTEC.
  • WikiProject Archaeology— archaeological themes and standards.
• Descendant WikiProjects (other subProjects may be created when needed)
  • None.
• Related WikiProjects (some overlap in regional/topical coverage)
  • WikiProject Mexico
  • WikiProject Ethnic groups
    • WikiProject Indigenous peoples of North America
  • WikiProject Writing systems
• Similar WikiProjects (similar in nature or intent, different region)
  • WikiProject Ancient Egypt
  • WikiProject Ancient Near East

• Related Wikiportals
  • Portal:North America
  • Portal:Latin America
    • Portal:Mexico
  • Portal:History
    • Portal:Archaeology
• Related Collaborations
  • WP:SPATRA- Spanish Translation of the Week
• Related Regional notice boards
  • No related Regional notice boards have been named.