Welcome |
Who are the Experts? |
The Questions |
It’s a pity these can’t be shared with wider audiences, and given more ‘polished’ and considered answers. So we publish here the best together with brief but expert answers. We hope that, as the service develops, you will find this a unique resource - authoritative, balanced, interactive and genuinely accessible.
The questions posed to Mexicolore by middle-school students are wonderful, and often more insightful than those posed by the professionals... (Professor Alan Sandstrom).
Winter 2024: we are privileged to have an expanding team of - now over 110! - world-class and distinguished scholars on our Panel. Honorary President Professor Miguel León-Portilla received in 2009 from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) its greatest distinction, the Eagle Warrior Award, a sculpture that represents a Mexica fighter, presented to academics and researchers that have made important contributions to Mexican history. Very sadly, Miguel León-Portilla died on 1st. October 2019.
Above: Mexicolore Director Ian Mursell puts a question on behalf of a school to Dr Leonardo López Luján, Director of the Templo Mayor Project in Mexico City.
Diego Rivera mural of the market of Tlatelolco
you didn’t believe in any gods?
would this affect your fate in the underworld? (2)
wear headdresses?
would this affect your fate in the underworld? (1)
at home out at night?
when travelling through enemy territory? (2)
when travelling through enemy territory?
wouldn’t they start to smell?
of hazards going to the underworld?
all linked to different gods?
before the Spanish invasion?
of maize are there?
a different god every day?
look like inside?
at the clouds work?!
under the tortoise-shell drum?
or were gods always born as gods?
that haven’t changed since Aztec times?
such a special number?
at the end of the Codex Cospi?
has the most Aztec objects?
Aztec musical instrument?
the walls of cities?
as an Aztec or a Maya [child]?
skull masks worn on the back have been?
give presents?
were sacred, apart from maize?
by your nickname?
to chant so much?
paint their bodies so much?
the earth is a turtle?
to build their temples?
superstition in Aztec times?
were you ever allowed chocolate?
move between levels or heavens?
what would you change?
of the god in the centre of the Sunstone?
what one question would you want to ask the Aztecs?
choose their kings and queens?
in an Aztec house (2)?
in an Aztec house (1)?
journey to the underworld?
in Nahuatl?
have been worn as jewellery?
to have in Aztec times?
carried, or did they walk?
on the Aztec Sunstone?
the four previous worlds?
looked after and educated?
what was bronze?
in so many heavens?
the names of their gods from?
we still use today?
gods’ birthdays?
books still undiscovered in Mexico?
the ritual ballgame at school?
female rulers?
the poo of the sun god?
depend on where it’s grown or on the season?
relate to a particular quality?
for cutting down a tree?
book have?
wouldn’t the burning ball give off gases?
the act of suicide?
you’ve come across about the Aztecs? (4)
invaders during the day or at night?
we’re really talking about their penal system
the taste of chocolate at first?
in Aztec times?
so strict...?
against the Maya?
greatest fear?
to take on extra powers?
to reach the age of 52?
Greeks or the ancient Mexicans?
allow divorce?
the native population collapsed?
when they fought?
only found in Mexico?
20-day calendar?
the ballgame in the pouring rain?
you’ve come across about the Aztecs? (3)
a sign or an appearance?
you’ve come across about the Aztecs?
play with?
over smoking chillies for?
human sacrifices straight away?
have no windows?
about the Aztecs?
did people try to steal their babies?
go to the market by themselves?
animal for the Aztecs?
have hospitals?
favourite game...?
how long could they expect to live?
from other birds [other than quetzals]?
Aztec goddess?
rubber balls been found?
which underworld would you go to?
how do you know it’s Aztec...?
using the forehead and not shoulders?
in Aztec times?
what to make their musical instruments out of?
and not women?
for future generations like us to find?
they themselves had created?
an Aztec woman could reach?
as a peaceful tribe?
of all the Aztec gods?
in England? Is it pirate gold?
ever meet the Incas?
cacao beans for money?
hearth stones?
would be destroyed in an earthquake?
by taking out the liver?
put on the skin of an eagle?
or city in Aztec times?
a particularly BAD ruler?
what did ordinary Aztec people turn into?
inherit the family house?
like the quetzal for their feathers?
correct their mistakes?
how were the stars created?
the most Aztec objects in it?
work at night?
the same ‘burning chillies’ punishment?
have patterns on them?
late entry - richly decorated clothing
- sacred wells or sinkholes?
in Aztec society?
to be who you were?
for the ritual ballgame?
in case of injuries in the ballgame?
not have doors?
by the Aztecs to make pottery?
above all else...?
of the earth goddess Coatlicue?
with an armadillo shell?
for many, many things...
in Montezuma come from?
their city of Tenochtitlan clean?
when carved on Aztec/Mexica drums?
in Aztec times?
and do people still do this today?
to change social class?
‘Always easily, but perhaps never perfectly...’
did the Aztecs use?
seasons as we do?
- the English or the Aztecs?
send mail (post)?
when Aztecs could marry?
demonized and reburied!
‘from the word go’?
following the direction of ancient sacred circuits
- ‘Tonatiuh’?
after the Spanish Conquest? (2)
after the Spanish Conquest? (1)
somewhere fairly flat
still taught today in Mexican schools?
and the sound of animals helped in establishing contact
was a veritable ‘shock weapon’
are the codices?
understand each other?
on the sacrifice knife blades?
did the Aztecs recognise?
that has the longest feathers...
‘human sacrifices’?
when they went to war?
domino sign in the Sunstone?
keen on symmetry?
‘chinampas’?
- always up at the ‘crack’ of dawn...
like Quetzalcóatl?
the Aztec solution
in cemeteries?
were the Aztecs aware of?
No. HE was Prime Minister!
as one of 3 vertical levels
from the Maya?
... The Dog and Turkey
then dress it with warm cactus sap...
was the Aztec army?
have saved them from the Spanish?
in Náhuatl, the Aztec language?
from the Aztec language...
are still visible today in Mexico
a human sacrifice every 10 minutes?
- and so did the drums!
...’Heroes with a capital "H"’
What do the 2 on the Sunstone mean?
is the ‘Day of the Dead’?
all in a row!
truly ‘fit for an emperor’
... you can pronounce many Aztec words
were worlds apart in time and space
have kept the doctor away?
is that they wrote beautiful poetry about the shortness of life and what would happen after death’
did the Aztecs get?
... sign of a good harvest, or a punishment?
- up a gum tree...
- made with beautifully simple techniques
who were they trying to impress?
the most powerful Aztec god of them all?
- ‘aMAIZEing’
... which came first - to eat or to smoke?
... to impress!
... seriously bad news!
... was a serious art
... ‘money’ truly grew on trees!
...’turquoise’ meant much more than just a precious stone
... lay in offerings to the Sun god
... was pretty much universal
... Cortés had nothing in common with a god!
under the Aztecs
.... when going through childbirth
- can you name the other Aztec rulers?