Book Title: Alphabet Key To History Of Mankind
Author(s): David Diringer
Publisher: Hutchinsons Scientific and Technical Publications
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ANCIENT CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO
erroneous to make comparisons with Asiatic or European empires; the main purpose of the Aztecs was to loot, to exact tribute and to obtain prisoners for their sacrifices. Some Mexican tribes and city-states remained independent and continued to wage war against the Aztecs until the arrival of the Spaniards, whose conquest was much facilitated by the savage hatred and feuds between the native tribes.
The Aztec civilization, or semi-civilization, was a mosaic of elements borrowed from other cultures, mainly Maya and Toltec, and barbarism. The Aztecs developed considerable skill in the art of metal working and architecture, but even in these respects they do not seem to have shown much originality. Their mathematical and astronomical knowledge was probably of Maya origin. Their writing, which is also probably of Maya origin, shows a certain evolution, from the point of view of history of writing, but from the aesthetic point of view it is degenerate.
INDIGENOUS SCRIPTS OF PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICA
As the result of the Spanish intolerance and inquisition, very few documents written by American pre-Columbian natives are known to have survived. Of the truly pre-conquest Mexican manuscripts only fourteen are extant: five are in England, four in Italy, two in France, one each in the U.S., Mexico and Austria. Only three Maya manuscripts have survived: the beautiful Dresden codex, the Madrid codex, and the Paris codex. There is, however, extant a great number of Mexican manuscripts written under Spanish domination. Masses of pre-Columbian manuscripts are known to have been burned by the fanatical Spanish priests. As the great majority of the manuscripts are of "Aztec" origin, and this script is better known than the Maya writing, we shall begin with the "Aztec" writing.
Aztec Character
Astec Codices (Fig. 63)
The "Aztec" codices as these manuscripts are called-are painted in colours, on coarse cloth made from the fibre of the agave americana or on a long sheet of amatl paper, of an average width of six or seven inches, but of different lengths. The sheet was folded up screen fashion to form the leaves. The surface of the sheet was covered with a very thin coating of white varnish to receive the text, which was generally painted on both sides in a wide range of colours: red, yellow, blue, green, purple, brown, orange, black, white; some of them in more than one shade. The colours are outlined in black, but they are crude, and the pictures are without artistic merit; they were obviously merely utilitarian. The sheet was fastened to what may be called the binding of the codes, which was of fine, thin wood covered with brilliant varnish; each cover measured nearly the same as the leaves; the binding had no back.
