SocietyNorth America
The Toltecs
The Aztecs' imagined ancestors, half history and half myth
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Claiming Toltec descent was a legitimacy strategy across Mesoamerica, rather as European dynasties claimed descent from Troy. The buildings at Chichén Itzá in Yucatán resemble Tula so closely that the relationship has been argued over for a century — who influenced whom remains unsettled.
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The Aztecs regarded the Toltecs as great ancestors who had invented all art and knowledge. Archaeologists find a city, Tula, with stone warriors on its roof — but much of what the Aztecs told was probably their own construction.
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Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org