Aztec Culture

http://www.albany.edu/~mesmith/tlaruin.html

This site explains the archaeological process undertaken by a scholar of the Tlahuica, one of the ethnic groups that made up Aztec culture. What kinds of sites did this scholar discover? What kinds of artifacts did his group find at these sites?
Based on this evidence, what did they learn about Aztec culture? What distinctions, if any, did they discover within Aztec society?

Mounds and Their Interpreters

http://brewsteralexander.com/dar/moundsml.jpg

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1540cieza.html
Study the image of one of the mounds at Cahokia. Please list five organizational skills and technologies required to construct such a structure. What do the mounds suggest about the technological and cultural sophistication of the people who constructed them?

The selection Mounds and Their Interpreters makes clear that most Anglo-American commentators did not believe that Native Americans were capable of developing the sophisticated institutions needed to build the mounds. Contrast those interpretations with de Léon's description of the Incas. What does his account of Incan society suggest about the capabilities and sophistication of the peoples of the New World?