ANTH 235 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Chichen Itza, La Quemada, Quetzalcoatl
Document Summary
Key site: tula, toltec capital, in state of hidalgo. Coe and koontz stress the militarism of the epiclassic, but there"s also a lot of migration, trade, and the spread of pan-mesoamerican idea and art styles. Ex: cult of quetzalcoatl, thought to represent a kind of world religion. Metallurgy emerged on west coast of mexico 800 ce and in this time becomes much more widespread. Metal being used for jewelry, bells for their sound, more than practical purposes, mostly as decorative objects, sometimes as a form of ax-money, rarely for tools. Turquoise begins to rival jade in popularity. Northern mexico is the source of the ones who move into central mexico after the fall of sites like la quemada, they bring the tzompantli and colonnaded architecture. The chichimecs were one such group who had a mixed reputation as uncivilized hunter-gatherers but also as skilled artisans, they are important in the origin stories of the toltecs and aztecs.
