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Question for February 2024

Did being poor in Aztec times affect you in the afterlife? (2)? Asked by Shinfield St Mary’s CE Junior School. Chosen and answered by Professor Michael E. Smith

The written sources don’t give us much information about this question. I have excavated many Aztec burials, including those of commoners who were not wealthy. Some burials have a few offerings such as ceramic vessels or obsidian knives, and many burials have no goods at all. It looks like people in some regions of central Mexico in Aztec times put lots of pots into their burials, while those in other regions rarely did this. Therefore, the amount of goods in a burial depended partly on where you lived. This was probably not a law or rule, just a practice that was common in some places and not others.

I have excavated a number of burials of children at sites in the Aztec provinces. In fact, at the sites of Cuexcomate and Capilco, almost all of the burials were children and young people. Where are the adults? I doubt this was a society of only children! I think there must have been cemeteries nearby with the adult burials, but archaeologists just haven’t found those cemeteries. The burials at these sites were mostly under the floor of the house. When we would excavate a house at these sites, we had to be paying attention in case there was a burial under the floor.

Photos by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore.

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Professor Michael E. Smith

Professor Michael E. Smith

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