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Aztec fortresses

The ruins of the Aztec fortress at Otzompan

ORIGINAL QUESTION received from - and thanks to - Daniel: Could you tell us about the Aztec fortresses? I would like to know where they were found, how they were built, what their defensive capacity was, and what they looked like. I feel like there’s not a lot of information about them on the internet, not even Otzuma’s, which is the most famous. Perhaps they could also talk about what methods and weapons were used to attack fortifications.(Answered by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)

In short, Aztec ‘fortresses’, as we know them, were few and far between and almost nothing remains of them today. The main photo here shows the ruins of the fortifications at Oztoma(n), Guerrero; whilst not completely ‘vanished’ as Berdan & Rieff Anawalt (1992) suggest, there isn’t much to show today. The Mexica-Aztecs lacked a ‘standing army’, so fixed garrisons of warriors were usually only temporary installations in times of crisis, except for those guarding permanent urban strongholds. There were few fortifications in most of Mesoamerica, and ‘for the most part the armies of the Triple Alliance did not encounter fortifications’ (Pohl 1991: 13).
The ‘fortress’ at Oztoman (‘Hand-Made Cave’) (pic 1) was built by the Aztecs after they had (re-)conquered the town, in the province of Tepequacuilco, in order to repulse persistent attacks from their enemies the Tarascans: Oztoman was located in a particularly volatile area, close to the Tarascan border.

The town was in fact (re-)conquered by three Mexica rulers (Moctezuma I, Axayactl and Ahuitzotl) and in the end had to be repopulated with families from the Tenochtitlan area after the town’s population was largely decimated following its relentless campaign of rebellion against Aztec rule. Unusually, the toponym for the town in the Codex Mendoza is accompanied by the name glyphs of its two Mexica governors, Tlacatecatl and Tlacochcalcatl. A key source of salt, Oztoman was one of three towns (the others were Iztapa and Alahuiztlan) in strategic locations along the Tarascan border, ‘all built on hilltops for defensive purposes’ (Berdan & Rieff Anawalt, 1992: 2, 80).

For the Aztecs, ‘security did not lie in the static defence of fortified sites... security lay in the offensive’ (Hassig, 1988: 49), whereas for the Tarascans the situation was radically different: ‘they erected a series of fortifications along their border with the Aztecs’ (ibid, p. 208), at towns such as Alahuiztlan (near Oztoman), Quetzaltepec, and Quauhquechollan (‘Where-There-Are-Many-Feather-Tufted-Eagles’) (pic 3). When Cortés reached this last town, with a population of 5,000-6,000 ‘it was encircled by a stone and mortar wall 7.3 metres high on the outside and almost level with the ground on the inside, and along the top there were battlements three feet high. Entry was gained through four gateways... Quetzaltepec was also encircled by defensive walls, but it had six rather than one. The outermost wall was... about 8.4 metres high and 5 metres wide, as were the second, third, fourth and fifth walls, while the sixth and innermost wall was... about 3.3 metres high and 10 metres wide’ (ibid, pp. 297-8).

As for Quetzaltepec, ‘Unlike the armies of most other cities, Quetzaltepec’s army did not emerge to fight the Aztecs in open fields, probably because of the impressive Aztecs’ victories.
’Siege tactics were not well developed in Mesoamerica, because logistical constraints severely limited the time a large army could remain stationary in the field. However, bent on severely putting down the rebellion in the region and also concerned that fortified Quetzaltepec dominated a crucial route from the Gulf to the Huaxyacac area and could offer continual impedance to Aztec travel if left unchastised, Moteuczomah Xocoyotl [Moctezuma I] ordered the construction of more than two hundred wooden ladders, with which the army scaled the walls. Quetzaltepec resisted for several days, but the three armies assaulted the town from different directions and finally conquered it’ (ibid, p. 230).
It’s worth pointing out here that the tactic of retreating to a mountaintop fortified by high terrace walls - often used by Mixtec and Zapotec peoples - was usually deeply frustrating to the armies of the Aztec Triple Alliance, who lacked sophisticated siege technologies. ‘In attempting to surround the enemy they risked leaving their rear open to attack by neighbouring allies’ (Pohl, op cit, p. 42).

Hassig (1988: 260) suggests that the general absence of fortifications in ancient Mesoamerica might stem from limitations in wall-construction techniques. ‘Most of the fortifications took advantage of strong locations, such as hilltops, where the defensive works could be built largely as walled embankments rather than as free-standing walls. Without such natural advantages Mesoamerican defensive works were inadequate as passive defences capable of repelling invaders. Instead, an active defence was crucial in most cases.’ After all, Mesoamerican walls were generally ‘not high enough to require anything more elaborate than ladders to scale them’ (ibid., p. 298).
Whilst an effective first line of defence might well be simply to roll large stones down on attackers, hilltop fortresses, though capable of housing reserve military forces, were vulnerable to siege if they weren’t adequately stocked with supplies of food and water.

In situations where the Aztecs could be sure of accessing regular and sufficient supplies to their warriors - such as when attacking enemy towns within the basin of Mexico (canoes could be used en masse to ferry supplies) - they did resort to siege tactics; lacking large machines of the kind deployed in medieval Europe, the Aztecs used the same weapons as for regular combat: ‘Projectiles had harassment value in besieging fortifications, and atlatl darts and stones proved to be effective. Both could be lobbed over the walls of fortifications with telling effect, and burning arrows were used to set buildings afire’ (ibid., p. 108).

Main sources/references:-
• Berdan, Frances & Rieff Anawalt, Patricia (1992) The Codex Mendoza, vols. 2 & 4, University of California Press
• Hassig, Ross (1988) Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political Control, University of Oklahoma Press
• Pohl, John (1991) Aztec, Mixtec and Zapotec Armies, Osprey Publishing, Oxford.

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Aztec fortresses

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