What rituals accompanied Aztec deaths?

ORIGINAL QUESTION received from - and thanks to - Vale: I am a student researcher from UC Berkeley who would like to inquire as to whether you would know the possible rituals that would accompany Aztec deaths? (Answered by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)
This is a huge question, covering everything from showy public funeral ceremonies for rulers and nobles to humble burials (usually under the family home) for commoners. The following are some general pointers which we hope will help...

Pic 1: Elaborate Classic Period death cult from Oaxaca: the mortuary bundle in the centre is surrounded by musicians and priests intoning chants

• Funerary rites always began with prayers and orations addressed both to the deceased and to the mourners in attendance
• The eyes of the dead person were carefully closed
• Ritual specialists would be called in; they would cut up pieces of amate fig tree bark paper, cover the corpse with them and then pour water over the head
• The corpse would be dressed and adorned in accordance with how the person had died - eg a soldier might be dressed like Huitzilopochtli
• The corpse would be placed in the foetal position, symbolising a return to the position of a foetus in the mother’s womb
• Everything the person’s soul would need on the long four-year journey to the underworld would be buried with them: water, food, clothes, tools, gifts, and...

Pic 3: Sacrificing a dog to accompany and guide the deceased on their journey to the afterlife was common throughout the ancient Americas

• The jade bead served the soul ‘as a heart in the regions he or she was soon to inhabit’
• The vase was buried in a deep hole which for four days was covered with offerings of food and drink
• If the corpse was buried rather than cremated, the actual burial ceremony took place eighty days after death
• ‘The ritual of burning an effigy was repeated at this time and performed once a year for four years on the anniversary of a person’s death, after which it was assumed that the individual’s soul had arrived in Mictlan’ (the Land of the Dead).
• ‘Another funerary ritual consisted of keeping the energy of the deceased close to family and relatives by cutting locks of hair from the top of the head (teyolia before cremation and mixing these with locks from birth. These locks were kept in a vessel, which was stored in or near the home of the deceased’s family.’

Pic 5: Clay figure of the (Mixtec) Lord of the Underworld, holding in his left hand a flint blade (symbol of death) and a staff in his right