Basic Aztec facts: AZTEC HOUSES

A small community often consisted of 10-20 houses. By comparison, some thirty years ago Michael E. Smith (on our Panel of Experts) researched the remains of a rural Aztec town, Cuexcomate (in today’s state of Morelos), and recorded ‘135 simple houses’. It’s important to bear in mind that the population really exploded in the hundred odd years leading up to the Spanish invasion, by a multiple of around 5. Smith gives the example of the increase in population for a ‘hamlet’ in the Valley of Mexico: from 258 (‘Early Aztec’) to 986 (‘Late Aztec’).
It’s hard to give you exact figures!

Thanks Jen!

Your face is boring...!!

For a start, using ropes as pulleys and wooden logs as rollers. Please read the answer by Professor Jennifer Mathews to this here -
https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/ask-experts/how-did-they-carry-the-heavy-stones-to-make-their-temples

That’s just a HUGE question! It really depends on who you were and what your job was. Can we suggest you have a look at the features we have (see right-hand menu on this page) on Aztec Social Classes and on Aztec Family Life...

We’ve tried to answer that here!!

Good question. ‘Ordinary’ (commoners’) houses had (packed) earth floors, whereas nobles’ houses often had two floors, raised up on a platform with stone walls. Houses never had more than two floors for the reasons you mention. In the words of Jacques Soustelle (‘Daily Life of the Aztecs’) ‘it is obvious that buildings raised upon piles in a yielding soil were in danger of collapsing as soon as they passed a given weight...’

Yes, four main ones (in each direction of the empire), the most important one being to the East.

We’ve tried emailing you a nice map of the Aztec empire, but the email has bounced back undelivered. Please write from a different address and we’ll send you it again. On ceremonies, that’s a huge subject! They basically held festivals every Aztec ‘month’ (20 days long), so all through the year. If you want we can email you a two-page list of these festivals, from Jacques Soustelle’s book ‘Daily Life of the Aztecs’.

Good question! Probably only at school. Everyone went to school. The best chance to hang out together would be in the evening, when all youngsters, from both élite and ‘regular’ schools, went to the ‘Cuicacalli’ (House of Song) for music and dance ‘education’ - and for generally making friends...

Not that we know of, no. They weren’t a nomadic people (except at the very start of their migration from their ancient homeland of Aztlan).

Generally close together, grouped round communal courtyards.

Good questions. We imagine they could only have built - and repaired - houses in the dry/winter season (starting in November) - though this was also the war season for the Mexica, so presumably the neighbourhood (‘calpulli’) council would have to have given special permission for the construction of a house, to excuse the men involved from military service. The dry season was generally the time of year when men were less busy in the fields, and they were obliged to give some of their work time at that time of year to the community, for tasks like repairing agricultural terraces or irrigation channels.

Good question. Well, a bit of everything. The Aztecs were mostly farmers, working land controlled by lords. In their early years their settlements were small and scattered widely across the landscape. Only a few large cities existed (eg Tenayuca) in the Basin of Mexico to begin with. As the population grew, small groups moved into the swampy backwaters of the lakes and built the earliest ‘chinampas’. Later on came large numbers of people moving onto the lakeshore and building irrigation systems and terraces on the foothills. Yes, remains have been found of individual houses scattered around the landscape. Small villages and towns were also common. A good book to read on this is ‘The Aztecs’ (2nd. ed.) by Michael E. Smith (on our Panel of Experts).

‘Roofs’ [of palaces and nobles’ houses] were flat, made of wooden beams covered with planks, or shingles, and were frequently spread with earth to form roof gardens. Only the most distinguished men were allowed to build houses with two storeys, and it is doubtful whether the marshy subsoil of Tenochtitlan could have taken the weight of anything heavier. All over Mexico, however, the one- or two-storey building was the rule.’ (From ‘Everyday Life of the Aztecs’ by Warwick Bray).

Sorry. It’s known as a gif ‘gaff’...

Good question. We don’t know for sure, estimating around a couple of weeks. We know house-building was a collective job - i.e., families joined forces to help each other on these sorts of community tasks.

Good question. Here’s one voice of experience (follow link in our feature on ‘Pine Torch’ in the Aztec artefacts section): ‘In the old days people used to light their streets with a handful of ocote resin impregnated sticks interspersed with dried ribs of the organ cactus and tied in a bundle. They would attach this to a post and it would burn for two or three hours with enough light for the people to see their way’.

Great question. We’ve given you a few pointers here -
http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/ask-us/how-did-aztec-culture-influence-their-housing

What about them...?!

In terms of the aqueducts, you can find a good part of the answer in our ‘Ask the Experts’ section, in October 2008 -
http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/ask-experts/where-did-the-aqueduct-go-to-from-tenochtitlan
And as for temples/pyramids, this may help too -
http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/resources/ideas-for-exploring-temple-design (in our Resources section).

Some of this is answered above! Shared interior patio/courtyard, yes - sometimes with shared cooking facilities. Gardens - not for poor families but flowers yes, even the poorest home would have had flowers in it. The front of the house would open directly onto the local road.

On a clay griddle in the middle (pic 1 - spot it?)

Aztec houses, at least in towns, were grouped together around patios, usually with extended families occupying the neighbouring houses. Aztec houses were largely used just for sleeping in - most family members were out and about during the day. As the adobe bricks were sun-dried, the only significant impact on the environment would have been the cutting of trees for wood for those parts of the house, such as the roof, not made of adobe.

We’ve now added a little feature on these torches to answer your excellent question! Please go to our ‘Aztec Artefacts’ section and click on ‘Pine Torch’. The answer to your first question, BTW, appears to be around 2-3 hours...

Thanks for writing, Jodie. We enjoyed coming to Stapleford! Mexico City (where Tenochtitlan used to be) is quite high up, so you tend to get cool-chilly nights and warm days. There have always basically been two opposite seasons in that part of the world: a dry season and a wet season. In Aztec times the dry season was the war season and the wet season was the farming season.

Excellent question, Milly! In fact we’re already planning a new feature on Aztec Furniture. We’ll try and upload it as soon as we can......... Thanks for writing!

They would probably have had two stories, be made of stone, and have been finely decorated. We have info on this in our ‘Ask the Experts’ section, the answer for February 2007. Here’s a link to the page -
http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/index.php?one=azt&two=ask&tab=ans&id=24

They didn’t have what we think of as ‘jails’. They did keep slaves temporarily in cages before they had been sold, but ordinary folk generally paid back their dues to society by working for the people they had wronged or stolen from. Maybe we could learn from this principle even today?