Tenochtitlan, the Aztec (but apparently you should call them Mexicatls, since Aztecs is how they were called but not how they called themselves, similar to the Navajos) capital, was set in a swamp, a massive damp, dank place. I assume I don't need to explain why drinking stagnant water like that is a bad idea. So what happened is that they used at first to rely on the rain, but relying on an unpredictable "rainy season" doesn't really help, so they moved on to used mud containers called "cantaros", who were (likely, but don't quote me) carried by slaves. Walker slaves, no less, since roads weren't really good for any kind of massive transportation. Apparently, the drinkable water was kept in bathtubs. Except, you know, they weren't for baths. Later on, they tried to build aqueducts, with "stakes, reeds and muds", and it seem the aqueduct was short-lived. Later on (likely after building an university and researching architecture), they built the first aqueduct of Chapultepec (how the freshwater spring was named). According to the research, it "was 12 km in length, 7 m wide and brought water from Chapultepec to the Templo Mayor". Still, being made of mud, it wore down. So they made another, "as large as an ox". They brought so much water to the city that Aztecs were able to kept pretty high hygiene standards, likely as comparable to the Romans with their baths, with the reservoirs belonging to the governement (aka the Tlatoani, the bigboss), and citizens paying for water. Then it was damaged in the flood of 1449, so it was rebuiltn this time with lime, stone and "rubblework" (whatever that is, my English is shite). That one, barring some repairs, stayed up until the Spaniards came knocking at the door. In 1499, they even built a dam to bring more water from other springs, the name left is "Coyoaca´n". With an accent on the second a, that isn't on my keyboard.
There's more to say, like sewers works made out of mud, or another flood in 1500 where it rained for "forty days", and then in 1520, the Spaniards came-a-knocking and destroyed everything. Then there's all the deal with public and personal hygiene, like how streets were sweeped and crap was stocked in vase to be used in chinampas fertilization, but that's too much. Source : "Potable water and sanitation in Tenochtitlan: Aztec culture", by J.E. Becerril and B. Jiménez, from the University of Mexico.
It's a wonder Tenochtitlan was built at all given how god awful such a place is for habitation. Seems like absolute hell trying to make civil infrastructure on a swamp with mud.
It's a wonder Tenochtitlan was built at all given how god awful such a place is for habitation. Seems like absolute hell trying to make civil infrastructure on a swamp with mud.
They didn't really have a choice : according to the legends (so I have absolutely no idea if it's true or not), they were given some nice lands in exchange for marrying a local king's daughter, but they just had to sacrifice her to Huitzilopochtli, so the bloke was kind of not really happy to hear his daughter got sacrificed, so he chased them out and they had to settle in the worst place to make sure nobody would knock on their door. Especially since Aztecs sacrifices could be gruesome, with being tied to a pole (a wooden pole, not a Polish person), and shot with flint arrows (later obsidians) until you bled out. I'm not giving more examples, there are kids around.
Tenochtitlan, the Aztec (but apparently you should call them Mexicatls, since Aztecs is how they were called but not how they called themselves, similar to the Navajos) capital, was set in a swamp, a massive damp, dank place. I assume I don't need to explain why drinking stagnant water like that is a bad idea. So what happened is that they used at first to rely on the rain, but relying on an unpredictable "rainy season" doesn't really help, so they moved on to used mud containers called "cantaros", who were (likely, but don't quote me) carried by slaves. Walker slaves, no less, since roads weren't really good for any kind of massive transportation. Apparently, the drinkable water was kept in bathtubs. Except, you know, they weren't for baths. Later on, they tried to build aqueducts, with "stakes, reeds and muds", and it seem the aqueduct was short-lived. Later on (likely after building an university and researching architecture), they built the first aqueduct of Chapultepec (how the freshwater spring was named). According to the research, it "was 12 km in length, 7 m wide and brought water from Chapultepec to the Templo Mayor". Still, being made of mud, it wore down. So they made another, "as large as an ox". They brought so much water to the city that Aztecs were able to kept pretty high hygiene standards, likely as comparable to the Romans with their baths, with the reservoirs belonging to the governement (aka the Tlatoani, the bigboss), and citizens paying for water. Then it was damaged in the flood of 1449, so it was rebuiltn this time with lime, stone and "rubblework" (whatever that is, my English is shite). That one, barring some repairs, stayed up until the Spaniards came knocking at the door. In 1499, they even built a dam to bring more water from other springs, the name left is "Coyoaca´n". With an accent on the second a, that isn't on my keyboard.
There's more to say, like sewers works made out of mud, or another flood in 1500 where it rained for "forty days", and then in 1520, the Spaniards came-a-knocking and destroyed everything. Then there's all the deal with public and personal hygiene, like how streets were sweeped and crap was stocked in vase to be used in chinampas fertilization, but that's too much. Source : "Potable water and sanitation in Tenochtitlan: Aztec culture", by J.E. Becerril and B. Jiménez, from the University of Mexico.
Honestly I'm amazed they had high sanitation than the romans, really make you think. Also thank you for the knowledge
Honestly I'm amazed they had high sanitation than the romans, really make you think. Also thank you for the knowledge
Aztec culture and history is pretty fascinating, although most of the time they get stereotyped as tribes living in the rainforest who worship the sun and perform blood sacrifices to appease the gods (Which… Isn’t completely inaccurate in all honesty. According to their mythology The moon and stars are 400 severed heads looking to kill the sun, the earth is appeased with blood sacrifice to prevent it from killing us all, and the world ended 4 times in the past cause they didn’t have a proper sun god at the time).
For example, they made primitive body armour out of quilted cotton that could protect from maces and spears while being flexible and light. They also harvested cocoa which they used as currency and made drinks from it, although nothing like the hot cocoa we drink today (I have a sudden craving for Tim Hortons hot chocolate now, hah). Their cocoa would later be shipped over to Spain, and quickly spread once they discovered how good cocoa tasted when you mixed in a little sweetener.
Honestly I'm amazed they had high sanitation than the romans, really make you think. Also thank you for the knowledge
I personally hesitate to compare them to the Romans because the Romans were really big as far as history go while the Aztecs got totally crushed and extinct, but they do look like they took some notes from them. Like, they had fountains and sewers. I cannot stress how complicated it is to set up waterworks like that, and it's definitely beyond the usual description of Aztecs as naked guys in loincloths tearing hearts out that I sometimes see. They also had the fun habit of assimilating local gods, such as the Mayan god Kukulkan, that they renamed Quetzacoatl, the Feathered Serpent. Really, the Aztecs' big flaw is that they only had one city, similar to Sparta or Thebes, so all their culture, religion and history was focused in one place, meaning that when the Spaniard came knocking, they got wiped, their codexes were burned, their people scattered.
psychedelic_rabbit said:
For example, they made primitive body armour out of quilted cotton that could protect from maces and spears while being flexible and light.
You mean gambeson? Yeah, that's pretty neat. And also maquahuitlis and atlatls. I feel the need to stress that Spaniards didn't wipe the Aztecs by themselves : they allied with the neighbouring cities and led the Last Alliance of Men, to march against the Aztecs, and on the side of Tenochtitlan, they fought for the future of Middle American. But the power of the Ring could not be broken, and... wait, wrong epic.
