Emily Umberger

Quetzalcoatl in Late Aztec Sculptures

El trono de moctezuma

Estudios de Cultura Nahuatl, 1984

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Mesoamerica, Pre-Columbian

Castillo de Teayo

Oxford Art Online, 2020

Aztec Art in Provincial Places

Altera Roma, 2016

I focus on the remains of Aztec architecture and sculptures. These are sparse in the expanse of t... more I focus on the remains of Aztec architecture and sculptures. These are sparse in the expanse of the documented empire and are concentrated in places that the Aztecs used or where they had enclaves and colonies. Even in these places, however, they did not build administrative centers or palaces, but rather they moved into and expanded pre-existing structures, and left local rulers and administrative forms in place where possible. Although there are Aztec- style temples in the Empire, no temples or images of the Aztec political patron god, Huitzilopochtli, have been found outside the Basin of Mexico. The foci here are the actual remains found in the parts of the empire just outside the basin, which I am calling the Inner Empire, in particular remains of three imperial shrines in the landscape. These can be linked to important events in Tenochtitlan, the capital, through the imagery and hieroglyphic dates on monuments there.

THIRTEEN. Imperial Inscriptions in the Aztec Landscape

Conflicting economic and sacred values in aztec society

Warior Regalia and Questions of Inalienable Possessions in the Aztec World

Response:on Reflections

Velázquez and Naturalism II: Interpreting "Las Meninas

Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics, 1995

Velázquez and Naturalism I; Interpreting "Los Borrachos

Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics, 1993

... True, Caravaggio was not the first proponent of certain aspects of naturalism, and, as Brown ... more

Antiques, Revivals, and References to the past in Aztec Art

Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics, 1987

Intimacy of Faith: Devotional Retablos and Ex-Votos from Mexico

Visual Anthropology Review, 2016

A reconsideration of some hieroglyphs on the Mexica calendar stone

Smoke and Mist: Mesoamericna Studies in Memory of …, 1988

Aztec presence and material remains in the outer provinces

Aztec imperial strategies, 1996

... These indicate that with the arrival of the Culhuaque (probably referring to the Mexica in th... more

The Metaphorical Underpinnings of Aztec History

Ancient Mesoamerica, 2007

The article discusses the 1473 civil war between the two polities that formed the capital of the ... more The article discusses the 1473 civil war between the two polities that formed the capital of the Aztec empire, Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco, as presented in the Codex Durán. I argue that the literal, European-style rendition of the events of the war includes remnants of the pre-Conquest symbolic thought behind those events' original choreography. The remnants indicate that the war was staged to follow the outlines of the story of the battle between the god Huitzilopochtli (“Hummingbird, Left”) and his sister Coyolxauhqui (“Bells, Painted”) at the mountain site of Coatepetl (“Serpent Mountain”), an allegory for the rise and fall of powerful rulers. I also suggest that the enemy king and his second in command, after being thrown from the Tlatelolco Templo Mayor, were buried in the funerary vessels beside the Great Coyolxauhqui Stone discovered in 1978 at the base of the Tenochtitlan Templo Mayor, proved by the war to be the “true” and only Coatepetl.

Aztec Art in Provincial Places: Water Concerns, Monumental Sculptures, and Imperial Expansion," Chapter 4 in Altera Roma, Art and Empire from Merida to Mexico, ed. JMD Pohl and CL Lyons, UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, 2016, 109-145

I focus on the remains of Aztec architecture and sculptures. These are sparse in the expanse of t... more I focus on the remains of Aztec architecture and sculptures. These are sparse in the expanse of the documented empire and are concentrated in places that the Aztecs used or where they had enclaves and colonies. Even in these places, however, they did not build administrative centers or palaces, but rather they moved into and expanded pre-existing structures, and left local rulers and administrative forms in place where possible. Although there are Aztec- style temples in the Empire, no temples or images of the Aztec political patron god, Huitzilopochtli, have been found outside the Basin of Mexico. The foci here are the actual remains found in the parts of the empire just outside the basin, which I am calling the Inner Empire, in particular remains of three imperial shrines in the landscape. These can be linked to important events in Tenochtitlan, the capital, through the imagery and hieroglyphic dates on monuments there.

A Tale of Two Saints at San Xavier del Bac

KIVA

Matlatzinco Before the Aztecs: José García Payón and the Sculptural Corpus of Calixtlahuaca

Ancient Mesoamerica, 2017

This article studies the sculptural corpus of the Matlatzinca state before it was conquered in th... more This article studies the sculptural corpus of the Matlatzinca state before it was conquered in the mid-1470s by the Aztec Empire. Previously, Matlatzinco had been an independent polity in the northern part of the Valley of Toluca surrounding the traditional center of government, which was also called Matlatzinco. After invading the area, the Aztecs renamed this city Calixtlahuaca and established their own provincial capital at nearby Tollocan (modern Toluca). Making Calixtlahuaca a symbol of control over the area, the Aztecs raised new architecture phases in the ancient city center and installed Aztec-style deity images.

Notions of Aztec History: The Case of the Great Temple Dedication

Res: Anthropology and aesthetics, 2002

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