The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan : center and periphery in the Aztec world /

The Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan was the premier site of imperial Aztec monumental architecture. The three interpretive essays in this book integrate the results of recent excavations (1978-1982) at that site with the wealth of previously known archaeological and historical information to formulate sweeping perspectives upon Aztec religion, empire, and history. These are not technical reports of archaeological excavations. Instead, authors Matos (project director at the site), Broda (a leading Mexican authority on pre-Hispanic society), and Carrasco (a historian of religion) offer new discussions of the natural and imperial imperatives that motivated the construction, iconography, architectural design, and sacrificial rites of the Great Temple. This book will be useful for advanced undergraduate students, despite the paucity of suitable maps and illustrations. These essays are usefully consulted in conjunction with Esther Pasztory's well-illustrated Aztec Art (CH, Dec '83) and The Aztec Templo Mayor, ed. by Elizabeth Boone (1987).-P.R. Sullivan, Yale University