Crafting the Tenochcan Imperial Identity and Style

Recent researches have demonstrated that a large number of objects found in the offerings from the Sacred Precinct of Tenochtitlan are local products and not foreign artifacts obtained by tribute, exchange, war prizes, or looting. Based on their formal characteristics, an important group of them were exclusive to Tenochtitlan and even to its Great Temple in comparison with Tlatelolco, Texcoco, or other sites of Mesoamerica, because identical elements have not been found in other settlements. The papers of this symposium will present the detailed studies of the stylistic attributes and the manufacturing techniques of these objects in different raw materials that support and confirm this assumption for most of the Triple Alliance period (AD 1440-1520). Based on these results, it is even possible to propose the existence of the Tenochcan Technological Imperial Style to reinforces their identity since Moctezuma I until Moctezuma II. The high standardization observed in the morphology, iconography, and technology of these pieces, and its restricted distribution in the offerings of the main ceremonies at the heart of the Empire, suggest that its manufacturing took place in a dependent context, probably even in the palace of the Tenochcan rulers.