Night Falls on Tenochtitlan

Summary

This is an abstract from the "After Dark: The Nocturnal Urban Landscape & Lightscape of Ancient Cities" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Cortes escaped from Tenochtitlan on "La Noche Triste" in the summer of 1520, but many in his entourage did not – a Mexican woman awake in the night saw them heading across the causeway to the mainland and roused the city to pursue them. The intruders had been under siege by the Tenochca, whose daytime prowess as street fighters was not matched by a vigilant presence at night. There are several important reasons why. One was exhaustion after long days of fighting in the weeks since the Toxcatl massacre of Aztec lords in late spring. Furthermore, even under normal circumstances, the Aztecs believed that the night transformed their world into a dangerous place, where the dreaded tzitzimitl spirits of the dead imperiled the living who would venture out. However, palaces and temples represented sanctuaries where fires were kept burning all night, maintained by stewards and novices. And throughout the year festivals involved dancing and feasting that went on all night. This study of how the Aztecs conceptualized the night shows that, as was true of so many cognitive constructs, dualism structured their attitudes and permitted them occasional riotous enjoyment in a nocturnal world that they typically avoided.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• After Dark: The Nocturnal Urban Landscape & Lightscape of Ancient Cities   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23426