highland origins of Andean civilization, which he published in Origen y desarrollo de la civilizacion andina (Origin and development of the Andean civilization) in 1942. He also wrote newspaper articles on archaeological topics, and these helped to popularize the subject and interest the Peruvian people in it.

Tello became director of the University Museum at San Marcos in 1923, director of the National Archaeological Museum in 1924, and professor of general archaeology at San Marcos in 1923; then at the same institution he became professor of American and Peruvian archaeology in 1928, a position he kept for the rest of his life. He was also briefly professor of anthropology at the Pontifical Catholic University (1931–1933). Through all of this work, Tello influenced and trained a generation of Peruvian archaeologists.

He was drawn into Peruvian politics, which proved ultimately to be to his personal and professional disadvantage, and he was a member of the National Congress from 1917 to 1928. He was honorary curator of archaeology at Harvard University; a fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute, London; and an executive board member of the Institute of Andean Research.

Tim Murray

See also

Moche

References

Tello, J. C. 1967. Paginas escogidas. Lima: Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.

Tenochtitlán

The capital city of the aztec empire, Tenochtitlán was founded in a.d. 1325 and fell to the Spaniards under Hernando Cortés on 13 August 1521. In less than 200 years, the island city had a remarkable growth and development, and by the time the Spaniards arrived it was one of the largest cities in the world. Certainly, it was one of the most beautiful: the Spaniards were in awe of it as they gazed upon the city shortly before meeting the Aztec emperor Motecuhzoma (Montezuma). In the words of one eyewitness, the Spanish foot-soldier Bernal Díaz del Castillo:

And in the morning we arrived at a wide causeway and we continued marching toward Iztapalapa. And from the causeway we saw so many cities and towns in the water, and other great towns on the lakeshore, and that straight and level causeway leading to Mexico [Tenochtitlán] made us marvel, and we said that it was like the enchantments that are written about in the tale of Amadis, on account of the great towers and pyramids and buildings that rise from the water, and all built of stone masonry. And some of our soldiers wondered aloud if the things that we saw were not a dream.

(Matthews 307–308)

Aztec descriptions of the city were understandably no less glowing: “The city is spread out in circles of jade, radiating flashes of light like quetzal plumes. Beside it the lords are borne in boats: over them extends a flowery mist,” elegized one poet.

According to legend, Tenochtitlán was founded at a nadir in Aztec history. The Aztecs had just been driven out of a city where they had served as mercenaries, having committed atrocities that disgusted their hosts. The Aztecs were forced to flee to a group of low, swampy islands that lay in the western part of Lake Texcoco, the largest of a series of lakes that formed the heart of the basin of mexico where Mexico City now stands. It had long been prophesied that they would be given a divine sign by their patron god, Huitzilopochtli, when the time was right to build their city and become ancient Mexico’s “chosen people.” This sign would be an eagle eating a snake and perched on a prickly-pear cactus, and the Aztec priests saw that sign on those swampy islands in Lake Texcoco.

The Aztecs settled on the islands, driving wooden stakes into the grounds as piles to anchor their building foundations, and gradually their fortunes improved. In a.d. 1428, they attacked and beat the most powerful city in the basin of Mexico, and from that time they were the most powerful nation in the region. The city grew rapidly in both grandeur and size, ultimately reaching a population of 150,000– 200,000 people and covering perhaps twenty square miles.

By the time of the Spaniards’ arrival, the city was a metropolis of gleaming white houses and temples interspersed by canals and linked to the mainland by a series of causeways. In the center