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3D reconstruction of the capital of the Aztec empire

tenochtitlan.thomaskole.nl

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Re: 3D reconstruction of the capital of the Aztec empire

#71

Post by senderista »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #62
BXLE_1-1-BitIs1 wrote: post #53

The Reconquista had finally driven out the Moors from Spain in 1492 - 26 years before Cortez entered Tenochtitlan and began the dismantling of indigenous religion. The Spanish Catholics were the Wahhabis of the day. Thought Experiment: If the Iberian Moors were still in power in 1518,would we today be calling Latin Americans "Arabs"? Similarly, popular opinion in Israel likes to call Palestinians "Arabs" because they…

> Similarly, popular opinion in Israel likes to call Palestinians "Arabs" because they adopted the language of their conquerors. That's not a practice imposed by the Israelis. The (genuine) Arabs, as you would expect, favored themselves. So, everywhere in their empire, social climbers claimed to be Arabs. When you read about the history of the region, the luminaries who appear tend to be Persians, but this is obscure…

Just as Persians, Syrians, Egyptians, etc. were "Arabized", in turn Turks and Mongols were "Persified".

Re: 3D reconstruction of the capital of the Aztec empire

#74

Post by sayrer »

threatripper wrote: post #8

Fascinating how some road paths have endured the centuries.

Yep. You can see it on the map in the Museo Nacional de Antropología. El periférico ("the ring highway") and other major roads follow the old causeways. I have been there many times in my life, maybe 30 or 40.

Re: 3D reconstruction of the capital of the Aztec empire

#75

Post by kykeonaut »

ecocentrik wrote: post #29
viciousvoxel wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sewage was taken out of the city by boat via the system of chinampas, i.e. canals cutting through the man-made patches of reclaimed land within the lake. Almost all of this was destroyed/filled in under Spanish occupation and is likely one of the major factors in the spread of disease and decimation of the native population.

That is tragic. Europeans, with inferior civil engineering skills but superior military weapons, decimate a civilization instead of transferring and absorbing their technology and then take a few hundred years to catch up. It's a tech lesson that some of us still fail to understand.

Turns out that Tlaxcaltecas did most of the work in conquering the Aztecs. They also had vast privileges granted by the Spanish once the conquest was over. For example, they were granted the title of Don. Not as black and white as it might seem.

Re: 3D reconstruction of the capital of the Aztec empire

#76

Post by thaumasiotes »

senderista wrote: post #71
thaumasiotes wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Similarly, popular opinion in Israel likes to call Palestinians "Arabs" because they adopted the language of their conquerors. That's not a practice imposed by the Israelis. The (genuine) Arabs, as you would expect, favored themselves. So, everywhere in their empire, social climbers claimed to be Arabs. When you read about the history of the region, the luminaries who appear tend to be Persians, but this is obscure…

Just as Persians, Syrians, Egyptians, etc. were "Arabized", in turn Turks and Mongols were "Persified".

> in turn Turks and Mongols were "Persified".

How?

Re: 3D reconstruction of the capital of the Aztec empire

#78

Post by stubish »

mkl wrote: post #60

(2023) 101 comments at the time, including from the creator: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37973229

There are also some articles talking about Thomas Kole doing the 3d modeling from about a year ago:

https://english.elpais.com/culture/2024-02-13/the-lost-city-... https://www.wired.com/story/explore-tenochtitlan-ancient-azt...

Re: 3D reconstruction of the capital of the Aztec empire

#79

Post by crooked-v »

bennyfreshness wrote: post #51
StepWeiwu wrote: post #35

For anyone interested in what the Americas looked like before and after Columbus, I highly recommend the two books, 1491[1] and 1493[2], by Charles C. Mann. I finish the first one and I'm half way through the second one and really openend my eyes. Great reads! [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39020.1491?ref=nav_sb_ss... [2] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9862761-1493

Also "The Conquest of New Spain" .. written as a first hand account by a soldier for Cortes. Obviously cruel and exploitative what the conquistadors did, but it's an example how fact can be sometimes more incredible than fiction. How a small band of soldiers got in way over their heads and had to bluff and bully their way through, or would have certainly been killed. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/108490.The_Con…

Of course, another major factor there is that just about everyone subject to the Aztecs hated them for a variety of reasons, but most obviously all the raiding/kidnapping and blood sacrifice. That's not to say the Spanish Empire was necessarily better, but their opportunities would have been much slimmer if the Aztecs had been even a little bit less all-around cruel.

Re: 3D reconstruction of the capital of the Aztec empire

#80

Post by fyrepuffs »

StepWeiwu wrote: post #35

For anyone interested in what the Americas looked like before and after Columbus, I highly recommend the two books, 1491[1] and 1493[2], by Charles C. Mann. I finish the first one and I'm half way through the second one and really openend my eyes. Great reads! [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39020.1491?ref=nav_sb_ss... [2] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9862761-1493

Actually better is the book "The Fifth Sun: A new history of the Aztecs" written in Nahuatl (the Aztec language) and translated by Camille Townsend. It is an account of how the Aztecs viewed conquest, which they didn't see as a conquest initially. Also the descriptions of the city of Tenochitlan indicate that it was just as sophisticated, and cosmopolitan as it is today: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Sun:_A_New_History_of_th...
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