The life and culture of the Aztecs. Based on a powerpoint by mercywexford on the Aztec Empire. Used for educational purposes.

1. The Amazing
Aztecs

2. • Write something you already know
about the Aztec Empire!
• Write something you would like to
find out about the Aztec Empire.

4. • The Aztecs were
rich and powerful
people from the
valley of Mexico.
They were farmers,
warriors, traders,
engineers, artists and
sculptures.
3
million
people

5. Settling Down
• They arrived in Mexico about 700
years ago, looking for a new home.
• After a long journey, they arrived at
Lake Texoco in a large Mexican
valley.
• A god had sent them a sign telling
them where to live.
• An eagle with a snake in its mouth
perched on a cactus.

6. • It was very hard to build on the
lake because the Aztecs only had a
small piece of land in the
surrounding marshes.
• The Aztecs made the swampy,
shallow lake into chinampas. They
made islands by piling up mud and
reeds in the water. They used them
as their city foundations.

7. • Built canals, gardens,
aqueducts, temples and a
very grand palace.
• They named their new home
Tenochtitlán.
• Largest and most beautiful
city in the world.

8. Then they built bridges to connect the city to
the mainland.
The
palace
was so
big, there
was even
a zoo
inside.

9. What do you think
these buildings were
used for?

11. What to Wear?
• What do you think they wore?
(Discuss in Pairs)
• Only rich nobles were allowed to
wear bright, patterned clothes.
• The best warriors were allowed to
wear clothes with lots of feathers
and decoration.
• Ordinary Aztecs wore plain clothes
that were made out of rough
material.

12. What do you notice??
• Men and women painted
their bodies.
• They dyed their hair
black with mud or a
deep blue colour.
• For women, the
fashionable colour to
paint themselves was
yellow made from
crushed insects!

13. Aztecs and Food
• What do you think they ate?
(Pairs)
• Maize, beans, tomatoes, chilli
peppers and other vegetables.
• People also ate dogs, monkeys,
frogs, tadpoles, lizards, ants,
caterpillars and insects.
• Many kinds of animals and birds
were sold live at Aztec markets.
• They used cocoa beans, feathers
and tools as money.

14. • The Aztecs even had
a god of chocolate!
• They used cocoa
beans to make a rich
chocolate drink.
• They added chillies
to make it spicy.

15. Religion
• Religion was very
important part of Aztec
life.
• The Aztec religion was
based on worship of
gods who represented
the Earth, Rain and Sun.
• They held lots of festivals
to worship them.

16. • Can you guess the names of these
Gods and what they did?
• The god of sun and war was
Hummingbird on the Left.
• Hummingbird on the Left’s
mother was an earth goddess
called Snake Skirt.
• The Aztecs believed that the god
of water brought rain, thunder and
lightning.
• Smoking Mirror was god of the
night sky. He decided if people
would be lucky.

17. Human Sacrifice
• The Aztecs believed that
their gods had to be fed
with human hearts and
blood.
• People thought this was a
good way to die as it
helped the gods.
• More than 10,000 people
were once sacrificed in
just four days.

18. Other
Aztec
Customs
• The Aztecs bound their
babies’ heads so they
grew into a flatter
shape.
• Cross-eyes were
thought to be attractive.
Parents used string
down the middle of the
face to encourage them.
• They tried to make
children taller by
pulling on their necks.

19. Would you like to visit the Aztec
Doctor?
• To mend a broken leg, they put a
paste of cactus and lime and made a
splint.
• To clean cuts and wounds, they
used urine!
• If someone had a cold, they gave
them a steam bath and dribbled dew
from the fields into their nostrils.

20. • For earache, the Aztecs poured
liquid rubber into the ear.

21. Quiz….
• What year did they build their city?
• What was the name of the city?
• How did they build their city on water?
• What did warriors wear?
• How did normal people dress and look?
• What did they eat?
• Name a God they believed in.
• Name an odd custom they had at the time.

22. Ball Sports
• Their favourite sports included a rough ball
game that often ended in injuries or even
death! TLACHTLI
• This ball game was played by teams of players
using a hard rubber ball on a stone court.
• Players scored points by knocking the ball
through goal rings high up on the walls of the
court.
• They were not allowed to kick or handle the
ball. They had to use their elbows, hips or
knees.
• The winners could claim clothes or jewellery
worn by spectators. The losing team was
sometimes killed as a sacrifice to the gods!
• Let’s give it a go!

23. Art and
Sculpture
•

24. • This is the mask of a
very powerful god
called Feathered Snake.
• It was made from
turquoise stone.

25. Aztec
Masks

26. Aztec Calendar

27. Aztec
Costumes

28. Aztec Children
• Strict rules and punishments to make them good,
obedient citizens.
• If children were rude or naughty, they were tied up
and left outside in the cold all night.
• Many children died as infants from diseases or
accidents at home.

29. • Working from the age of four.
• Girls: cook and clean.
• Boys: worked in fields or hunted and
fished with their fathers.
• 10: the boys were sent to school to do
military training and to learn a craft.
• 15: some boys went to a special school
where they learned about the history
and religion of the tribe.
• These boys became religious leaders.

30. Childhood
Punishments
• If they didn’t pay
attention in school, the
teacher punished them by
pinching their arms or
ears or pricking them
with cactus spines.
• If the girls were naughty,
they were given extra
housework.

31. • The worst punishment
for naughty children was
being held over a fire of
roasting chilli peppers,
so the smoke stung their
throats and eyes.
• If a family was very
poor, children were
sometimes sold to
passing slave traders.

32. Music
• Music was a huge part of religious
ceremonies, festivals and story-
telling.
• The instruments they used were
shells, rattles, whistles, horns, bells
and drums.
• Let’s make our own Aztec music: Write
the music using graphic notation and
incorporate all of these instruments.