Wikipedia:WikiProject Aztec

The Aztecs were a Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican people of central Mexico in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. They called themselves Mexicas (Classical Nahuatl: Mēxihcah, IPA: [meːˈʃihkaʔ]).

The capital of the Aztec empire was Tenochtitlan, built on raised islets in Lake Texcoco. The capital of Mexico, Mexico City, is built on the ruins of Tenochtitlan.

The Aztec civilization had a vibrant culture which included mandatory education and a rich and complex mythology. For Europeans, the most striking element of the Aztec culture was the practice of human sacrifice which was practiced throughout Mesoamerica prior to the Spanish conquest.

In what is probably the most widely known episode in the Spanish colonization of the Americas, Hernan Cortes conquered the Aztecs in 1521 thus immortalizing himself and the Aztec Huey Tlatoani , Moctezuma II (Montezuma II).

WikiProject Aztec (or WP:AZTEC for short) is intended to provide a common forum for Wikipedia editors interested in improving and maintaining articles related to the Aztec civilization.

Activities for discussion on this forum include: identifying in-scope articles and topics, discussing ways to improve article standards and topical coverage, coordinating and prioritising improvement efforts, developing standards and guidelines designed to achieve consistency between related articles, documenting article coverage by topical areas, rating articles by appropriate standards, organising the articles by meaningful categories and links, and sundry other activities to be further refined.

Project structure: WP:AZTEC has three main pages:

1. Project Definition (background, description and resources),
2. Project Activities (open tasks, to-do lists, collaborations and sub-projects),
3. Project Catalogue (inventory and survey of articles, lists, templates, categories, and an assessment of their current status).

Each are composed of a number of subpages. These main pages contain relevant navigational links and views their subpages' contents. Taken together, they are intended to function somewhat similarly to a Portal, in that the mainpages provide a common access points for associated documentation, activities and discussions. All of the actual detailed work and documentation takes place on the Project's separate subpages, however the main aspects of this work can be viewed directly and all at once from the main pages. Note that what appears in a particular window or box here may be a summary of more extensive material, which can be seen in full using the links and 'edit' tags provided.

The primary motivation in establishing this WikiProject is to provide interested editors with a central forum to discuss issues and ideas for improvement, and avoid having to disperse such discussion across multiple talk pages (note, however, that discussion on relevant talk pages is of course still encouraged, particularly where major changes are being considered; the Project's workspace is intended to complement, and not replace, editor best practices).

With this in mind, the proposed goals of this WikiProject may be stated as follows:

• improve and maintain Aztec-related articles: fact checking, prose checking, expanding, citation and referencing, NPOVing, bringing up to Good article or Featured article status;
• expand wikipedia coverage of Aztec-related articles: identify gaps, check for completeness of coverage, start new articles, expand entries on little-known or neglected, but still notable, subjects;
• apply sensible organisational structure to articles: Within articles, similar articles can have a similar structure, coverage and presentation. Across articles, maintaining categories, lists and links so related articles are easier to locate;
• ensure consistency of information and terminology across articles: where similar facts and data are cited or mentioned in several different articles, they should as far as possible be consistent and not contradict. Terminology and the orthography used for names and places should be consistently applied;
• propose and establish guidelines for editing: produce materials to assist others in understanding any guidelines or standards;
• develop tools and resources for others to use in article production: such as, templates, navboxes, infoboxes, 'what to include' checklists, diagrams, base maps, image catalogues, useful and commonly used references;
• facilitate coordination and collaboration: between Projects and editors, establish priorities, where possible avoid duplication of effort, apply WP:AGF, WP:CIVIL, WP:CON, WP:NPA, and others.

WikiProject Aztec is intended to provide a common forum for Wikipedia editors interested in improving and maintaining articles related to the Aztec civilization.

Activities for discussion on this forum include: identifying in-scope articles and topics, discussing ways to improve article standards and topical coverage, coordinating and prioritising improvement efforts, developing standards and guidelines designed to achieve consistency between related articles, organising the articles by meaningful categories and links, and sundry other activities to be further refined as we go along.

The scope of this WikiProject is proposed to include articles, lists, categories, templates, and the like, with some direct relevance to the Aztec civilization.

Primary focus

Primary scope thus includes articles, lists, etc. related to:

1. the Aztec civilization, culture and people; their description, history, characteristics,
2. the conquest of the Aztec empire by Hernan Cortes

[edit] General strategy and discussion forums

In the initial setup phases for this project, the main forum for now will be the Project's talk page. As the project develops, discussion may be moved to other areas.

• /Terminology: Discussion forum for terminology and translation issues.
• /Strategy: Strategy and structure. For policy discussions on how to title articles, how to categorise, etc.
• /Community: Noticeboard for editors interested in articles about the Aztec civilization. Basically, a community forum: use it to list articles you'd like other participants to take a look at or get a second opinion on, call attention to content disputes, post alerts, or advertise your willingness to meet up in (e.g.) Mexico City next month.

[edit] Other project subpages

Please add your signature to the list here if you are interested in getting involved. Optionally, you can also briefly describe any particular areas of interest or expertise you may have, or ways in which you'd like to contribute.

• --Richard 07:43, 6 May 2006 (UTC)
• --Nanahuatzin 07:00, 8 May 2006 (UTC)
• Piet 19:59, 11 May 2006 (UTC) — Sorry I'm late.
• cjllw 08:22, 12 May 2006 (UTC). Mostly pan-Mesoamerican focus articles I expect, but happy to work on Aztec-specific aspects of these.
• Eisenhower ▲ ▼ (at war or at peace♥) 00:24, 14 May 2006 (UTC)
• Wootking "Tom 22:27, 21 May 2006 (UTC)"
• Tubezone 00:39, 13 November 2006 (UTC)
• MRB 02:13, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Tools & References

A repository of details and links to tools, resources, references and other materials commonly used when editing Mesoamerica-related articles. This page shared by WP:MESO and WP:AZTEC.

[edit] Source documents

links to primary source documents (reproductions of codices, indigenous and Spanish accounts from pre-Columbian, conquest and colonial eras, etc.), and secondary/historical documents.

[edit] Primary sources

• Anonymous Conqueror (1550). Narrative of Some Things of New Spain and of the Great City of Temestitan . Reported eyewitness accounts (possibly a compilation) of Cortes' expedition & description of Central Mexican peoples. FAMSI reproduction of 1917 translation.
• Cervantes de Salazar, Francisco (1560?). Crónica de la Nueva España. Spanish encounters and description of Mesoamerican cultures. Readme.it edition. (Spanish)
• Martyr d'Anghiera, Peter (ca. 1504–1526). De Orbe Novo. First collected accounts of the New World. Project Gutenberg reproduction.

[edit] Secondary/Historical sources

• Brinton, Daniel G. (Ed.) (1890). Rig Veda Americanus. Nahua/Aztec songs and poems. Project Gutenberg reproduction. (Nahuatl) (English)
• Kerr, Robert (1824). A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. IV. Has some sections on early Spanish conquistador encounters. Project Gutenberg reproduction.

[edit] Languages & dictionaries

• SUP-INFOR excellent collection of searchable databases for Nauhatl & other Mesoamerican languages, dictionaries, and reproductions of a number of codices. DBs can be downloaded (PC-only support). (French) (Spanish) (English)(some pages)
• The Mayan Languages - A Comparative Vocabulary online searchable database of Mayan vocabulary, Univ. of Southern Denmark
• Dictionary-Concordance of Yucatecan Mayan language by David Bolles, at FAMSI

[edit] Maps & diagrams

• Electronic Atlas of Ancient Maya Sites extremely detailed downloadable maps (PDF) of Maya site locations (over 4400 !)
• AUM Carnegie Explorer some sample maps & site reports from Carnegie Institution
• Atlas Arquelógico de Guatemala some maps and a very good repository of Guatemalan archaeological papers published in various sources, all downloadable as PDFs (Spanish)

[edit] External sites - Mesoamerican studies

• MESOWEB large repository of many recent academic papers on Mesoamerican studies.
  • PARI Precolumbian Art Research Institute; incl. papers from Palenque Mesa Redonda ("Round Table") meetings
• FAMSI Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc., another comprehensive source for academic papers, monographs and Mesoamerican resources.
  • online Bibliografía Mesoamericana, FAMSI Research Materials.
  • online Maya Hieroglyph Dictionary, Mathews and Bíró, FAMSI Research Materials.
  • online Maya Vase Database, Justin Kerr, FAMSI Research Materials.
• MARI Middle America Research Institute, Tulane University
• WAYEB European Association of Mayanists
• Mesoamerican-archives Repository of photos from various Mesoamerican sites, by David R. Hixson. Imgs are copyrighted, but could be approached for use in WP.
• INAH Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico. A number of recent papers (Spanish)
• ALMG Academia de Lengues Mayas de Guatemala. Authority on Mayan languages, its orthography is used by many Mayanist sources. (Spanish)
• Atlas Arquelógico de Guatemala Govt. site, some maps and a very good repository of Guatemalan archaeological papers published in various sources, all downloadable as PDFs (see in particular "Otras publicaciones") (Spanish)
• MUNAE Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología de Guatemala, has imgs and occasional info on exhibits
• AMNH American Museum of Natural History papers, includes some rare papers on Mesoamerican topics, among others

[edit] Mesoamerican lectures and presentations

• US/Americas-based public lectures, presentations, etc- listing updated maintained at Mike Ruggeri's website

[edit] Citation templates

Commonly-used citations to Mesoamerican reference works are now listed on the separate subpage WP:MESO/CITE.

This subpage contains pre-formatted and pre-filled citation templates, which can simply be copied and conveniently pasted direct into the "references" section of articles which use them.

Please add more as you find/need them.

• Parent WikiProjects
  • WikiProject Mesoamerica— direct parent of WP:AZTEC.
  • WikiProject Archaeology— archaeological themes and standards.
• Descendant WikiProjects (other subProjects may be created when needed)
  • None.
• Related WikiProjects (some overlap in regional/topical coverage)
  • WikiProject Mexico
  • WikiProject Ethnic groups
    • WikiProject Indigenous peoples of North America
  • WikiProject Writing systems
• Similar WikiProjects (similar in nature or intent, different region)
  • WikiProject Ancient Egypt
  • WikiProject Ancient Near East

• Related Wikiportals
  • Portal:North America
  • Portal:Latin America
    • Portal:Mexico
  • Portal:History
    • Portal:Archaeology
• Related Collaborations
  • WP:SPATRA- Spanish Translation of the Week
• Related Regional notice boards
  • No related Regional notice boards have been named.