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Aztec daily life seen in the Mural of the Aztec market of Tlatelolco by Diego Rivera. Palacio Nacional, Mexico City. Source: Diego Rivera/CC BY-SA 3.0

Daily Life of the Aztecs: A Blend of Agriculture, Hierarchy, and Culture

In the history of the Mesoamerican civilizations, the Aztecs occupy a major position. A lot of their history is known to us, mostly because of their contact with the Spanish conquistadors. But we...
From the Codex Mendoza — a father teaches his son the art of war, and a mother teaches her daughter house chores. The speech is in the scroll glyph. (Public Domain)

Codex Mendoza: A Glimpse into the Aztec World

Ever wanted to step back in time to the days of the Aztecs? With the Codex Mendoza, you can. Reading this document takes you back to the mid-16th century, shortly after the Spanish conquest of Mexico...
Sharon Mintz of Sotherby’s with the Codex Sassoon, oldest Hebrew Bible. Source: Courtesy of Sotheby’s

A Nearly 1,100-Year-Old Hebrew Bible Could Be the Most Expensive Ever Sold

Renowned auction house, Sotheby’s in New York, prepares itself for the sale of possibly the most expensive historical document ever sold at an auction, in the form of Codex Sassoon. This is one of...
A sample of Codex Leicester by Leonardo da Vinci. Source: Public Domain

Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Leicester: A Masterpiece of Science and Art

Have you ever wanted to explore the mind of one of history's greatest polymaths? The Codex Leicester gives history experts and art gurus alike the opportunity to do so. This famous book is a treasure...
Detail of the palimpsest under multispectral analysis. Source: Museum of the Bible / CC BY-SA 4.0

World’s Oldest Star Chart Discovered Hidden in Medieval Codex

In 2012, a student at Cambridge University identified what he suspected was an ancient Greek star map hidden behind text in a medieval codex. Compiled with astronomical data from the 2nd century AD,...
Pictogram in the Aztec Codex Telleriano Remensi representing an earthquake that took place in 1507. Source: Gerardo Suárez and Virginia García-Acosta

Aztec Codex is Oldest Written Account of Earthquakes in the Americas

Between the 1300s and the devastating arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the early 1500s, the Aztecs were a flourishing Mesoamerican culture in the Valley of Mexico in Central Mexico, building...
The Aztec Map of Cuauhtinchan And The Hidden Pyramid of Teoton

The Aztec Map of Cuauhtinchan And The Hidden Pyramid of Teoton

Within the Mexican State of Puebla, atop the ruins of a Pre-Columbian pyramid, stands the Convent of Cuauhtinchan. In 1891 AD, an ancient Aztec map was found concealed in the monastery. This...
The Voynich Manuscript is open to the public to attempt translation

Voynich Manuscript Is Solved And This Time It’s Academic

Claims of ‘cracking the code’ of the Voynich manuscript have lost their sheen somewhat over the last few years, with weak cases being presented from all and sundry. This attempt, described...
Two pages from the Voynich Manuscript. Has the Voynich Manuscript code finally been cracked?

Has the Enigmatic Voynich Manuscript Code Finally Been Cracked?

The Voynich Manuscript is a mysterious illustrated hand-written vellum codex in a currently unidentified written and visual code. However, according to a non-peer reviewed paper published in John's...
A 1593 edition of the Corpus Juris Civilis.

Corpus Juris Civilis Law: Created by a Byzantine Emperor and Still Relevant in Courts Over 1,500 Years Later

By the time of Byzantine Emperor Justinian’s reign in the 6th century AD, the Western Roman Empire was kaput, lost to waves of Germanic invaders from the North. Justinian was determined to recapture...
Left; Grolier Codex, Page 4. Right; Grolier Codex, Page 7.        Source: Left; Public Domain  Right; Public Domain

Experts in Mexico Finally Declare the Grolier Codex is the Real Deal

Mexico's National Institute of History and Anthropology has announced that a controversial document, previously known as the “Grolier Codex”, is authentic. After years of scrutiny, they have finally...
Shields bearing image of Ahuizotl, Museum of Ethnology, Vienna.

Was the Ahuizotl an Aztec Mythical Creature or a Real Fisherman’s Foe?

The Ahuizotl (which may be translated from Nahuatl to mean ‘Thorny One of the Water’) is a creature found in the mythology of the Aztecs. This legendary creature is believed to inhabit the lakes and...
Aztec Avenue of the Dead stretches out before pyramids and shops of Mexico.

Did Spanish Spin Doctors Change the Name of Teotihuacan to Sabotage the City?

The famous archaeological site of Teotihuacan may have served a different purpose for the Aztecs to what Spanish chroniclers claimed. A possibly deliberate change of the city’s name suggests that it...
Maiestas Domini page from Codex Amiatinus (fol. 796v), Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana and folio 5r from the Codex Amiatinus (Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Amiatinus 1), Ezra the scribe. "When the sacred books had been consumed in the fires of war, Ezra repaired the damage."

The Codex Amiatinus: The Skins of 500 Calves Were Used to Create this Monumental Manuscript

The Codex Amiatinus dates to the end of the 7th century AD; making it the oldest known surviving complete Catholic Bible written in the Latin Vulgate. It has been estimated that over 1500 calves were...
Top left section detail of (1593) [The Codex Quetzalecatzin]. [Mexico: Producer not identified] [Map] Retrieved from the Library of Congress.

Library of Congress Obtains Mesoamerican Map from the Dawn of the Americas

The U.S. Library of Congress has recently announced that a unique, indigenous-made map of Mexico from the era of the Nahuatl people's first contact with European explorers is now part of its vast...
One of the first cultures to have books were the Maya codices written on doubled-over pages and covered by a layer of "stucco".

The Maya Codices: The Precious Remaining History of an Eradicated Civilization

The Maya were a powerful pre-Columbian civilization who thrived between AD 600 – AD 800. They were literate, had a complex language including pictograms, glyphs, and phonetic representations. They...
Retaining Ancient Ways: Codex Runicus, How the Runic Script Survived in the Middle Ages

Retaining Ancient Ways: Codex Runicus, How the Runic Script Survived in the Middle Ages

Runic script was developed in Scandinavia between the 2nd and 8th centuries AD. It was originally used for short inscriptions. After the Viking Age, this famous form of writing was altered to compete...
Set of 70 Metal Tablets May Have the Earliest Written Account and Depiction of Jesus

Set of 70 Metal Tablets May Have the Earliest Written Account and Depiction of Jesus

When a set of 70 bound metal tablets was unearthed in Jordan in 2008, questions about the artifacts validity arose. However, researchers have now analyzed the codices and say they are genuine and may...
Pages 11 and 10 of the rediscovered codex with a reconstruction below

Researchers Uncover Lost Mexican Codex Hidden Beneath Another Codex

A 500-year-old Mexican text dating to just before Hernan Cortez arrived in Mexico with his band of murderous, thieving conquistadors has been discovered written over, underneath another old Mexican...
An Ancient Mayan Copernicus: Hieroglyphic Texts Reveal Mayans Made Major Discovery in Math, Astronomy

An Ancient Mayan Copernicus: Hieroglyphic Texts Reveal Mayans Made Major Discovery in Math, Astronomy

For more than 120 years the Venus Table of the Dresden Codex -- an ancient Mayan book containing astronomical data -- has been of great interest to scholars around the world. The accuracy of its...
Teen Makes Stellar Discovery of Previously Unknown Maya City

Teen Makes Stellar Discovery of Previously Unknown Maya City

William Gadoury, a 15 year-old Canadian from Quebec, has revolutionized the academic world by using ingenious reasoning to discover a previously unknown Maya city. Based on his own theory - that the...
Madrid Codex. Maya Codex also known as Tro-Cortesianus. Origin unknown. Epoch: Late Postclassic.

Unravelling the Mysteries Trapped Within Mayan Hieroglyphs

For hundreds of years, linguists have been trying to decode the ancient hieroglyphic script of the Mayans, left behind on monument carvings, painted pottery, and drawn in handmade bark-paper books...
Mixtec Zouche-Nuttall Codex

Treasures of Mexico: The Mixtec, Aztec & Maya Codices that Survived the Conquistadors

When Europeans arrived in the New World, they did not only kill people with war, slavery and disease, they also attempted to destroy the cultures of the native peoples. Among so many cultural...
The ancient Mexican Codex Borgia of the Aztecs, who came after the Olmecs but who also revered corn, shows Quetzalcóatl

Possible sacred maize object found in stream at Olmec site

Archaeologists have found an artifact made of jadeite at an Olmec site in Mexico that they think represents a cob of corn and that may have been offered to the gods. Corn was a vitally important crop...

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