Acolhuacan

The Aztec glyph for Acolhuacan, which depicts an arm with water emerging from the humerus.^[1]

Acolhuacan or Aculhuacan (Nahuatl: ācōlhuahcān;^[2] pronounced [aːkoːlˈwaʔkaːn]) was a pre-Columbian province in the east of the Valley of Mexico, inhabited by the Acolhua. Its capital was initially Coatlichan,^[3] but this settlement was eventually eclipsed in importance by Texcoco (Tetzcoco).^[4]

In some sources, the name "Acolhuacan" was also used to refer to a city within the larger Acolhuacan province (e.g., in the Codex Mendoza, folio 21v).^[5] Frances Berdan and Patricia Rieff Anawalt argue that it was likely Texcoco, Acolman, or Coatlichan, with the latter two being "the most likely prospects."^[1] Additional scholars largely agree that Acolhuacan was likely another name for Coatlichan.^[6][7]

Notes

1. Berdan and Anawalt (1997): p. 38.
2. Karttunen (1983): p. 3.
3. Lee (2009): p. 90.
4. Johnson (2017): p. xiii.
5. Berdan and Anawalt (1997): p. 37.
6. Gibson (1964): p. 17.
7. Lee (2009): p. 78, 90.

References

• Berdan, Frances; Anawalt, Patricia Rieff (1997). The Essential Codex Mendoza. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-20454-6.
• Gibson, Charles (1956). "Llamamiento General, Repartimiento, and the Empire of Acolhuacan". The Hispanic American Historical Review. 36 (1). Duke University Press: 1–27. doi:10.2307/2508623. JSTOR 2508623.
• Gibson, Charles (1964). The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule: A History of the Indians of the Valley of Mexico, 1519-1810. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-0196-9.
• Johnson, Benjamin D. (2017). Pueblos within Pueblos. Boulder, CA: University Press of Colorado. ISBN 978-1-60732-690-8.
• Karttunen, Frances (1983). An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-8061-2421-0.
• Lee, Jongsoo (2009-12-09). The Allure of Nezahualcoyotl: Pre-Hispanic History, Religion, and Nahua Poetics. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 978-0-8263-4339-0.