For example, they used a quauhchiquihuitl - a wooden box subdivided into divisions as small as one-twelfth - for the purpose of measuring corn and other dry goods. Although Aztecs appear to have never used scales, they used numbers of easily countable items and volumes of specific commodities to facilitate trade. If you had walked through the bustling Aztec market Tlatelolco (in present-day Mexico) before European contact, you would have encountered an orderly and well-regulated measurement system. This is not surprising, considering their monumental achievements in fields such as engineering, architecture, astronomy and medicine. “ have measures for everything,” the historian Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas wrote about the indigenous people of Mexico in his 1601 description of Hernán Cortés’ observations. I held the tiny figurines in the palm of my hand, marveling at their intricately carved features, weathered by time.įrom the myriad artifacts and structures left behind by ancient pre-Columbian civilizations, alongside the observations of the Spaniards who first arrived in the New World, historians have been able to piece together an understanding of the complexities of pre-Columbian measurement systems. Why did I have this crazy notion that I might find something more interesting? One day while visiting my grandfather’s house in Mexico City, my father had pulled an old shoebox out of his childhood closet and opened it to reveal the Aztec artifacts he had dug up in his own backyard when he was my age. This may come as a surprise, but I never dug up anything culturally significant rather, my finds were limited to rocks, sticks and mud (which, coincidentally, could be used to make some pretty spectacular mud cakes). This post is in no way a comprehensive account of all the measurement systems existing in pre-Columbian societies of the Americas.Īs a child growing up in Fairfax, Virginia, I used to play archaeologist by digging for ancient artifacts in my backyard. To do this, we’d like to reflect on the rich cultural advances of the indigenous people whose measurement science helped fuel the development of pre-Columbian civilizations and whose blood still flows through many of today’s Hispanic Americans. This month, we celebrate the heritage of the multitude of identities that arose from the intermingling of Spanish and indigenous American cultures. Some photographs of my cousin and me in 2002 exploring historic towns and ruins in the Mexican countryside.
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