The project pages of WikiProject Aztec are no longer separately maintained. Instead, all WP:AZTEC activities are coordinated from within the parent project's pages, WikiProject Mesoamerica, as a "task force". Please consult WP:MESO's project pages, and the corresponding WT:MESO project talk page, for further information on project collaboration for Aztec and other Mesoamerican topics.
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 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.
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:
Project Definition (background, description and resources),
Project Activities (open tasks, to-do lists, collaborations and sub-projects),
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:
the Aztec civilization, culture and people; their description, history, characteristics,
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.
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.
This page is intended as a repository of details and links to resources, references, tools and other materials commonly used when editing Mesoamerica-related articles.
Project (internal) resources
Internal (wikipedia/project) resource pages
Mesoamerica reference works and citations
The project subpage WP:MESO/CITE contains commonly used reference works on Mesoamerican topics, with pre-filled citation templates containing the full reference details. The pre-filled template may be copied and conveniently pasted direct into the "references" section of articles which use them, for consistency and completeness.
Please add more as you find/need them.
Mesoamerica journals and citations
The project subpage WP:MESO/J contains a listing of journals and other periodicals in which papers may be published on Mesoamerican topics. Contains links to online resources for the journals, plus pre-filled citation templates for each journal, that may be used when citing in a particular article.
links to primary source documents (reproductions of codices, indigenous and Spanish accounts from pre-Columbian, conquest and colonial eras, etc.), and secondary/historical documents.
VARIOUS conquistador sources. Crónicas de América. Complete online texts compiled by the arteHistoria online mag (govt. of Castille y León): incl. Hernan Colon, Cristobal Colon, Hernan Cortes, Diaz del Castillo, Cabeza de Vaca, Fernando Ixtlilxochtitl, Rodriguez Freyle, Quiros, Francisco Hernandez, Gamboa, Vision de los vencidos, Lopez de Gomara, Toribio de Benevente, Origen de los mexicanos, Villagra, Sahagun, Alvaro Tezozomoc.
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)(Nahuatl)(Spanish)(English)(some pages)
Dictionnaire de la langue Nahuatl Classique, by Alexis Wimmer, based on dictionary compiled by Simeon. Comprehensive, with cross-referencing of terms found in the Florentine Codex. (French)(Nahuatl)
Nahuatl Vocabulary, searchable db of en, es & nah terms at Wired Humanities Project, UO
Atlas Arquelógico de Guatemala some maps and a very good repository of Guatemalan archaeological papers published in various sources, all downloadable as PDFs (Spanish)
Mesoamerican studies websites
American foundations, institutions, collections and universities
FAMSIFoundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc., just about the most comprehensive source for academic papers, monographs and Mesoamerican resources.
MESOWEB large repository of many recent academic papers on Mesoamerican studies.
PARIPrecolumbian Art Research Institute; incl. papers from Palenque Mesa Redonda ("Round Table") meetings
MARIMiddle America Research Institute, Tulane University
MARLMesoamerican Archaeological Research Laboratory, UT Austin. Publishes mono y conejo journal, & some site reports
CMHI, Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions by Peabody Museum, now has some good info & reproductions online
Mesoamerican img archives Repository of photos from various Mesoamerican sites, by David R. Hixson. Imgs are copyrighted, but could be approached for use in WP.
Puuc (Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil and Labna) docs & imgs, by Charles Rhyne & Reed College; many scans of old (Pub Domain) imgs and maps, also modern ones, of the region; + extensive annotated biblios in PDFs
WHP, Wired Humanities Project, University of Oregon; collection of Mesoam resources and text digitisation projects (some under constr; some pwd protected, others accessible)
VMAVirtual Mesoamerican Archive, a portal maintained by University of Oregon's Wired Humanities Project, with extensive material, links, and search facilities specific to Mesoamerican material available online
HLAS Online, Handbook of Latin American Studies (online), by Library of Congress; searchable database of annotated bibliographies, journals etc
ArchaeoSeek Mesoamerica, listing of Mesoamerican archaeological sites (nb, WP:MESO gets a guernsey!)
European foundations, institutions, collections and universities
IAI-PK, Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut, Preussischer Kulturbesitz; Library, catalogue & some details on Mesoamerican docs, research and collections (German)(Spanish)
Current-Contents, db listing TOCs of each vol for most ethnohistorical & arch. periodicals
Cibera, "is an interdisciplinary search facility for specialised scientists and students of culture, history, politics, economics and sociology of Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries and the Caribbean"
Arbeitskreis Mesoamerika, University of Vienna, Austrian academic Mesoamericanists (German)(English)(Spanish)
Crónicas de América, at arteHistoria by the Junta de Castile y León. Texts of original conquistador sources, biographies of authors and participants, images (many presumably PD), maps, and links.
Mexican foundations, institutions, collections and universities
INAHInstituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico. Main govt organisation overseeing cultural patrimony and research. A number of recent papers (Spanish)
Dimensión Antropológica, quarterly online journal by INAH, contains many full papers on Mesoam. anthropology, history & linguistics (Spanish)
UNAM, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México main site
Guatemalan foundations, institutions, collections and universities
Asociación Tikal, many online full PDFs of just about all papers at the annual Simposios de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala (SIAG)
ALMGAcademia de Lengues Mayas de Guatemala. Authority on Mayan languages, its orthography is used by many Mayanist sources. (Spanish)
OKMA, La Asociación Oxlajuuj Keej Maya’ Ajtz’iib’, Guatemalan organisation for investigation and documentation of Mayan langs.
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)
MUNAEMuseo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología de Guatemala, has imgs and occasional info on exhibits
Honduran foundations, institutions, collections and universities
IHAH, Instituto Hondureño de Antropología e Historia, Honduras. Main govt organisation overseeing cultural patrimony and research.
Salvadoran foundations, institutions, collections and universities
