History of Mexico

A digital library of early Nahuatl-language resources (ca.1540-1825). Manuscript types include civil (birth, marriage, death, etc.), religious (testaments, preaching instructions, sermons, meditations, prayers, cofradía records, fiesta records, hymns, baptism records, theater), legal (statements by municipal officers, election records, petitions, land records, and other court records), historical (annals, primordial titles), calendrical, genealogical, economic (tribute records, market records, accounts), musical (songs), and literary (poetry, huehuetlahtolli), or linguistic (glossaries, vocabularies, grammars, language lessons).

The Mapas Project has as its focus the digitization and study of colonial Mesoamerican pictorial manuscripts. The term "mapa" was used loosely in New Spain to refer to pictorials that may or may not have had a cartographic dimension, but often showed the territories or landscapes of indigenous communities.

A gallery of high-resolution color images, each of them fully annotated, videos and interpretive essays on Vista’s six themes, along with discussion of related images. In the “Library” and “Texts” sections are primary documents relating to visual culture, with discussions and bibliography. Other features are seen in the sidebar.

View digitized codices from Pre-Columbian, Colonial, Independent and Revolutionary periods in Mexican history. Go to the section "Acervo Historico" and click on Tipo to find manuscripts, maps, and codices.

The Huexotzinco Codex is part of the testimony in a legal case against representatives of the colonial government in Mexico by the Nahua people of Huexotzinco. Scholars consider the codex to be the first pictorial representation of the Madonna and Child in the New World. In this webinar, cartography expert John Hessler examines the creation of the codex and its iconography.

In this webinar, cartography expert John Hessler provides an introduction to the production and uses of codices in the early Americas and examines the Mapa Quetzalecatzin, produced between 1570 and 1595 to represent the family tree of a prominent Nahua family.

The Oztoticpac Lands Map is a Nahua pictorial document with Nahuatl writing drawn for a court case in the city of Texcoco around 1540. The document, written on amatl paper, involves the land ownership of the ruler Chichimecatecotl, who was executed by Spanish officials in 1539. In this webinar, cartography expert John Hessler discusses the adjustments and accommodation taking place in the early colonial period, as well as the skillful use indigenous peoples made of Spanish laws and courts to maintain their rights and win concessions for themselves.

A wealth of information on Mesoamerica. Includes access to the Bibliografia Mesoamericana, as well as resources on the history, culture, timelines, codices and more.

An extensive bibliography of the anthropology of Mesoamerica, including Mexico and parts of Central America, it includes areas such as archaeology, ethnography, ethnohistory, art history, linguistics, and physical anthropology. Available from the FAMSI website.

Includes digitized articles, images and other resources.

Browse this list which can be arranged by author or title, for online articles pertaining to Ancient Mesoamerica. Most articles are available in full text.

The home of the Center for Maya Research and the Center for Ancient American Studies, includes citations for reports on many topics in Native American studies in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, art history, iconography, epigraphy, ethnohistory, ethnology, and linguistics. Free website.

Includes descriptions, photographs and drawings of Maya antiquities, organized by location.

Extensive documentation of ancient Maya sites at Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil, and Labna. Includes 19th and early 20th century drawings, prints, and photographs, as well as more than 1,000 recent photographs. An extensive annotated bibliography is also included.

A digitized collection of objects from Mesoamerica, the Andes, and the Intermediate Area of Latin America.

An archive of rollout and still photographs of vases, plates and bowls, from the various cultures of Mesoamerica. The objects pictured are from archaeological sites, museums and collections throughout Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, the Unites States, Canada and Europe. Photographs by Justin Kerr, well known for creating visual documentation of ancient artifacts.

A photographic collection of artifacts and sites from the Ancient Americas. Photographs by Justin Kerr, well known for creating visual documentation of ancient artifacts.

Artifacts from ancient Peru on the Google Cultural Institute page for the Museo Larco, LIma, Peru.

Authoritative museum resource! Timelines, thematic essays, world maps, images, subject/artist index.

Images from California State University.