Aztec Warrior ─ Ad 1325-1521

According to one popular image, the Aztec army was a ruthless and efficient war machine, that established an empire by convincingly overwhelming its neighbors, sacrificing thousands to bloodthirsty gods along the way. From a contrasting perspective, its native warriors were no match for the modern warring methods of Cortes' greatly outnumbered Spaniards, who decisively defeated them. The reality of the Aztec warrior's ability and effectiveness lies somewhere between those two extremes, as this title makes clear. By examining the experiences of a hypothetical individual, Cuauhtli, this meticulously researched book shows that the history of Aztec warfare is much richer and far more complex than previously understood, and reveals the close relationship between social and military matters in Aztec society.

John Pohl is a research archeologist at UCLA. He is an eminent authority on American Indian civilizations and has directed numerous archeological excavations in Mexico, Central America, Canada, and the United States. He has published extensively on subjects ranging from human origins to the rise of the Aztec empire and specializes in the decipherment of ancient pictographic writing systems.