Explorer and archaeologist specializing in the study of the Aztecs, Zelia Nuttall was an incredible woman born in the 1800s. Her views on the Aztecs were revolutionary and can still be appreciated by truth seekers today.
The article below about the Aztecs and Nuttall was originally published in 1902.
California’s Famous Woman Explorer to Solve Aztec Mysteries
Mrs. Zelia Nuttall is going to Mexico tomorrow.
That simple announcement may sound like a stereotyped society note to the popular mind, but to the archaeologists of both Europe and America it is an event of epoch making importance, for they know that Mrs. Nuttall is a Californian explorer, who knows more about the picturesque empire of the famous Montezuma than any other woman in the world.
They look to her now to solve much of the mystery that surrounds the history of the once mighty race that was found and plundered and left to vanish completely from the earth by the Spaniards, for they know, too, that for eighteen years Mrs. Nuttall has been studying the sociological and religious systems of the ancient Aztecs, and that for the last thirteen years she has been traveling in Europe, the West Indies, Canada and the United States unearthing all sorts of queer relics and picture writings of these strange people that were lost, strayed or stolen.
It is an odd circumstance that Mexico has been utterly depleted of every remnant of Aztec life and civilization that could be carried away. Valuable picture writings have been taken to the great cities of Europe and there lost for hundreds of years, almost as completely as if they had been buried under the crumbling ruins of the Indian temples.
And it is a strange fact, too, that the Spaniards, who should have kept for future races a perfect history of the nation they desolated and destroyed, have given us only highly colored romances about these remarkable people, with such a careless blending of fact and fancy that the archaeologists’ greatest difficulty now is to find out what is really fact and what is only fancy. In the same way, instead of preserving as many of the relics as possible and learning the meaning of the hieroglyphics engraved thereon, they destroyed all but the few that were sent home to Spain as presents.
It is these relics, or most of them at any rate, believed to have been irretrievably lost for so many years, that Mrs. Nuttall has found again – which is the reason she is going to Mexico tomorrow.
It is over thirteen years since she first went there to decipher the mysterious hieroglyphics engraved on leathern parchments by the Aztecs, and supposed to be carefully filed away in the museums in the City of Mexico. But there were none left to be deciphered. They had disappeared as completely as the Indians whose history they were believed to hold concealed in their curious symbols.
She learned, after months of investigation, that the relics that had not been sent by the all conquering Cortez to his King in Spain, 400 years ago, when with a mere handful of soldiers he had subjugated the whole Aztec nation, numbering millions, had been scattered to the four quarters of the globe, and no reliable record kept of them.
The outlook was discouraging in the extreme. To have to leave Mexico in order to study Mexico was a curious anomaly. But as the missing relics were absolutely necessary to the broader researches she had planned there was nothing for it but to find them. Without them the history and the origin of the Aztecs must remain a mystery. To find them meant, perhaps, nothing more than fragmentary hints of the life and customs of this mighty people, who had built great temples, massive forts and huge pyramids rivaling in size and impressive grandeur of even the famed pyramids of Egypt; but nevertheless, she went immediately to Europe and began a systematic search of every library on the Continent.
One of the manuscripts mentioned in the Cortez inventory of the gifts he sent to the King of Spain was in the Imperial Library in Florence. Of the other, and the most important of the two, absolutely no clue could be obtained for years, though Mrs. Nuttall brought to light ancient Mexican shields, feather headdresses of the time of Montezuma, numerous relics of the Atlatl spear throwers, which had long been cast aside as worthless, and two very valuable codices which had been lost for centuries, and of which she has since contributed a lengthy treatise to the Peabody Museum. She learned all there was to be learned from the relics she found and identified in Europe, and wrote many scientific volumes on the subject, but there was still much to be extracted from the missing Cortez manuscript.
Finally, however, persistency triumphed. She secured evidence in Madrid that the King of Spain had sent the parchment to the monastery of San Marco in Florence.That was her first clue. With this information she went to Florence at once, only to learn that the ancient picture writing, on account of its great value, had been stolen thirty-five years ago. She traced it all over the Continent and finally found it in England. It completes all the Aztec relics extant of which there is any record, and it is because of this her latest remarkable discovery that archaeologists expect so much of her coming visit to Mexico.
The manuscript itself is even more interesting than the story of its wanderings. It is made up of long strips of leather, about ten inches wide and nearly 100 feet long, closely inscribed on both sides with colored pictures. it folds up like an accordion pleated pocket panorama of the landmarks of a big city. The pictures are gaudy creations, which bear a striking resemblance to the picture writings of the ancient Egyptians, though Mrs. Nuttall says that they are not at all alike. To the unpracticed eye they look like the illustrations from a child’s story book and the events narrated therein are quite as simple, but though much of it is clear to Mrs. Nuttall there is much more of it that cannot be deciphered. Colored plates have been made of it and it will soon be published complete by the Peabody Museum, for which it was prepared under Mrs. Nuttall’s direction.
She has lectured on the subject of the Aztec codices before the students at the University of California since her return to her native state, and it is in the interest of the university, as well as to learn the secrets contained in the manuscript she has just discovered, that she is going to Mexico tomorrow to begin anew the explorations she was obliged to abandon thirteen years ago.
“The date on this ancient manuscript is I Acatl, which in the Aztec calendar corresponds with the year 1519 in our own calendar,’ says Mrs. Nuttall, “so it is evident that it was made just before the arrival of the Spaniards. So far as it can be deciphered it is not a continual history, but five or six detached fragments, covering perhaps a period of 100 years before the Spanish conquest.
“Instead of being a pictorial history in itself it seems to be rather a representation of the lives of different chiefs – all great Aztec heroes – and was doubtless made to illustrate the epic poems sung or chanted by the priests.
“Many of the pictures show scenes of conquest and it is a strange fact that they are always represented in the same way; the vanquished is kneeling, while the conqueror is holding him by the forelock. This is the universal sign of abject surrender among the Aztecs.
“Another well defined series shows the Aztec heroes in the temples holding in their hands the sacrificial bird, which is always an emblem of their religious sacrifices.
“Still another series reveals the Aztec spear throwers crossing the water in canoes. The fish shown under the boats indicates whether it is a lagoon, a river or a lake. In the same way large cone shaped pictures represent mountains and are used throughout each series to indicate the locality in which the events transpired.
“They are the key to the mystery of the scenes depicted on the manuscript, and perhaps the key as well to the names of the heroes shown in each picture. When all these symbols can be deciphered we shall know much more of the life and customs of the Aztecs at the time of the Spanish conquest than we understand at present.
“It used to be popular to speak of these ancient peoples as ‘Toltecs.’ Later investigation, however, shows that this simply means ‘builders’ or ‘architects’ and that the Toltecs did not constitute a distinct race. There are at present few remains of native architecture except the gigantic pyramids, some of which have a larger base than Cheops in Egypt.
“I am going to see these ruins and take photographs of them for future reference, as well as the flight of stone steps which were excavated only two months ago in the City of Mexico, though my plans are really not definite at present. In the light of what might be discovered, the archaeologist cannot begin investigations with any set theories.
“The work is arduous, because the Mexican Government has rendered little aid, partly through lack of means and partly through lack of native archaeologists. At present they have a museum, which is greatly run down because of the manager’s absence for the last nine years in Europe. It is for these reasons that our greatest knowledge of the subjects have been gained of necessity from European museums.
“The artistic skill of the Aztecs is shown by the fact that upon Cortez’ arrival the natives sketched him and his attendants so vividly and so accurately that Montezuma, to whom the picture was forwarded, recognized their features on the arrival of the foreigners.
“The cannon, ships and hounds, whose loud baying is represented by a cloud of smoke, are all shown. They lacked perspective, however, for in a single picture we find the same person represented several times in various attitudes. This, however, is not properly termed picture writing, where pictures represent certain vocal sounds.
“In their picture writing an eye represented the letter I; X a little flag; P A N a road with footsteps; OT L I, a miniature mountain and TE-Petl the word Popocatapetl.
“While Mexico has a wealth of documentary remains Central America lacks these to a great extent but abounds in monuments whose hieroglyphics vary decidedly from those in Mexico and have not as yet been fully identified. Indeed the relics that remain of both the Aztecs and the Incas are so few and so valuable that people in Mexico have begun to manufacture numerous frauds in imitation of the fine feather work and the ancient codices that are known to be authentic. This is going to make further exploration and research a matter of great difficulty for those not exceptionally well versed in Mexican lore.
“The famous Calendar stone dug up in the City of Mexico in 1790 has, however, been of great importance in reading the hieroglyphics that are authentic.”
In this connection it is interesting to know that one of Mrs. Nuttall’s greatest discoveries and the most important to the science of American archaeology might be called a discovery in the sky. It consists in the recognition by her that the constellation of the Great Bear in connection with the polar star, or dipper, which is so familiar to every one in this country, was the constellation which regulated nearly all the religious ceremonies and calendar systems of the various American tribes.
This furnished the first key to the remarkable series of symbols which have so puzzled the archaeologist because of their resemblance to the symbols which were know to all the ancient peoples of Asia, Northern Africa, and even Europe.
These symbols have been found in the shell and copper ornaments contained in the mounds, they have been traced out in the carved and engraved stones in Central America, have been recognized in the myths and symbols of the northwest coast, and have been regarded as an evidence of contact between the continent and the Asiatic peoples and a transmission to this continent by some unknown channels.
The discovery was made by Mrs. Nuttall while studying the calendar system of Mexico and Central America, and was really the result of that study, the position of the constellation in the heavens at the different periods which marked the seasons and the solstices making in the course of the year the very figure which has been taken as a symbol by all the nations of the earth, or at least by those who were so situated as to be familiar with the northern sky, the figure called the Swastika.
The discovery has brought the nations of the earth close together and shows that the present condition in which we find ourselves was anticipated thousands of years ago, even by rude people and those who had no means of studying the heavens except with their naked eye. Every separate tribe and nation had its own system of astrology and religious symbolism, but there was the same common basis.
This fact has given rise to much controversy as to the origin of the Aztecs and the Incas. Some writers advance much evidence to show that the ancestors of the Aztecs were really Mongols, who crossed from China at the Bering Sea centuries ago, and swept down through the valleys of North America until they settled in Mexico. Other writers have found stronger proof that they came from Egypt. On this point Mrs. Nuttall has written:
“Considering that it would be premature to formulate a final conclusion on a subject which demands so much more investigation, I merely observe that, as far as I can see, the conditions which existed and survive among the aborigines of America would be fully accounted for by the assumption that they received certain elements of culture and civilization from Mediterranean seafarers who, at widely separated, critical, periods of Old World history, may have transported refugees and would-be colonists or founders of ideal republics and ‘divine politics’ to different parts of the hidden or divine land of ‘the west,’ the existence of which was known by tradition to the Egyptian priesthood.
“Under such circumstances it is apparent how the American continent could have become an isolated area of preservation where primitive forms of civilization, religious cult, symbolism and industries, drawn at different epochs from various more or less important centers or from the outposts of the Old World, would have been handed down transformed through the active and increasing influence of the native element.
“The latter must always have been markedly predominant since it must be assumed if at all that the number of individuals who reached America and the subsequent duration of their lives must have been extremely limited.
“What is more, as Montezuma related that the colonists, from whom he descended, married native women, it is obvious that from the outset foreign and native influences were combines.”
All this is strange work for a woman, though Mrs. Nuttall says that Mexican exploration has interested her since early girlhood. To her it is a fascinating study offering infinite possibilities, for the old ruins of these ancient people may still contain the most startling evidence of the development of the whole American continent through long ages.
Mrs. Nuttall has already found the key to many things that were thought impossible of solution only a few years ago.
Where others had failed she rediscovered in the Castle of Ambras, in Tyrol, the finest ancient Mexican feather work shield in existence and a fan, both of which had figured among the presents sent by Cortez to the King of Spain, after they had been reported “lost” for years by the Vienna Museum authorities.
Where others had passed it by as of no importance, Mrs. Nuttall first identified as a specimen of sixteenth century Mexican feather mosaic made by native artists after designs furnished by the Spanish conquerors a beautiful miter preserved at the Pitti Palace, Florence, and also a large shield, preserved in the Royal Armory of Madrid, which she showed to have been a present from Charles V to Philip II, when the latter was an infanta.
Many other manuscripts have been brought to light by her from the recesses of old libraries, where they have been lost to sight for centuries. She thus discovered an extremely valuable anonymous Hispano-American manuscript of which her publication in facsimile with translation, notes and commentary is now in the press and will soon appear under the auspices of the Peabody Museum, bearing the title, “The Life of the Indians.”
She has lectured before King Oscar II and other crowned heads in Europe on the marvels of the Aztecs, and for all her wide researches she has been honored by the greatest scientific bodies in the world. Here are just a few of the special decorations which will serve to show what distinction this brilliant California woman has won at home and abroad:
Honorary special assistant of the Peabody Museum; fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; member of the Philosophical Society, Philadelphia; honorary member of the Archaeological Association, University of Pennsylvania; corresponding member of the Antiquarian and the Numismatic Society of Washington; of the Societe Italiana d’Antropologea; of the Societe de Geographie de Geneve; of the Socieded Cientifico, “Antonio Alzate,” Mexico; of the Societe des Americanistes de Paris, etc.
And now after unearthing all manner of lost relics in the libraries of the Old World, and extracting from them all the secrets they have to offer and giving them to the great scientific institutions of both hemispheres in several very complete and interesting volumes, she is going back to Mexico to take up the work of exploration which she was obliged to abandon thirteen years ago.
Who knows what new honors she may gain? She has succeeded before where other archaeologists have failed, and on this her second visit to the land of the Aztec she may make some wonderful discoveries.
It would be a glorious achievement for a California women to tell the world what Columbus and the Spanish conquerors who followed him did not take the trouble to find out about the strange American tribes they discovered.
Source: The San Francisco call. (San Francisco [Calif.]), 02 Feb. 1902.
