From Aztec Pictograms to Digital Media - The Case of the Aztec Temple Square

Abstract

Virtual archaeology or re-creating ancient worlds digitally is not a new item. While the virtual reconstructions of Cahokia on the Mississippi or the Royal Cemetery at Ur in Iraq have provided us with glimpses of how those ancient sites might have looked, the ‘quality’ of the digital end product has been lacking. This is because virtual archaeology is in its infant stages. This paper makes the point that in order to truly develop the bases of a new cognitive science, virtual archaeology has to incorporate a willingness to achieve higher digital modeling and rendering qualities. In other words, our ability to explore, to interpret and to appropriately use digital tools needs to aspire to greater and more penetrating abilities to reconstruct the past. This paper presents the case of the digital reconstruction of the Aztec Temple Square. This is a unique project because, unlike other sites in antiquity where there is a substantial amount of archaeological evidence, the Aztec site contains little or almost no evidence. Most of what we know of the case comes from Indian manuscripts and Spanish chronicles.