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34-756: The codex is currently located in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City . This codex is referred to either as Codex Boturini or as the Tira de la Peregrinación de los Mexica . The former name comes from the 18th century Italian scholar and collector of Aztec manuscripts, Lorenzo Boturini Benaduci . The codex consists of a single 549 cm (216 in) long and 19.8 cm (7.8 in) high sheet of amate , folded like an accordion into 21.5 sheets 25.4 cm (10.0 in) wide on average. The tlacuilo  [ es ] who fashioned

68-427: A 16th century quality. The sheets of amate were glued together sheet-by-sheet on the obverse, with reinforcing strips along the fold-lines on the back. The glue, according to paper scholar Hans Lenz, was made from the roots of Orchidaceae plants and guanacaste sap. Next, the tlacuilo applied a gesso to fill the paper's pores and make the surface more even, but only on the obverse side. The tlacuilo then drafted

102-485: A manufacture very similar to that of the Boturini Codex. Early European descriptions of the Boturini Codex describe it as being made of agave paper , but later studies found the codex's paper to be amate . Both are pre-Conquest, the latter being common before the establishment of European paper mills . The Boturini Codex became part of the library of the eponymous Lorenzo Boturini Benaduci during his time in

136-477: A scholar of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican art, believes that the tlacuilo worked all at once rather than folio-by-folio. The red draft ink used in the codex is likely diluted cochineal extract or a clay-based pigment. The date of Boturini Codex's creation is unknown, but the codex had to have been made in the early 16th century AD in the Basin of Mexico. It was assumed by scholars of the 18th and 19th centuries that

170-446: A single slender pillar (known as "el paraguas", Spanish for "the umbrella"). The halls are ringed by gardens, many of which contain outdoor exhibits. The museum has 23 rooms for exhibits and covers an area of 79,700 square meters (almost 8 hectares ) or 857,890 square feet (almost 20 acres). At the end of the 18th century, by order of the viceroy of Bucareli, the items that formed part of the collection by Lorenzo Boturini — including

204-842: Is a national museum of Mexico . It is the largest and most visited museum in Mexico. Located in the area between Paseo de la Reforma and Mahatma Gandhi Street within Chapultepec Park in Mexico City , the museum contains significant archaeological and anthropological artifacts from Mexico's pre-Columbian heritage, such as the Stone of the Sun (or the Aztec calendar stone) and the Aztec Xochipilli statue. The museum (along with many other Mexican national and regional museums)

238-493: Is managed by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (National Institute of Anthropology and History), or INAH. It was one of several museums opened by Mexican President Adolfo López Mateos in 1964. Assessments of the museum vary, with one considering it "a national treasure and a symbol of identity. The museum is the synthesis of an ideological, scientific, and political feat." Octavio Paz criticized

272-556: The Azteca. The Azteca agree and the nine tribes set out under the leadership of the four god-bearers, Chimalma, Apanecatl, Cuauhcoatl, and Tezcacoatl, each carrying a tlaquimilolli . Over folios 3 and 4, the Azteca are transformed into the Mexica when Huitzilopochtli chooses them to be his people and teaches them to sacrifice blood to him. He also instigates the split of the Mexica from the other eight tribes as foreshadowed on folio 3 with

306-558: The Boturini Codex was familiar with the Aztec writing system . The style consistency of the images suggested that the codex had a single author. The alphabetic writing in the codex, also in Nahuatl , appears to have been added later. The codex appears to be unfinished, as it was never painted with more than the red ink used to link the date blocks. These colors, derived from natural pigments, would have been widely available to tlacuiloque of

340-471: The Mexica move on but are attacked and defeated near Acocolco. The victorious warriors bring the Mexica leader Huitzilihuitl and his daughter Chimalaxoch before the tlatoani of Colhuacan, Coxcox. The Mexica make an alliance with Colhuacan and intermarry with its people, thereby securing for themselves prestigious Toltec ancestry. Coxcox tasks the Mexica with battling the Xochimilco and to return with

374-518: The Mexica. Codex Mexicanus , a palimpsest manuscript, also has strong resemblances to the Boturini Codex. The footprints are reproduced, as are the red lines linking date glyphs, and dates of departure are emphasized, as in Codex Boturini. The tlacuiloque only used black ink for the footprints. National Museum of Anthropology (Mexico) The National Museum of Anthropology ( Spanish : Museo Nacional de Antropología , MNA )

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408-618: The Stone of the Sun, giant stone heads of the Olmec civilization that were found in the jungles of Tabasco and Veracruz , treasures recovered from the Maya civilization , at the Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza , a replica of the sarcophagal lid from Pacal's tomb at Palenque and ethnological displays of contemporary rural Mexican life. It also has a model of the location and layout of

442-666: The Viceroyalty of New Spain, from March 1736 to 31 January 1743. He began cataloging his collection while in prison with a manuscript dated to 15 July 1743, then produced a second by order of the Viceroy later that year. Two more catalogs of Boturini's collections were made by the Viceroyalty in 1745 and Boturini himself the next year, which lists the Boturini Codex as its first item. The codex continued to appear in indexes of Boturini's collection as it moved around Mexico until 1823. William Bullock , an English traveler and collector, took

476-724: The admirable cultures that flourished during the Pre-Columbian period in regions that are now territory of the Republic. In front of the testimonies of those cultures, the Mexico of today pays tribute to the indigenous people of Mexico, in whose example we recognize characteristics of our national originality. The film Museo tells the story of the famous robbery to the National Museum of Anthropology on December 25, 1985, in Mexico City. The museum's collections include

510-516: The broken tree and another image of Huitzilopochtli. Next, five men eat together from one basket, then six men sit together, talking and weeping. Above the six figures, an Aztec (left) carries out Huitzilopochtli's instruction to break from the other eight tribes in a nighttime discussion. On folio 4, the Mexica make their first human sacrifices to Huitzilopochtli, carried by who is Tezcacoatl. The people to be sacrificed are identified as not being Mexica by their animal fur clothes. The figure who broke with

544-439: The codex under dubious conditions to London and there included it in an exhibition on Mexico on 8 April 1824. Once the exhibition was closed, Bullock returned the codex to Mexico, though the circumstances of that return are unknown. The codex was much changed at this time; Bullock printed and attached a label to present final folio, and it seems that the final folios were lost between the years 1804 and 1824. At some point, gold paint

578-472: The codex, because of its style, was pre-Conquest. This began to be contested in the mid-20th century by such scholars as Donald Robertson. He argued that the dating glyphs, grouped and "edited", made it of Colonial make, as pre-Conquest dating glyphs would be in a continuous horizontal stream, like that of the Codex Mexicanus . Historian Pablo Escalante also suggested a post-Colonial manufacture, citing

612-523: The contemporary museum building began in February 1963 in the Chapultepec park. The project was coordinated by architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez , with assistance by Rafael Mijares Alcérreca and Jorge Campuzano. The construction of the building lasted 19 months, and was inaugurated on September 17, 1964, President Adolfo López Mateos , who declared: The Mexican people lift this monument in honor of

646-401: The ears of slain opponents as proof of the killing. Here the codex ends, just before the founding of Tenochtitlan. Indexes by the government of New Spain elucidate that folios lost in the early 19th century documented the wars of the Mexica around Chapultepec fought on Coxcox's behalf. The invention of pulque is displayed on folio 13. The content of the Boturini Codex has much in common with

680-399: The entirety of the codex in pale black ink, then tied the glyphs and date blocks together with a draft line of red ink. Once the "tlacuilo" had made corrections, the tlacuilo applied a heavy black ink over the drafting black ink, but it is still visible in places. The red draft lines were never painted over. Some of the erasures the tlacuilo made are still evident. Angela Herren Rajagopalan,

714-455: The events of the Mexica migration from Aztlán and their history from the years 1168 to 1355 AD. It begins with a priest leading Chimalma , fabled ancestor of the Azteca , from Aztlán via a boat. Once they arrive at the shore, near Colhuacan , they build a sheltered altar for their god, Huitzilopochtli , who ordered this migration. There they also encounter eight tribes that desire to accompany

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748-561: The first floor show the culture of Native American population of Mexico since the Spanish colonization. The museum also hosts visiting exhibits, generally focusing on other of the world's great cultures. Past exhibits have focused on ancient Iran , Greece , China , Egypt , Russia , and Spain . Amate Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include

782-470: The former Aztec capital Tenochtitlan , the site of which is now occupied by the central area of modern-day Mexico City . The permanent exhibitions on the ground floor cover all pre-Columbian civilizations located on the current territory of Mexico as well as in former Mexican territory in what is today the southwestern United States. They are classified as North, West, Maya , Gulf of Mexico, Oaxaca, Mexico, Toltec, and Teotihuacan. The permanent expositions at

816-522: The lack of color and simpleness of the humans in the codex. These choices in style indicate, but do not prove, that the Boturini Codex was produced during or just after the Conquest. Its material and stylistic composition closely match Peter Martyr d'Anghiera 's descriptions of the first codices that arrived from the New World. Scholar Arthur Miller, studying the pre-Conquest Nuttall Codex , described

850-519: The later Aubin Codex , which records nearly the exact itinerary as the Boturini Codex. The exception are discrepancies in dates for the first six sites of the migration, and at the end of the Aubin Codex. The latter codex emphasizes dates of arrival rather than of departure. The Aubin Codex also does not, in the depiction of the first sacrifice to Huitzilopochtli, have the victims appear differently to

884-411: The location and then to the date of arrival at the next destination. Instead, he used footprints in black ink to carry the Mexica from one destination to the next. The codex has 24 alphabetical Nahuatl glosses of a faded sepia-colored ink, added after its manufacture. Analyzing and translating the still legible glosses, scholar Patrick Johansson Keraudren found them to be place names or short phrases of

918-767: The museum had increased to 52,000 objects and had received more than 250,000 visitors. In December 1940, the museum was divided again, with its historical collections being moved to the Chapultepec Castle , where they formed the Museo Nacional de Historia , focusing on the Viceroyalty of the New Spain and its progress towards modern Mexico. The remaining collection was renamed the National Museum of Anthropology, focusing on pre-Columbian Mexico and modern day Mexican ethnography . The construction of

952-458: The museum's collections, Justo Sierra divided the stock of the National Museum. The natural history collections were moved to the Chopo building, which was constructed specifically to shelter permanent expositions. The museum was renamed the National Museum of Archaeology, History and Ethnography, and was re-opened September 9, 1910, in the presence of President Porfirio Díaz . By 1924 the stock of

986-460: The museum's making the Mexica (Aztec) hall central, saying the "exaltation and glorification of Mexico-Tenochtitlan transforms the Museum of Anthropology into a temple." Designed in 1964 by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez , Jorge Campuzano, and Rafael Mijares Alcérreca , the monumental building contains exhibition halls surrounding a courtyard with a huge pond and a vast square concrete umbrella supported by

1020-531: The other eight tribes is the executor of the sacrifices. Huitzilopochtli again appears, this time as an eagle, above the victims with a Mexica man to bring him a bow, arrow, bow drill , and woven basket. The Mexica arrive in the Basin of Mexico at Chapultepec on folio 18, which also depicts the first of the New Fire ceremonies and the invention of the atlatl . After a 20-year stay and celebration of New Fire,

1054-479: The pre-Conquest and early Colonial period, per the Florentine Codex . Those two colors were also of great importance to pre-Conquest tlacuiloque , as noted by period sources. The lines of red ink connect the date glyphs to the locations the Mexica arrive at. Erasures present in the codex on folios 8 to 11 show that the tlacuilo first tried to connect places and dates by connecting the date of arrival to

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1088-561: The sculptures of Coatlicue and the Sun Stone — were placed in the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico , forming the core of the collection that would become the National Museum of Anthropology. On August 25, 1790, the Cabinet of Curiosities of Mexico ( Gabinete de Historia Natural de México ) was established by botanist José Longinos Martínez . During the 19th century, the museum

1122-423: Was added to the edges of the codex. Once back in Mexico, the Boturini Codex and the rest of the treasury's collection of antiquities was turned over to the newly-formed National Museum. That institution, now the National Museum of Anthropology , continues to house and display the codex as Manuscript 35-38. In 2015, a digitized version of the codex was made available online by the National Museum. The codex depicts

1156-601: Was visited by internationally renowned scholars such as Alexander von Humboldt . In 1825, the first Mexican president, Guadalupe Victoria , advised by the historian Lucas Alamán , established the National Mexican Museum as an autonomous institution. In 1865, the Emperor Maximilian moved the museum to Calle de Moneda 13, to the former location of the Casa de Moneda. In 1906, due to the growth of

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