Wednesday, May 23, 2012

"Historia General Ilustrada del Estado de México"

The book series, Historia General Ilustrada del Estado de México has finally been published! The Presentación de Libro event will take place May 24, 2012, in the Colegio Mexiquense, Sede Casa Toluca, Aquiles Serdan #201, Col Centro, Toluca, at 17:00 hours. Dr. René García Castro will provide the comentary.

This series was assembled to celebrate the centenary of the state in 2010, but publication delays held up the publication.

This article has information about Calixtlahuaca:

Smith, Michael E.
    2012    Las ciudades prehispánicas: su traza y su dinámica social. In Nueva Historia General del Estado de México, tomo 2, periodo postclásico, edited by Rosaura Hernández Rodríguez and Raymundo César Martínez García. El Colegio Mexiquense, Toluca.  (Not sure about the precise citation; it looks like the volume names are different now. I haven't seen the volume yet).

Monday, May 7, 2012

2012 and the End of the World


Nice comic from Bizarro last week. It is incredibly ironic that the Mayas did NOT predict the end of the world (in 2012 or any other time) and they get all the publicity, while the Aztecs DID predict the end of the world and no one pays any attention! Well, maybe in 2027 we will get some mileage out of the Aztec prediction.

See my earlier post on Publishing Archaeology about the bogus 2012 predictions.

And this is another good one, widely reproduced by now:


For the ancient residents of Calixtlahuaca, the end of the world came in the 16th century. Once Tenochtitlan fell to Cortés, it wasn't long before smallpox and other diseases, coupled with forced evacuation to Toluca, brought the city of Calixtlahuaca to a halt.