My article on Tlaxcallan , the city-state that resisted the Aztec empire for generations before striking a tactical alliance with the invading Spaniards, is out in the July/August 2022 issue of Archaeology. What’s even more interesting about Tlaxcallan is that it had a non-hereditary, decentralized system of political leadership. It was a kind of republic, totally unlike the hierarchical despotism of Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztecs. The article is based on interviews with the archaeologists involved and lots of library research in Canberra and Washington. Not currently online, but I’ll try to change that.
