Common Aztec homes were made of adobe sun dried brick made from adobe clay. The main area of the Aztec shelter was one room split up equally into four areas.
There was an area for the whole family to sleep in, a family shrine where gods would be kept, a place where meals would be prepared, and then the eating area. There would be thatched roofs, or even terraced roofs. It was here that the people stood to attack the Spaniards, a last stand against the conquering army. In the adobe walls would be the doors. It was common for the windows if there were any to have two parallel sides and then two sides of different length. This shape or rectangles were very basic in Aztec architecture.
Aztec nobles had homes with a similar layout, but they would sometimes be made of better materials, such as lime or stone. Wood, stone, and clay were mainly used for the walls while straw was often used for roofs. The Aztecs made adobe bricks which were also used in the construction of Aztec homes, particularly the homes of the nobles. These bricks were made from sand, clay, water, and straw. Floors of common houses were usually just dust while those of the nobles would usually be plastered or made of stone.
Aztecs used fairly uniform construction methods to built Aztec homes. For instance, it was a common practice to dig a trench at the place where the walls would be constructed. After that, stone wall foundations were erected from the trench in order to provide a solid base. These stone wall foundations went up about. Aztec homes for the nobles had close-fitting stones and thick walls which made them very strong.
Similarly, various layers of closely-fitting stones were used to make the floors. Sometimes, Aztecs also made terraced roofs which were later on used to attack the Spaniards. The homes of Aztec nobility were built with steam baths in them. Various similarities existed between the layouts of Aztec homes. Typically, the layout of Aztec homes was around 15 to 25 square meters.
Houses of the nobles were usually large in size and lavishly decorated. An important feature of the layout of Aztec homes for the common people was the peaked straw roof. While the common practice was to build houses on the ground, sometimes they were also built on raised platforms.
An important element of the layout of Aztec homes for the nobles was a garden attached to the home. Aztec homes for the nobles were naturally larger and better constructed than Aztec homes for the common people. Some nobles had homes of two floors with a central courtyard.
Most of the nobles also included a garden in their homes with a lot of flowers. The Aztec however were fans of clothing, and wooden chests were used to store clothes. An interesting and notable fact was that the houses did not have doors as theft was very uncommon among the Aztecs, the small knit community meant that crime was not a particularly wise move.
Whiles the Aztec people saw a house as a place to sleep and eat, spending most of their lives outdoors, there as a part of the home that was very important to them. This was the temazcal. Typically adjacent to the main house was the temazcal, a steam bath area. A chimney type furnace heated the walls of the bathroom, and steam was created by pouring water at the hot walls. This early type of sauna was a place the Aztecs could relax, the Aztecs were clean people, and the steam baths were therapeutic and often endorsed by the Aztec doctors.
The Aztec nobility, which included warriors, had grander homes that were located near the temple near the main square. Much like modern times, the house symbolized status, and this was just as true in Aztec times as it is now.
The lavish structures owned by the nobles, sometimes called palaces, differ from the regular houses in decor, size, and the materials utilized. The common Aztec building material was generally made up of sun dried brick or a mixture of cement, sand and lime.
For a noble, the entire house could be made entirely of stone if they were extremely rich. The outside walls were white washed to make them look clean. For the inner walls, a plaster called stucco may be applied and then painted with bright colours and designed with intricate murals. Interestingly, by law, nobility were allowed to build a second floor to their homes.
0コメント