I had a chat with one of my writer friends and she mentioned she'd love to write something set in Aztec or near Aztec/post-colonial era.
Totally get that. Rock on. And I could confidently recommend the Oxford Handbook for that. The good thing about this book for creative research is you don't have to read it cover to cover, and the section titles are a marvelous guide to get to the subject that would apply to your project.
The last few chapters have not really been my jam. A few of them like chapter 20 “Aztec Use of Lake Resources in the Basin of Mexico” and chapter 24 “Pottery and the Potter’s Craft in the Aztec Heartland” are more traditional archaeology topics. The “Mexica War: New Research Perspectives” leans a little far toward traditional history studies of who fought who and how for my taste, and the “Aztec Provinces” chapters also didn't engage me. Though I can see how some folks would be riveted.
While reading Parts III (Landscapes and Places), IV (Economic and Social Relations), and VI (Ritual, Belief, and Religion), I definitely thought "wow if someone wanted to write something set here, this would be gold". If I were writing a story set there, this is where I'd go first.
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