What Was Hygiene Like In The Aztec Empire?

The Aztec people knew water mattered for everything. This knowledge led to a canal system in the empire's main cities. In Tenochtitlan, canals gave residents water and served for travel.Conquistador Hernan Cortes commented.Cortes said Tenochtitlan was large. It had wide and narrow streets next to 'half canals where they paddle their canoes.'

Canals brought fresh water for personal use.These canals were lined with plaster.Accompanying networks removed human waste and other debris.Cortes noted.The Aztecs used intricate canal systems to move clean drinking water around their communities.

Along a causeway to the city ran two mortar aqueducts. Each measures two paces wide and six feet deep. A stream with fresh water, wide as a man's body, flows into the city's center along one. People drink from there. The other, empty, cleans the first canals.

Canals and aqueducts kept water fresh.Salt water remained separate.This water was needed for personal use and irrigation.

The water system in Aztec cities also included baths in private homes. Most Aztecs took cold baths., but they also used steam baths for rituals.An Aztec temazcal was a steam lodge. It was an enclosure with no windows.

An Aztec featured a heated floor with cold water, built according to long-standing Mesoamerican practice.A temazcal served for body purification after fighting. It aided healing, cured sickness, or let women give birth.Temazcalteci was the goddess of the steam bath.Her image was shown near the bath.The Temazcal was Temazcalteci, a deity whose image remained displayed nearby.Aztecs did not have soap like we know it. They used cleansing plants.Roots and fruit from copalxocotl became the 'soap tree' to the Spanish.

This plant made a lather for cleaning bodies and clothes.Xiuhamolli, also called amolli, had similar properties.Tlazolteotl, the Filth Goddess, protected the temazcal's entrance, watching people get rid of physical and spiritual dirt.Aztecs did not have soap as we know it, but they used the cleansing power of many plants.Roots and fruit from the copalxocotl provided these cleansers.

The copalxocotl, called the "soap tree" by the Spanish, made a lather for cleaning bodies and clothes.The xiuhamolli, also called the amolli, shared similar properties.One extra plant, the amolli, was described as "long and narrow like reeds. It has a shoot; its flower is white. It is a cleanser. The large, the thick roots remove one’s hair, make one bald; the small, the slender ones are cleansers, a soap. They wash, they cleanse, they remove the filth."The general population during the month of Atemoztli, the 16th month of the solar calendar when Tlaloc sent the rains, and merchants traveling long distances often avoided washing their hair, body, and clothes with the natural, detergent-like byproducts as a sign of sacrifice and penance.Women also did not wash their faces." by the Spanish, produced a lather that could be used to clean the body and clothing alike. The xiuhamolli, also called the amolli, plant had similar properties.

One additional plant, the amolli, was described as, "long and narrow like reeds. It has a shoot; its flower is white. It is a cleanser. The large, the thick [roots] remove one’s hair, make one bald; the small, the slender ones are cleansers, a soap. They wash, they cleanse, they remove the filth."

The general population during the month of Atemoztli - the 16th month of the solar calendar during which the rains fell by the grace of Tlaloc - and merchants who were traveling for long periods of time often avoided bathing their hair, body, and clothing with the detergent-like natural byproducts as a sign of sacrifice and penance. Similarly, women didn't wash their facesDuring fighting, cleanliness mattered for practical reasons and rituals. They even bathed sacrificial prisoners before they died.

The Badianus Manuscript shows the concern for underarm odor.The Badianus Manuscript shows the concern for underarm odor.an herbal text from 1552, Aztecs had sharp concern for underarm odorThey used copal gum, amber oil, and balsam oil to handle underarm odor.:

When smelly and goaty, let him enter a very well prepared bath and wash his armpits thoroughly. After, have him bathe too; use the [pulverized] plantschiyavaxihuitl, a human and a dog's bone recently removed from the body, and juice from all well-smelling flowers and plants to remove the hircine odor.

Aztecs also used deodorants to keep body odor away, applying ingredients likeCopal gum, amber oil, and balsam oil served this purpose.Women wore perfume.Women wore perfume., probably similar to what they used on sick and injured people. To beat "the fetid odor of the infirm," patients received a perfume made ofThey wore flowers, pine needles, and fruit..

The Aztec burned incense. Priests burned incense during religious rituals.The Aztec burned incense during religious rituals..

Remaining clean and pure helped find a husband, the Florentine Code states.The Florentine Code.x,a work by Spanish Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagun from the 16th century. This provides one of the few firsthand views of Aztec society.The Codex. The Codex contains insights.into Aztec cultural traditions, including this guidance a fatherIt offers to his young daughter.:

[In the morning] wash your face, wash your hands, clean your mouth... Listen to me, child: Never make up your face nor paint it; never put red on your mouth to look beautiful. Makeup and paint are things women use—shameless creatures. If you want your husband to love you, dress well, wash yourself, and wash your clothes.

According to Sahagun, courtesans—women who dressed and groomed themselves "to please"—used makeup and perfumes, including "a yellow cream called axin, which gives her a dazzling complexion; and sometimes, being a loose, lost woman, she puts on rouge."

In reality, women often wore some makeup, though in small amounts. The most common cosmeticwas axin., a yellow mud spread on the skin.

A contemporary chronicle states.A contemporary chronicle reports., "Aztec [field] surgeons treated wounded people skillfully and healed them faster than Spanish surgeons."

The care given on the field moved to daily life. Priests and healersperforming surgeries and bloodletting rituals to boost health also gave out treatments made from oils, herbs, and other natural products to heal all kinds of cuts.Aztec healers learned to use herbal remedies for everything from

Aztec healers trained in using herbal remedies to treat everything from.For example, juice from the nopal cactus fruit—thetuna—reduced swelling, and bark from the ylin tree mixed with wax, egg, and other herbs treated inflammation and fever.They used hair to stitch cuts and scrapes, and Friar Bernardino de Sahagun described a casting process:tuna.- They used tuna to reduce swelling. Bark from the ylin tree mixed with wax, egg, and other herbs treated inflammation and fever.

They used hair to suture cuts and scrapes. Friar Bernardino de Sahagun described a casting process.

They set broken bones carefully. They placed the limb between wood splints, tying it tight with cord. A plaster followed, made of ocozotl tree gum, resin, and feathers. A second covering of rubber-like gum encased the limb and the splints.

Aztecs used Aztecs used salt and urine.This cleaned their teeth. Other materials existed.Materials included ashes, honey, and roots., and barks were used. Aztec women chewed a Gum was used.This was thought to be.A mixture of chicle served a purpose.This mixture came from the sapodilla tree and bitumen.

Friar and chronicler Bernardino de Sahagun tried the substance. He said, "[It] tireds one's head; it gives one a headache." He also said.A woman chewed it.She chewed tzictli.The Aztec word for chicle has become this. She made a clacking noise with her teeth like castanets.

Aztecs rubbed Charcoal coated their teeth.If a tooth problem became too advanced, removing it was necessary. Dentists pulled teeth, but only after applying a mixture of Dentists used vinegar and snake venom.. This made tooth removal relatively painless. Afterward, they applied a herb mixture to protect and cure the open wound.

Aztec dentists also filed teeth, filled cavities, and applied jewels to incisors. "Ladies of the night" dyed their Teeth turned red.Or, they became.Black.This helped them distinguish themselves.

"Night soil" was collected.This was human waste.Aztec workers gathered this waste from cities and took it by canoe to It came from fields and gardens.It served agricultural purposes.

Collecting night soil served several goals. This practice met Aztec cleanliness standards by keeping waste out of lakes and canals. It also helped the empire prevent waste and bring fertilizer to This waste affected chinampas., floating parcels of land where Aztecs grew many crops.

The canal and aqueduct system kept human waste from It contaminated the water supply..

Canal networks in Aztec cities made keeping crowded areas clean easier. When the streets of Tenochtitlan were swept, the The streets of Tenochtitlan had detritus and dirt.could be thrown into a canal that removed waste from the city.

Sweeping and cleanliness formed a basic part of Aztec social order. Women swept their homes each morning to This dirt honored domestic space., while priests swept temples and schools to keep out unwanted or threatening forces.

Cities also had.Public toilets were available., the waste from which was collected and These toilets were used as fertilizer.. This waste could also be The waste was channeled out of the city.by a canal or other waterway.

As Hernan Cortes explored Tenochtitlan, men could visit barber shops and women could dye their hair at home.He observed this., "Establishments like barbers' where [residents go to] have their hair washed and are shaved." Hairstyles for men in the Aztec empire varied greatly; priests kept long locks - sometimes matted with soot - and common men wore short hair.

Boys got shorn until age ten. Then, they grew hair on the back of their heads. They only shaved that hair after proving themselves a successful warrior.

Women dyed their hair using black mud or a green herb calledxiuhquilitlThis produced a purple shine in the hair. Some women shaved their heads totally. Older women, especially mothers, kept long hair, parted at the neck, and pulled it back with a cord.

Clay also treated hair after dandruff. This complaint caused people to clean urine and scrub hard with ground avocado pits to bring color back. For scabies, men and women shaved their heads. They then doused them in urine and herbal mixes of pinewood, cottonseed, and avocado to kill the pests.

The AztecsThey ate two meals daily.These meals included a breakfast and an afternoon supper. Sometimes, a late evening brought extra gruel. However, upper-class members could have a feast in the evening, leading to a night of food, fun, and excess. Fine dining began withclean hands:

After everyone arrived, they got water to wash their hands. Then, the meal arrived. After that, they washed their hands and mouths. Cocoa and pipes were then handed out.

Ruler Moctezuma, known for his cleanliness, joined this ritual with his guests. Four very beautiful, very clean women gave him water for his hands in the deep basin which theycall xicales.