Acolhuacan or Aculhuacan (

Nahuatl Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...

: ''ācōlhuahcān''; ) was a

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...

province in the east of the

Valley of Mexico The Valley of Mexico ( es, Valle de México) is a highlands plateau in central Mexico roughly coterminous with present-day Mexico City and the eastern half of the State of Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the Valley of Mexico wa ...

, inhabited by the

Acolhua The Acolhua are a Mesoamerican people who arrived in the Valley of Mexico in or around the year 1200 CE. The Acolhua were a sister culture of the Aztecs (or Mexica) as well as the Tepanec, Chalca, Xochimilca and others. The most important poli ...

. Its capital was initially Coatlichan, but this settlement was eventually eclipsed in importance by Texcoco (Tetzcoco). In some sources, the name "Acolhuacan" was also used to refer to a city within the larger Acolhuacan province (e.g., in the

Codex Mendoza The Codex Mendoza is an Aztec codex, believed to have been created around the year 1541. It contains a history of both the Aztec rulers and their conquests as well as a description of the daily life of pre-conquest Aztec society. The codex is wri ...

, folio 21v). Frances Berdan and Patricia Rieff Anawalt argue that it was likely Texcoco,

Acolman Acolman de Nezahualcóyotl is a town and municipality located in the northern part of State of Mexico, part of the Greater Mexico City area, just north of the city proper. According to myth, the first man was placed here after being taken out of ...

, or Coatlichan, with the latter two being "the most likely prospects." Additional scholars largely agree that Acolhuacan was likely another name for Coatlichan.Lee (2009): p. 78, 90.

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References

* * * * * * Historical regions {{mesoamerica-stub