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 Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...

: ''ācōlhuahcān''; ) was a

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

province in the east of the

Valley of Mexico The Valley of Mexico (; ), sometimes also called Basin of Mexico, is a highlands plateau in central Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the Valley of Mexico was a centre for several pre-Columbian civilizations including Teotihuacan, ...

, 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 p ...

. 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 codices, 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. ...

, 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 L ...

, 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.

Notes

References

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