Aztec culture has been the subject of scholarly curiosity since the Spanish conquest of the New World in the 16th century. A vast body of surviving ethnohistorical records and many archaeological excavations have revealed the nature of Aztec society more clearly than that of any other pre-Columbian people. By the 20th century, interest in the Aztecs had waned, and archaeologists, anthropologists, and art historians turned their attention to other, lesser-known cultures of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. From 1978 to 1982, however, excavations in downtown Mexico City gave new impetus to Aztec research, particularly the discovery of the ritual heart of the Aztec empire, the Templo Mayor and Tenochtitlan. This catalog documents an exhibition that accompanied a scholarly symposium at Dumbarton Oaks on the results of the Templo Mayor excavations and includes works from 23 collections.