Toltecs

Toltecs (TULTECS), a historical people of Nahua stock, Mexico [NAHUA], who, according to the national traditions, flourished from the 6th to the 11th century, when their power and culture were destroyed by the irruption of the barbarous Chicimeos. During the Toltec period the Nahua civilisation reached the high-water mark of excellence, so much so that the term toltecatl afterwards became synonymous with artificer or builder, and to the Toltecs were attributed all the great monuments of the Mexican plateau and many even of Central America. Hence it has been argued that there never was a Toltec people at all, and that the word originally designated nothing more than the first and most flourishing epoch of Nahua culture before the centre of their power was removed from Tollan (Iula), 50 miles farther south to the site of the present city of Mexico, There was also a Tula in Nicaragua founded by the Nahua Toltecs, who took refuge in Central America, and for a time revived the glories of the old Toltec state after its overthrow by the Chichimecs. The Toltecs are said to have possessed vast libraries of pictorial writings, destroyed by their Aztec descendants, who were jealous of the glory of their renowned predecessors, (Valentini, The Otmecas and the Tultecas; Brinton, Were the Toltecs an Historical Nationality?)