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Centuries - former codex from what is now Mexico hold a wealth of cognition about the Aztecs in their aboriginal speech , including details about the introduction of their upper-case letter , their conquests and their fall to the Spanish , according to Mexico ’s National Institute of Anthropology and History ( INAH ) .

The Mexican government recently bought three illustrated codices , known as the Codices of San Andrés Tetepilco , from a private family that had passed down the Aztec document for generations , the Spanish newspaper El Paísreported .

A tattered piece of bark paper with illustrations on it.

A private family recently sold three Aztec codices from the 16th and 17th centuries to the Mexican government.

TheAztecsruled over a declamatory area of Mexico during the 15th and 16th centuries . Their capital was atTenochtitlán , in what is now Mexico City . Between 1519 and 1521 , a Spanish force conquered the Aztecs and establish Spanish rule over the area . codex written in the Indigenous Nahuatl language and Spanish retain to be produce into the former 17th one C .

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One of the newly purchased leaf-book describes the origination of Tenochtitlán around 1300 and the overlord who ruled it in pre - Hispanic times , INAH representative allege in a translatedstatement . The leaf-book also describes the Aztec conquest of the city of Tetepilco around 1440 and how that city ’s swayer swore vassalage to the Aztecs . It even details the arrival of the Spanish in 1519 and their ruler up to the year 1611 , the argument say . The Spanish continued to rule Mexico until 1821 .

A white piece of paper with a few illustrations. You can see the fold marks.

The centuries-old codices still contain traces of color, largely from plants, charcoal, ocher and indigo.

The codices were own by a Mexico City home , who requested namelessness . When scientist at Metropolitan Autonomous University in Mexico City examine the leaf-book , they incur that two of the sheets were compose on amate , or bark paper , and that the leaf-book ' ink were made from plant , charcoal and indigo , creating the colour red , yellowochre , sinister and blue . After the documents ' authenticity was confirmed , the governance negotiated with the family and buy the three codices for 9.5 million pesos ( about $ 570,000 ) , the financial statement said .

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A long scroll with many square that have images in them.

The codices include illustrations and text written in an Aztec language.

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The two other codices sell by the family let in one that describes the founding of Tetepilco and another that detail the asset held by a church in Tetepilco , El País reported .

All three codices are now in the   National Library of Anthropology and History ’s Collection of Mexican Codices ( BNAH ) , and researchers will study the texts in greater detail to learn more about Mexico ’s history , according to the INAH statement .

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