Portraying the Aztec PastDuring the period of Aztec expansion and empire (ca. 13251525), scribes of high social standing used a pictographic writing system to paint hundreds of manuscripts detailing myriad aspects of life, including historical, calendric, and religious information. Following the Spanish conquest, native and mestizo tlacuiloque (artist scribes) of the sixteenth century continued to use pre Hispanic pictorial writing systems to record information about native