The
Toltec culture is an archaeological
Mesoamerican culture that dominated a state centered in
Tula, in the early post-classic period of
Mesoamerican chronology (ca 900-1168 CE). The later
Aztec culture saw the Toltecs as their intellectual and cultural predecessors and described Toltec culture emanating from
Tollan (
Nahuatl for Tula) as the epitome of civilization; indeed in the Nahuatl language the word "Toltecatl" (singular) or "Toltecah" (plural) came to take on the meaning "
artisan". The Aztec
oral and pictographic tradition also described the history of the
Toltec Empire, giving lists of rulers and their exploits.