They didn't know how the stars moved, by the way.
"Whatever be our opinion about Aztec civilization, we can have no doubt that Aztec civilization exercised no influence on Mexican education nor on Mexican literature. A people altogether analphabetic, illiterate, and unable either to preserve or to transmit knowledge except through an oral tradition, that was aided partly by an imperfect system of hieroglyphics, can make very little progress in intellectual culture."
-- "Icazbalceta: Education in Mexico City during the 16th Century," translated by Reverend Walter J. O'Donnell. 1931. Preliminary Studies of the Texas Catholic Historical Society, Vol. 1, No. 2, p. 1
-- "Icazbalceta: Education in Mexico City during the 16th Century," translated by Reverend Walter J. O'Donnell. 1931. Preliminary Studies of the Texas Catholic Historical Society, Vol. 1, No. 2, p. 1