Avesta people. The term "Avesta" is from the 9th/10th-century works of Zoroastrian tradition in which the word appears as Zoroastrian Middle Persian "abestāg", Book Pahlavi "ʾp(y)stʾkʼ". In that context, "abestāg" texts are portrayed as received knowledge, and are distinguished from the exegetical commentaries (the "zand") thereof. The literal meaning of the word "abestāg" is uncertain; it is generally acknowledged to be a learned borrowing from Avestan, but none of the suggested etymologies have been universally accepted. The widely repeated derivation from *"upa-stavaka" is from Christian Bartholomae ("Altiranisches Wörterbuch", 1904), who interpreted "abestāg" as a contraction of a hypothetical reconstructed Old Iranian
Teocalli of the Sacred War hold a more historical and less allegorical interpretation––reading the symbols as cosmograms. He argued that these cosmograms did not represent mythology, but rather represent the sacred nature of the Mexica as a whole. Palacios' interpretation of this Teocall received wide acclaim from scholars, and served as the foundation of his broader assessments on Mexica religion. According to historian Richard Townsend, the earth zoomorph featured on the platform of the Teocalli represents Mexica land held by force of arms. Teocalli of the Sacred War The Teocalli of the Sacred War ("teocalli" is Nahuatl for "temple;" Spanish: "El Teocalli de la Guerra