Scientists have made an important discovery in the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan
Archaeologists have unearthed a stone chest in Mexico that turned out to be a ritual storage of 15 anthropomorphic figurines.
A stone chest containing a ritual vault of 15 anthropomorphic figurines that were placed as votive offerings at the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan in Mexico City has been found by archaeologists.
According to the Arkeonews website, the stone chest was discovered under the platform of the rear facade of the temple in a layer dating back to the reign of the supreme ruler of the Aztecs and King of Tenochtitlan, Montezuma I (1440-1469 AD).
Stone chest , known in Nahuatl as Tepetlacalli, contains 15 anthropomorphic figurines and numerous green stone beads, two rattlesnake earrings, snails, shells and sea corals. Fourteen of the artifacts depict men, while the smallest of the group depicts a woman.
The anthropomorphic figures are made in the style of Mescal, a Mesoamerican culture that arose in the middle and late preclassic period within the Mesoamerican chronology (700-200 BC). Archaeologists believe that the Aztecs prized mezcal objects and dug them up from sites related to the Mezcal culture in Guerrero, the southwestern state of Mexico, to use as ritual offerings.
“This means that when the Mexicans (Aztecs) subjugated these peoples, the figurines were already real relics, some of them over 1,000 years old,” archaeologist Leonardo López Luján, director of the Templo Mayor (Great Temple) project, said in a statement. “Supposedly they served as iconic images that they appropriated as spoils of war.”
Carved from green metamorphic stones, the largest of these statues is 30 centimeters high, while the smallest figure is 3 centimeters. On one of the figurines were found the remains of facial paint depicting the Mexican rain god Tlaloc. Researchers believe this was part of a reassessment of the religious significance of the ancient cult figurines.
The stone chest was found in the context of Phase IV of the Great Temple, which dates from the reign of Montezuma Ilhucamine between 1440 and 1469 AD.
“In their homes, the people of Mexico used to store their most valuable possessions in palm leaf chests, such as fine feathers, jewelry or cotton clothing,” López Luján said in a statement. – We can imagine how the priests kept in these «stone boxes» the quintessence of symbols of water and fertility: sculptures of rain gods, green stone beads, shells and snails.
Sand and shells were delivered from the Atlantic coast, the territory , conquered by the Aztecs of the Triple Alliance (the combined forces of the three city-states of Mexico — Tenochtitlan, Tezcoco and Tlacopan) under Montezuma I.
In Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec empire, the Great Temple served as the center of a larger temple complex. The temple was dedicated to Huitzilopochtli, god of war, and Tlaloc, god of rain and agriculture.