A 600-year-old golden eagle sculpture in pristine condition has been uncovered in an old Aztec temple in modern Mexico City.
The relief, believed to represent a golden eagle, measures about 70cm across and 106cm long.
A golden eagle bas relief has been uncovered in an old Aztec temple in Mexico.(Mirsa Islas)
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It is believed to date to the reign of Aztec Emperor Moctezuma I, who ruled from 1440-1469.
The Templo Mayor itself, a pyramid-shaped temple that was the heart of the old Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, was built by Moctezuma s immediate predecessor Izcoatl. For what we have seen in pictures, it is a beautifully made piece that shows the great mysteries that Tenochtitlan s Templo Mayor still has to reveal, Mexican Cultural Minister Alejandra Frausto Guerrero said.
Golden Eagle Sculpture Unearthed in Aztec Temple
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO According to a statement released by Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), archaeologists led by Rodolfo Aguilar Tapia have uncovered a bas-relief sculpture of a golden eagle in the floor of the Aztec chapel dedicated to Huitzilopochtli at the Templo Mayor. The well-preserved floor surface was covered during an expansion of the temple before the arrival of the Spanish in Tenochtitlan in the sixteenth century, Tapia explained. The image measures about 3.5 feet long and 2.3 feet wide, and is thought to have been carved on volcanic rock known as red tezontle during the reign of Moctezuma I, between A.D. 1440 and 1469. The temple floor was also marked with more than 60 smaller carvings. The eagle and other carvings on the south side of the building are thought to be linked to the story of the birth cycle of Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, the sun, and hum
Santa Rosa Xtampak, a Maya city on verge of revealing its mysteries 3 minutes read
By Maria Alonso
Berlin, Jan 26 (efe-epa)The Maya city of Santa Rosa Xtampak remains largely covered by jungle, but a team of archaeologists will try to reveal details of its origin and relationship with other contemporaneous cities on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
Other world renowned archaeological sites, like Chichen Itza and Uxmal, have been the subjects of numerous studies, but this city – along with Edzna, considered to be the most significant hub of the Classical Maya Period between 250-900 A.D. in the central Yucatan Peninsula – has barely been excavated.
By Livia Gershon, Smithsonianmag
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - During the Spanish Conquest of Mexico, interactions between the Aztecs and the European colonizers were often marked by horrifying atrocities. Now, reports the Associated Press, archaeologists have unearthed a nightmarish new chapter in that story.
In early 1521, the year after the Aztecs captured and cannibalized a convoy of dozens of Spaniards and hundreds of allied Indigenous people, Spanish forces responded by massacring Aztec women and children.
Researchers with Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) have long known about the cannibalism that took place in the town of Zult . . .