Luxurious Offerings Found at Mexico’s Templo Mayor

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO—Reuters reports that a 500-year-old deposit of sacrificial offerings has been found in a circular platform in front of the Templo Mayor, the main temple in what was the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. The offerings, placed in stone boxes, include the remains of a jaguar dressed as a warrior; a young boy dressed as Huitzilopochtli, the war and sun god; a set of flint knives enhanced with mother of pearl and precious stones; a pink bird known as a roseate spoonbill; and bars of copal incense. Archaeologist Leonardo Lopez Lujan of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History said that a wooden disc bearing Huitzilopochtli’s emblem was found on the jaguar’s back. An atlatl was also placed in the box, which was covered with shells, a red starfish from the Pacific Ocean, and coral, perhaps to represent the sun’s overnight journey through the watery underworld. The boy also wore a wooden disc bearing Huitzilopochtli’s emblem, and a bead necklace made of jade from Central America. Wings made of hawk bones were attached to his shoulders. The cremated remains of three Aztec kings are thought to have been buried near the circular platform between 1469 and 1502 along with luxurious offerings, according to accounts written after the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 1521. For more, go to “Under Mexico City: Templo Mayor.”