![]() ![]() It contained an assortment of sacrificial perforators made of jaguar bone, used by Aztec priests to spill their own blood as a gift to the gods. They dug deeper and found a bundle wrapped in agave leaves. Removing a stucco patch in the plaza floor, the excavators came upon 21 white flint sacrificial knives painted red: the teeth and gums of the Aztec earth monster, her mouth open wide to receive the dead. It was the third flat Aztec monolith to be discovered by accident in the vicinity of the Templo Mayor, along with a 24-ton black basalt Sun Stone (excavated in 1790) and an 8-ton Disk of Coyolxauhqui, the moon goddess (1978).Īfter years of painstaking excavation, López Luján and his crew have discovered, in a deep pit beside the monolith, some of the most exotic Aztec offerings ever found. It was a 12-ton rectangular monolith made of pinkish andesite stone, broken into four large pieces, bearing the mesmerizingly horrific likeness of the earth goddess Tlaltecuhtli (pronounced tlal-TEK-tli)-the symbol of the Aztec life and death cycle, squatting to give birth while drinking her own blood, devouring her own creation. The archaeological team, led by Leonardo López Luján, unearthed the so-called Aristo-Canine in the summer of 2008, two years into an excavation that began when foundation work for a new building revealed an astonishing object. From its ankles dangled bracelets with little bells of pure gold. It wore a collar made of jade beads and turquoise plugs in its ears. Yet the anonymous canine had evidently meant something to someone. It is likely the animal had no name, nor an owner. It had been dead for 500 years and lay in a stone-lined shaft eight feet deep. On the edge of Mexico City's famed Zócalo plaza, next to the ruins of the Aztec sacred pyramid known as the Templo Mayor, the remains of an animal-perhaps a dog or a wolf-were discovered. They are already planning their next expedition for August.This story appears in the November 2010 issue of National Geographic magazine. She said the Polish and Guatemalan archaeologists plan to reunite for one month a year to further explore Lake Petén Itzá underwater. Krzemień, a doctoral student, is now studying Mayan archaeology during an international exchange with a Mexican university. The diving team worked with six archaeologists from Guatemala, led by Bernard Hermes, and with two Polish divers who had sponsored the expedition, Sebastian Lambert and Iga Snopek. The researchers spent a month at the lake in August and September last year, taking a total of about 90 dives at various depths. The six-member Polish diving team of the recent study included archaeologists from Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń and the University of Warsaw. Mayan culture also influenced other Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Aztec culture of central Mexico. The Mayans made advances - including an intricate astronomical calendar and the culture's distinctive pictorial writing - in a civilization that lasted more than 2,000 years before the arrival of Europeans in the Americas. Among the most famous Mayan archaeological sites is the ancient city of Chichen Itza, in the Yucatán Peninsula of modern Mexico. The ancient city of Nojpetén was a center of Mayan civilization in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica - a civilization that extended across modern southeast Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador. Krzemień said that the latest expedition did not establish that the whole of Lake Petén Itzá was a holy place, but some of the ritual objects they found in place underwater showed that at least part of the lake was considered "sacred" by the people who lived there. "It was thought to be the medium door to the underground world, world of death," where the gods lived, she said.Īs a result of these beliefs, the ancient Mayans sacrificed animals and sometimes humans to their gods in lakes and in flooded limestone sinkholes known as cenotes, which are common in the region. "Water had very special and symbolic meaning in ancient Mayans beliefs," Krzemień said. ![]() The lake surrounding the ancient city of Nojpetén likely played an important part in ancient Mayan rituals. However, it's also possible that some small animals entered and died there later, she said. Small animal bones were found inside some of the bowls, which may indicate that the vessels were used for sacrifices, Krzemień said. This obsidian knife blade found in Lake Petén Itzá could have been used for sacrifices, the researchers say. ![]()
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