[Aztlan] MORE DETAILS ON MONOLITH #2

[michael ruggeri]

Experts say tomb may be under monolith

Thu Nov 16, 8:00 PM ET

Mexican archeologists say they have found signs that the tomb of an  
Aztec emperor could lie beneath a recently excavated stone monolith  
showing a fearsome, blood-drinking god.

It would be the first burial site ever found of a leader of the  
1427-1521 Aztec empire, said archaeologist Eduardo Matos, who leads  
the excavation project at the Templo Mayor ruins around Mexico City's  
main square.

"We think this could be a gravestone covering the place where this  
ruler was laid to rest," Matos said Thursday, as he showed reporters  
the carved face of the stone for the first time since it was  
discovered Oct.2.

The stone was unearthed at the foot of the western face of the Templo  
Mayor, the Aztecs' main religious site. Matos said it was found in  
the same spot where the Aztecs are believed to have cremated their  
leaders and buried their ashes in funerary jars.

Researchers have spent more than a month removing dirt and stones  
covering the 4-meter (13-foot) monolith, and hope to begin excavating  
the fractured stone itself to explore a shallow pit that lies beneath  
it.

Matos said a date carved on the stone suggests it contains the  
remains of emperor Ahuizotl (1486-1502), the father of Moctezuma, the  
Aztec ruler defeated by the Spaniards.

Carvings on the stone show the Aztec god of the earth, Tlaltecuhtli,  
who is depicted as a woman with huge claws, a stream of blood flowing  
into her mouth as she squats to give birth. Tlaltecuhtli was believed  
to devour the dead and then give them new life.

The god was so fearsome the Aztecs normally buried depictions of her  
face down in the earth. However, this one was found face-up, covered  
by a layer of stone and mortar placed by the Aztecs.

In the claw of her right foot, the god holds a rabbit and ten dots,  
indicating the date "10 Rabbit," or 1502 — the year of Ahuizotl's death.

The site may also hold the key to why more Aztec imperial burials  
have not been found; the Ahuizotl burial site — if it is that — was  
apparently covered by paving even in Aztec times.

The Spaniards then built houses on the site, the last of which was  
damaged in an earthquake and torn down in 1993.

In recent years, minor excavations on the edge of the site revealed  
the first steps leading up to the Templo Mayor pyramid. It was only  
accidentally, as they cleared a pedestrian walkway for viewing that  
staircase, that archaeologists stumbled on the monolith a few meters  
(yards) to the west.

While the Aztecs founded Mexico City in 1325, they did not establish  
their empire and begin conquering their neighbors until 1427.

Once the pit has been explored, the stone — fractured by the weight  
of the buildings that stood on top of it — will be reassembled and  
replaced in its original spot.





Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.



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