[Aztlan] AZTEC LIGHTNING BOLT SCEPTERS FOUND IN THE LAKE OF THE MOON

[michael ruggeri]

Possible Aztec offerings found in Mexico

By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer

Archaeologists diving into a lake in the crater of a snowcapped  
volcano found wooden scepters shaped like lightning bolts that match  
500-year-old descriptions by Spanish priests and conquerors writing  
about offerings to the Aztec rain god.

The lightning bolts — along with cones of copal incense and obsidian  
knives — were found during scuba-diving expeditions in one of the  
twin lakes of the extinct Nevado de Toluca volcano, at more than  
13,800 feet above sea level.

Scientists must still conduct tests to determine the age of the  
findings, but the writings after the Spanish conquest in 1521 have  
led them to believe the offerings were left in the frigid lake west  
of Mexico City more than 500 years ago.

Lightning bolt scepters "were used by Aztec priests when they were  
doing rites associated with the god Tlaloc," said Johan Reinhard, an  
anthropologist and explorer-in-residence for National Geographic  
Society who took part in more dives Thursday at the Lake of the Moon.  
"We think it is pretty clear that the Aztecs considered this one of  
the more important places of Tlaloc."

The research, which also involves the volcano's Lake of the Sun, is  
being led by Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History.  
Stanislaw Iwaniszewski, an archaeology professor at the institute,  
said Aztec iconography often associates Tlaloc with lightning bolts.

"They were left in the lake to bring rain storms," Iwaniszewski said.  
Copal incense was burned to form "clouds," and sharp spines from the  
maguey cactus — which does not grow at that altitude — indicated  
worshippers brought them there to draw blood from themselves as part  
of the sacrifice.

Luis Alberto Martos, the institute's director of archaeological  
studies, said other artifacts found in the clear 32-degree waters of  
the lake indicate the ritual may have started about 100 B.C. — long  
before the Aztecas settled in the area in 1325.



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