MEXICO CITY – A new exhibit in Mexico City’s Museum of Templo Mayor honors the discovery of a large stone relief depicting the Mexica lunar goddess Coyolxāuhqui 45 years ago by a group of workers of Mexico City’s electric power company’s new building. The discovery of the stone sparked renewed interest in Mexican archeology, particularly excavations of the ancient city of Tenochtitlan – now Mexico City – that boasted the “major temple” from which the museum gains its name. The Temple and Historic Center of Mexico was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1987.
As a note, most sources use the term “Aztec.” However, the people and culture we know as “Aztecs” were not extinguished during the Spanish Conquista and their descendants are alive today. They identify themselves as the Mexica, and we will honor their use of that name.
Coyolxāuhqui is the Mexica goddess of the moon, stars, and war. She is a powerful goddess who is both feared and respected. Coyolxāuhqui was the daughter of the earth goddess Coatlicue and the sister of the sun god Huitzilopochtli. In the Mexica religion, Coyolxāuhqui led a rebellion of her 400 brothers – the stars – against her mother. Coyolxāuhqui was killed by Huitzilopochtli, the god of war and the sun who is represented in art as either a hummingbird or an eagle. Her dismembered body was thrown down from the heavens to become the moon.
The Coyolxauhqui Stone [Photo Credit: Dennis Jarvis CC BY-SA 2.0]
The story of Coyolxāuhqui is one of the most important myths in Mexica culture. It tells of the origins of the sun and moon, and it also serves as a warning against the dangers of rebellion.
The story of Coyolxāuhqui is depicted on numerous Mexica artifacts, but most importantly the Coyolxāuhqui Stone, one of the most celebrated pieces of Mexica artwork.
Though 20th century scholars were confident about where to look for the Templo Mayor based on archeological work from the previous hundred years of evidence, it was lost to history for some 500 years. The temple was built sometime after 1325 CE and dedicated to two Mexica deities: Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc (“He Who Makes Things Sprout”, the god of rain, agriculture, earthly fertility, and water, who was venerated as a giver of life and sustenance.) The temple was likely the most important site in the Mexica empire as a center of celebrations and festivals.
When Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano led an expedition to subjugate the region that would be called Mexico in 1519, he took Tenochtitlán and claimed the land for Spain. On May 22, 1520, the massacre of the Great Temple occurred on the Fiesta of Huitzilopochtli. The massacre destroyed much of the Mexica elite. The Spanish claim the destruction occurred to end the practice of human sacrifice.
By 1521 CE, the city and temple had been destroyed. The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven was built over the temple site.
The new exhibit, called “Coyolxāuhqui: The star, the goddess, the discovery,” presents some 150 archaeological objects that cover the stories, symbolism, and scientific research around the goddess. It recounts the story of Coyolxāuhqui, the discovery of her stone, and the temple site.
Patricia Ledesma, an archaeologist, faculty member of the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH), and Director of Templo Mayor Museum since 2015, said that her predecessors undertook the task of rescuing the traces of the Mexica civilization after the colonial era, in 1821. For more than a century, though, they made little progress.
Then, in 1978 the Coyolxāuhqui was found when a worker’s shovel hit the stone. It lay at the base of the stairs of the Templo Mayor. The creators of the stone placed it sometime during a major renovation of the Templo Mayor in the years 4 Reed to 8 Reed of the Mexica Calendar (1483 CE -1487 CE). The stone itself was carved from a single rock a few years earlier in 1438 CE. Historian Richard Townsend considers it one of the most intensely significant sculptures of Mesoamerican art, writing that it holds “an assurance of design and a technical virtuosity not previously seen at the pyramids.”
Archeologists learned that the Temple was a sophisticated and massive structure, consisting of two stepped pyramids rising side by side on a huge platform. The pyramid dedicated to Huitzilopochtli was taller and faced east, while the pyramid dedicated to Tlaloc was shorter and faced west. The two pyramids were connected by a long stairway that led up to the summits.
Archaeologists of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia working at the place were the stone was discovered, 1978.[Public Domain]
The find was a renaissance of Mexica research. “We thought that we were no longer going to find anything about the Mexicas,” Ledesma told the Associated Press. “And then, there she was, signaling us where Templo Mayor might be.”
“The temple reproduces the myth of the birth of the solar god,” Ledesma added. “It represents that a world of night and darkness is defeated at the feet of the house of the triumphant Sun.”
The Coyolxāuhqui stone was found completely in situ and survived despite the efforts of Cortés and his conquest, likely because of its location, Ledesma notes. Archaeologists have discovered five Coyolxāuhqui depictions, but the best preserved is the Coyolxāuhqui stone.
“This myth isn’t about her murder,” Ledesma said. “The message is that we are children of the Sun.”
The “Coyolxāuhqui: the star, the goddess, the discovery” exhibition at the Museum of Templo Mayor runs through June 4.
“People came and presented her with flowers, with gifts,” Ledesma said of the exhibit’s opening two weeks ago. “It was like a rediscovery of a society that we had thought lost to the war.”
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