Archaeologists Discover Bas-Relief of Golden Eagle at Aztec Templo Mayor
January 25, 2021
A team of archaeologists from the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia (INAH) have announced the discovery of a bas-relief depicting an American golden eagle (aquila chrysaetos canadensis).
For the Mexica, the bird of prey was closely related to war and sacrifice, while being considered a nahual of the sun and, therefore, also of its tutelary god, Huitzilopochtli.
The relief was excavated at the foot of the Templo Mayor (the main temple of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan in present-day Mexico City), in the central axis that crosses the ‘chapel’ of Huitzilopochtli and the monumental sculpture of the goddess Coyolxauhqui.
I love this… the ancients were just so fabulous. And the Aztec were not6 all that ancient. To my view of ancient, that is. : )