France awards book on Tenochtitlan co-edited by López Luján and Harvard

▲ On August 20, 2015, the discovery of the Huey Tzompantli of Tenochtitlan was announced, located at Guatemala City number 24, in the Historic Center. Photo courtesy of INAH.

▲ On October 2, 2006, at one end of the eastern flank of the Templo Mayor, the large sculpture of Tlaltecuhtli, goddess of the Earth, was found. Photo courtesy of the INAH

Ana Monica Rodriguez

La Jornada Newspaper, Tuesday, June 24, 2025, p. 2

The book Mexico-Tenochtitlan: Dynamism at the Center of the World was awarded the 2025 Raymond and Yvonne Lantier Prize by the French Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres for being considered a high-quality work of archaeological and historical research.

The publication by Bárbara Mundy, Leonardo López Luján and Elizabeth H. Boone (editors), from Dumbarton Oaks (Harvard University), analyzes in detail in 13 chapters the reasons for the consolidation of Tenochtitlan, as well as its rise to power from the 13th century, when its leaders transformed it into the political, economic and spiritual center of the Mexica, which, even after the Spanish invasion and fall of the empire (1519-1521), remained a dynamic urban center, a characteristic that persists in Mexico City.

The volume, the result of an academic meeting held at the end of the pandemic, is dedicated to the late historian and anthropologist Alfredo López Austin, who contributed to both popular and academic understanding of the Nahua worldview and the Mesoamerican past.

The work, which includes essays by 15 scholars from Mexico, the United States, and Japan, highlights discoveries since the founding of the Templo Mayor Project by Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, as well as findings brought to light through archaeological research. It also analyzes the excavation of offerings and burials, and examines sculptures, manuscripts, ritual objects, artistic production, and imperial ideologies.

The Tlaltecuhtli

Among the discoveries made in the ancient ceremonial precinct, the most notable was that of October 2, 2006, when the great sculpture of Tlaltecuhtli, the goddess of the Earth, devourer of men and the Sun, emerged at one end of the eastern flank of the Templo Mayor after being hidden for almost five centuries.

The sculpture was discovered by members of the Urban Archaeology Program (PAU), then headed by Álvaro Barrera, whose scientific research is included in the Templo Mayor Project (PTM), directed by archaeologist Leonardo López Luján since 1991.

López Luján, recently awarded the 2024 National Prize for Arts and Literature, which he will receive on July 22 at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, writes in the book Escultura monumental mexica (Fondo de Cultura Económica): Tlaltecuhtli, Lady of the Earth, progenitor and at the same time devourer of all creatures, is the largest sculpture ever extracted from the subsoil of Mexico City, which that day revealed one of its edges, almost at the confluence of the streets República de Argentina and República de Guatemala .

Nearly 20 years after that discovery, research has multiplied, and studies conducted on the colossal monolith have yielded abundant information and bibliography on the history of the sacred precinct, the holy land of ancient Tenochtitlan.

Above all, the appearance of this deity of the Mexica pantheon gave rise to the search for the remains of three tlatoanis who, according to historical sources, are found near the site where the monolith once stood.

In an interview with La Jornada , López Luján said that the investigations at that point in ancient Tenochtitlan are very important because we are right at the foot of the pyramid, in an area where there was a lot of ritual activity. However, teams are currently working: some in the vestibule, others in the archaeological zone, and Raúl Barrera, coordinator of the PAU, is away on other explorations.

The multi-award-winning director of the PTM pointed out: “Historical sources such as Fray Diego Durán, or Alvarado Tezozómoc and Bernal Díaz del Castillo, among other classics, tell us that when kings died, they were cremated.

When the three brothers, Axayácatl, Tízoc, and Ahuízotl, died, a huge pyre was built to burn their bodies at the foot of the Great Temple. Afterward, their ashes were collected and, with a gigantic offering, buried right here below.

During the work, "we have opened offerings, with tens of thousands of objects, one after another, but to date, we have not found a box containing the king's ashes; perhaps they are further away or beneath this building or that one. We don't know, but all the historical sources and descriptions agree on this; even in other Mesoamerican communities, such as Guatemala and Michoacán, they buried their kings at the foot of the pyramid.

So, they're definitely around here, but a little further away. We're still searching, but we're not psychics, and we haven't given up on continuing. We look with some envy at our archaeology colleagues working in the Mayan region, in Oaxaca or Veracruz, who keep finding royal tombs. In the case of Teotihuacan, none have been found either, but my friends and colleagues continue the excavations there.

For example, the archaeologist adds, “Bernal Díaz del Castillo describes: 'yes, I walked through the plaza of the Templo Mayor where everyone says the kings were buried,' that's what he said in the 16th century. I don't think he was lying.”

Regarding the funeral offerings, he continued, it is known that everyone attended the funeral, each bringing gifts. And just as in Egypt or Mesopotamia, whenever a king died, he would require help, and his wives, servants, and even his horses would be killed to accompany him in the afterlife. In addition to human sacrifices, gifts such as jewelry and utensils that could be used after his death were also buried .

The academic and popularizer recalled: even metates have appeared in the Mayan area. It's also worth remembering that monarchs had musicians, acrobats, jokers, dwarfs, hunchbacks, and people who entertained the king. All of these could accompany the monarchs in their afterlife .

The terrain, an obstacle

Another factor hindering progress with the excavation, which has reached a depth of 13 meters in some places, is that we can't go any deeper because we're on a lake, and that terrain is the city's biggest problem because it's made of compressible clay. The Historic Center is like gelatin; the buildings are crooked, and the Metropolitan Cathedral is a prime example, having nearly collapsed .

The problem is that to supply the population of this city, 70 percent of the water doesn't come from the Lerma or Cutzamala Rivers, but from underground; so, they pump it to get the water, because they can't stop pumping it, but when they take it all out, it sinks.

A team of Japanese specialists we work with comes every year to check that the subsidence in the Historic Center is approximately 30 centimeters per year, which puts the entire heritage site, including the buildings, at risk. For this reason, the engineers have told us not to even think about digging a 30-meter well or, worse yet, a tunnel.

Since the discovery of the 12-ton female Earth deity, the statue of Tlaltecuhtli, now in the Templo Mayor Museum, several archaeological explorations have been carried out. In addition, its context has been recorded and specific areas around the site of its discovery have been excavated. Restoration work has been carried out, as has the creation of a three-dimensional model, analysis and conservation of the monument's color palette, aesthetic values, symbology, and carved reliefs, as well as its liturgical functions. These include other multidisciplinary investigations, some in collaboration with foreign agencies and specialists.

Although the discovery of Tlaltecuhtli is approaching its twentieth anniversary, the most significant commemoration will be on March 15, 2028, when the PTM turns 50; various activities will be planned .

Leonardo López Luján concluded: we like anniversaries, that is why every year we organize the series of conferences around Coyolxauhqui , a monolith of the lunar goddess that was discovered by chance on February 21, 1978, a discovery that gave rise to the Templo Mayor Project and a site museum, founded by the archaeologist Eduardo Matos Moctezuma.