Posted on 11/09/2007 3:06:03 PM PST by blam
Mexican archaeologists begin search for Aztec king's tomb
Posted : Thu, 08 Nov 2007 03:59:00 GMT
Author : IANS
Mexico City, Nov 8 - A team of archaeologists has begun exploring a site in the heart of the Mexican capital that might lead to the first discovery of a tomb of an Aztec king, according to Spanish news agency EFE.
Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said in a communique that a 12-tonne monolith dedicated to Tlaltecuhtli, the Aztec earth goddess, was removed from the site Tuesday.
Scientists hope to uncover the tomb of King Ahuizotl, who reigned from 1486-1502.
The monolith and the possible tomb were found a year ago in the area known as Las Ajaracas, a spot where the new official residence of the Mexico City mayor is being built.
Upon detecting the archaeological remains, the government donated the land to INAH to explore.
The colonial structures erected by the Spaniards over Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital, are also of historical value, and so they were never removed to allow excavations there until one of those buildings had to be torn down after suffering severe damage in the massive earthquake of 1985.
According to the INAH communique, scientists performed a three-dimensional underground probe of the site using a scanner with the collaboration of a team from the University of Ferrara, Italy, and aided by Japanese experts from Nagoya University.
Leonardo Lopez Lujan, the director of INAH's Templo Mayor Project, said that with the studies, scientists expect to confirm the thesis that the tomb of Ahuizotl - the last Aztec king before the Spanish conquest - is located there.
That thesis, he added, might be corroborated or rejected 'depending on the presence or lack of archaeological evidence', but in any case it will be a slow process taking at least a year.
The archaeologist said that they located an entrance to the two-square-meter tomb, which is located about five meters underground.
Ahuizotl, who died in a flood, carried out military campaigns to extend the power of Tenochtitlan to Guatemala and he is known for his massive sacrifice of between 20,000 and 80,000 captives.
The first contact the Aztecs had with the Europeans came in 1519, when Hernan Cortes and his group of conquistadors advanced on the Mexico Valley and took Ahuizotl's successor, his nephew Moctezuma, hostage.
GGG Ping.
Cover of 1980 First Edition
Author Gary Jennings
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Historical novel
Publisher Atheneum
Publication date October 1980
Media type Print (Hardbound)
Pages 754 pp
Followed by Aztec Autumn
Aztec is a historical fiction novel by Gary Jennings.
It is the first of four novels in the Aztec series.
The book is written as a series of letters from the Bishop of the See of New Spain to King Carlos of Spain containing a transcribed biography of Mixtli (Nahuatl for “Dark Cloud”), an elderly Aztec man, by Spanish Catholic monks during the 16th century.
*******
Very weird book Adults only!
Excellent book and you are right on the adults only. All aspects of life are laid bare.
The Lively Lives of Crispin Mobey
(1988)
A novel by
Gabriel Quyth (Gary Jennings)(1928 - 1999)
Mexico has archaeologists?
Watch the fudge hit the fan if they find the tomb north of the Rio Grande
A lot of Mexicans must think that its here in Arizona.
I hope they find the tomb, maybe they will find in the tomb a relic that will tell them how to pretend to care for their own people.
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Thanks Blam. |
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When I read the title I assumed the dig was somewhere between Sedona and Santa Barbara.
Weird headline. They obviously know he WASN’T the last Aztec king. After him there was Moctezuma, and then Cuitláhuac and Cuauhtémoc, who came to a very unpleasant end.
Emigrants don't have a right to claim control over their ancestral homeland. Irish-Americans have no right to return to Ireland and take it over. Quebeckers don't have a right to go back to France and take over. Mexican immigrants in the US have no more right to claim "Aztlan" just because some remote ancestors were from the US Southwest.
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