Fall of Tenochtitlan: the offering at a key site of the Templo Mayor that the Mexicans hid in Cortés

A 500 years from the fall of Tenochtitlan, there is still a lot to know about the lives of mexico What they resisted the imposition deities and the Spanish worldview.

However, some results show that residents of Mexico-Tenochtitlan and of Mexico-Tlatelolco, which for months undergone the siege of the army formed by Hispanics and thousands of native allies, found a way out of the spanish yoke.

Raúl Barrera Rodríguez, archaeologist in charge of the Urban Archeology Program (PAU) of the INAH, commented on four discoveries of transition between cities capitals of Tenochtitlan and New Spain.

“It was a process that took years. The Spaniards themselves, as we have seen, found themselves in the need to adapt to the conditions, fit many mexican rooms to transform them into their rooms ”, underlined the researcher during a virtual conference of the cycle“ In search of Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco ”.

As expected, although the defeat of the Mexicans took place on August 13, 1521, decades passed before they fully accepted the ideological and religious conditions imposed on Beginning of the viceregal period ending in 1620.

During this period, although under Spanish command, the Mexican resistance found a way to continue pay homage to their gods hide materials from ancient temples or place offerings in Hispanic buildings.

An example of these is a floor from the first viceregal period, formed by stone slabs that probably, they came from the main temples of Tenochtitlan, located in the excavations of Huei Tzompantli, started in 2015.

Mexica also placed a still offers with pre-Hispanic characteristics, made up of three flint knives, when building a Hispanic property.

Another remarkable case is the localization of the Calmecac, the elite school where Mexican nobles and priests were trained, also found in a property located between the streets of República de Guatemala and Donceles, under the building of the Cultural Center of Spain in Mexico, a few steps from Great temple.

This archaeological site has also shown traces of how the Mexicas after being defeated tried to preserve their religion, ignoring the Catholic difficulties of Spain.

This is the case with two sculptures, one of the god of the underworld, Mictlantecuhtli, and another from lord of turquoise, Xiuhtecuhtli, found in a viceregal stratigraphy, but which was located inside a well dug also by the builders of the original Spanish structure.

“The two performances had been protected To avoid their destruction, the natives dug a small grave to deposit them intact and ensure that they were not found by the Spaniards.”Said the archaeologist.

As is Templo Mayor was a sanctuary where they also kept perishable effigies of the gods, made from mass of amaranth seeds and honey, as well as tlaquimilolli.

Several years after the conquest (1539), it was found, according to UNAM, that a native of Azcapotzalco named Tonal was still making images of Tezcatlipoca.

It should not be forgotten that some of the methods used by the so-called conquerors to change the indigenous worldview were the destruction of the figures of their gods, the adaptation of Mexican constructions to theirs and evangelization.

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