Name: 157. Templo Mayor. Tenochtitlan. Aztec. 1375- 1520 CE Stone (temple) Volcanic stone (Coyolxauhqui stone).

• Form
  • Circular relief sculpture
  • Once brilliantly painted
  • So called because of the bells she wears as earrings
• Context
  • Coyolxauhqui and her many brothers plotted the death of her mother. Coatlicue, who became pregnant after tucking a ball of feathers down her bosom. When Coyolxauhqui chopped off Coatlicu’s head, a child, Huitzilopochtli, popped out of the severed body fully grown and dismembered Coyolxauhqui, who fell dead at the base of the shrine.
  • This stone represents the dismembered moon goddess, Coyolxauhqui, who is placed at the base of the twin pyramids of Tenochtitlan.
  • Aztecs similarly dismembered enemies and threw them down the stairs of the great pyramid to land on the sculpture of Coyolxauhqui
  • Aztecs sacrificed people and then threw their dismembered remains down the steps of the temple as Huitzilopochtli did to Coyolxauhqui.
  • A relationship was established between the death and decapitation of Coyolxauqui with the sacrifice of enemies at the top of Aztec pyramids

• Olmec-style mask
  • Found on the site; actually a much older work executed by the Olmecs
  • Olmec works have a characteristic frown on the face; pungnacious visage; baby face; a cleft in the center of the head carved from greenstone
  • Shows that the Aztecs collected and embraced artwork from other cultures, including early Mexican cultures such as the Olmec and Teotihuacan
  • Shows that the Aztecs had a wide-ranging merchant network that traded historical items