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SCIENCEFriday 4 December 2015
Mexico experts: passageway may lead to Aztec ruler
MARK STEVENSON
Associated Press
MEXICO CITY (AP) — A
Mexican archaeologist
said his team has found
a tunnel-like passageway
that apparently leads to
two sealed chambers, the
latest chapter in the search
for the as-yet undiscovered
tomb of an Aztec ruler.
The Aztecs are believed
to have cremated the re-
mains of their leaders dur-
ing their 1325-1521 rule,
but the final resting place
of the cremains has never
been found. Outside ex-
perts said Tuesday the find
at Mexico City’s Templo
Mayor ruin complex would
be significant.
The National Institute of
Anthropology and History
said Monday that a team
led by archaeologist Leon-
ardo Lopez Lujan had dis-
covered an 8.4-meter (27-
foot) long tunnel leading
into the center of a circular because work was going
platform where dead rul-
ers were believed to have
been cremated.
The mouth of the tunnel
was sealed by a 3-ton slab
of rock. When experts lifted
it in 2013, they found a hol- “Obviously, this includes re-
low space marked by offer-
ings both rich and grisly.
Gold ornaments and the
bones of eagles and infants
were found in an offering
box. Two skulls of children
between 5 and 7 years old
were found with the first
three vertebrae, suggest-
ing they might have been
decapitated. The kind of
stone knives used in human
sacrifices were also found,
as well as a hand and
bones from two feet.
But one researcher detect-
ed signs that a passage-
way appeared to lead
deeper into the ceremo-
nial platform, known as the
Cuauhxicalco (kwow-she-
KAL-koh), where written ac-

counts from after the 1521 doorways,” Lopez Lujan emperor would bring tre- peror who first confronted
Spanish conquest indicat- wrote. “The hypothesis is mendous pride to Mexico. — and succumbed to —
ed that rulers’ remains were that there will be two small The country has sought Hernan Cortes.
burned. chambers with urns holding unsuccessfully to recov- Dr. Michael E. Smith, a pro-
The passageway proved the ashes of Mexica rulers, er Aztec artifacts like the fessor of anthropology at
to be about 18 inches (45 but we could be wrong.” feather-adorned “shield of Arizona State University
centimeters) wide and 5 It would be a logical place Ahuizotl” and the “Mon- who was not involved in the
feet (1.5 meters) high. for rulers remains to lie — tezuma headdress” from dig, said: “Leonardo knows
“Once the rocks and dirt the Templo Mayor site was the Ethnology Museum in the archaeology and eth-
no-history better than any-
Tourists visit the Templo Mayor archaeological site in Mexico City, Tuesday Dec. 1, 2015. Mexican body, and he is not one to
archaeologists have discovered, at the archaeological site, a long tunnel leading into the center grandstand or make fan-
of a circular platform where Aztec rulers were believed to be cremated. The Aztecs are believed tastic claims to garner pub-
to have cremated the remains of their leaders during their 1325-1521 rule, but the final resting licity. Thus I would think his
place of the cremains has never been found. prediction is reasonable.”
“The lack of any royal buri-
(AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) als in Tenochtitlan is a long-
standing mystery,” Smith
were dug out, we saw that the most significant temple Vienna, Austria. said. “But the proof is in the
it led directly into the heart complex in the Aztec capi- But Lopez Lujan is being pudding. What will they
of the Cuauhxicalco,” Lo- tal, known as Tenochtitlan. cautious, saying the pres- find when excavation con-
pez Lujan said. “At the end But Mexican archaeologists ence of graves at the end tinues?”
(of the passageway), there have been searching in of the newly found pas- University of Florida archae-
are what appear to be two vain for the tombs for years. sageway is simply a theory. ologist Susan Gillespie, who
old entrances that had In 2007, archaeologists us- “What we are speculat- also was not involved in
been sealed up with ma- ing ground-penetrating ra- ing is that behind these the project, wrote that the
sonry.” dar detected underground sealed-up entrances there find “could be quite signifi-
The passageway was re- chambers directly below could be two small cham- cant.”
filled for about two years a huge stone monolith bers with the incinerated “We have pictures from the
carved with a representa- remains of some rulers of 16th century documents
on at one of the access tion of Tlaltecuhtli (tlahl-tay- Tenochtitlan, like Mocte- of the wrapped corpses
points to the ruins. KOO-tlee), the Aztec god zuma I and his successors, of kings. Their ‘cremains’
With that work nearing of the earth. Axayacatl and Tízoc, given should be somewhere in
completion, Lopez Lu- the relative dating of the the Templo Mayor vicin-
jan hopes to start digging At the time, Lopez Lujan surrounding constructions,” ity according to the docu-
again starting in 2016. suspected an emperor’s Lopez Lujan said. ments, but one cannot ex-
tomb might lie beneath. Moctezuma I, the sec- pect a great tomb cham-
excavating the passage- But none was found, de- ond Aztec emperor, ruled ber as was the case of the
way and finding out what spite the presence of rich from about 1440 to 1469. earlier Maya kings,” wrote
lies behind the two sealed offerings. Moctezuma II was the em- Gillespie .
Any artifacts linked to an Some Mayan leaders, like
the Palenque ruler Pakal,
were buried in sumptuous
crypts or stone coffins.
While the tomb is unlikely
to be anything as grand as
Pakal’s elaborately carved
stone sarcophagus, in
which his skeletal remains
were found, it’s hard to say
what would be found in
an Aztec royal tomb.
“It is not surprising that
these cremains have not
yet been found or identi-
fied,” Gillespie wrote. “Ar-
chaeologists don’t quite
know what they’re looking
for.”q