Archaeologists working with the Templo Mayor Project (PTM) have unveiled evidence of what may have been the largest ceremonial offering ever dedicated at the Mexica capital during the reign of Motecuhzoma Ilhuicamina.
The findings form part of ongoing excavations at the Templo Mayor in the heart of Mexico City. Researchers announced that Offerings 186, 187, and 189 (recently excavated ritual deposits) coincide chronologically and materially with Offerings 18, 19, and 97, discovered in previous decades. Together, the six deposits appear to have been placed simultaneously during a single large-scale ceremony between 1440 and 1469.
Leonardo López Luján, director of the PTM and researcher at the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), described the event as a spectacular ritual involving priests and thousands of participants gathered around the Huei Teocalli, the Main Temple of the island city of Tenochtitlan.
In total, the six stone chests, or tepetlacalli, safeguarded 83 greenstone figurines carved in Mezcala style. These anthropomorphic sculptures are believed to have been brought as war booty from territories in present-day Guerrero, conquered by Motecuhzoma Ilhuicamina during military campaigns outside the Valley of Mexico. At this scale, Mezcala figurines do not appear elsewhere in the temple’s construction history.
Field directors Alejandra Aguirre Molina and Antonio Marín Calvo noted that the deposits date to construction phase IVa of the Templo Mayor. This phase is distinctive for preserving the platform surrounding the pyramidal base, adorned with serpent heads and braziers. The symmetrical placement of the six offerings around the structure marks the first time archaeologists have effectively “closed the circle” of ritual deposits for a single building stage.
Conservation has posed significant challenges. The three newly excavated chests alone contained 43 sculptures and more than 4,000 marine elements, including Atlantic coast snails such as Nerita scabricosta and Hexaplex brassica. Some shells retained organic layers, suggesting they were transported alive in saltwater containers to the Mexica capital.
Once conservation is complete, the offerings will be housed in the Templo Mayor Museum, with plans underway for a future exhibition uniting all six deposits to illuminate the religious and political power of Tenochtitlan at its height.
Sources : INAH
