The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan Center and Periphery in the Aztec World JOHANNA BRODA DAVID CARRASCO EDUARDO MATOS MOCTEZUMA UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles London 1984We wish to shank the following for permission to reproduce the photographs listed below: Instituto Nacional de Ancrapolagia e Historia, 1, 4, 5,6, 7, 8,9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16. 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 33, 4, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45, 48, 49, 50, 52, 54, 58a, $Sb, 55c, 53d, 56, 57 Lawrence G. Desmond, 2 Kenneth Garrett, 3, 12, 13, 21, 22, 29, 47, 51 National Gallery of Art, 46, 53 Jose Cuellar, 41 We are also grateful to Lawrence G, Desmond for his asscance with the photographs. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Led. London, England Copyright © 1987 by The Regents of the University of California ary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Broda, Johanna. ‘The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan, Bibliography: p. Contents: The Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan / Eduardo ‘Matos Moctezuma—Templo Mayor 28 ritual space / Johanna Broda—Myth, cosmic terror, and the Temple Mayor / David Carrasco. 1. Templo Mayor (Mexico City, Mexico) 2. Aztees— Religion and mythology. 3. Indins of Mexico—Religion and mythology. I. Carrasco, David. II. Matos, Moctezuma, Eduardo. Ill Tile. F1219.1.MSB76_ 1988" 972.53. 87-5938 ISBN 0-520-05602-7 (alk. paper) Sed in the United States of America 123456789 In Memory of ‘Mircea Eliade and Pedro ArmillasTEMPLO MAYOR: HISTORY AND INTERPRETATION 20. Durén, Historia de las Indias, 21, Bernal Diaz del Castillo, The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico. (New York: Far rar, Straus & Giroux, 1956) 22. Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, “Symbolism of the Templo Mayor,” paper presented in Templo Mayor Meeting in Dumbarcon Oaks, Washington, D.C., 1983 (in pres). 23. Durim, Historia de las Indias. 24. abi 25. Francisco Del Paso y Troncoso, Descripcién, Historia y Exposicion del Cédice Bor. ‘bonico (Mexico: Editorial Siglo XXI, 1981), 26. Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, “E] Templo Mayor, Economia Idealygta,” Boletin de Antropologia Americana Mexico) (1980) and Rudolph Van Zantwij, “The Great Temple of ‘Tenochtitlan: Model of Arzec Cosmovision,” in Mesoamerican Sites and World Views, Elizabeth P. Benson ed. (Dumbarcon Oaks, Washington, D.C.: 1981), Pages 71-86, Recently there has been renewed interest in the Great Temple as the centeal site of the cosmological Universe ofthe Mexicas, For example see David Carrasco, “Templo Mayor: The Artec Vision of Place,” Religion (London) 11 (1981): 275-297. 60 rei Templo Mayor as Ritual Space JOHANNA BRODA National Autonomous University of Mexico The Aztec empire destroyed by the Spaniards at the beginning of the sixteenth century was a highly complex sociery, product of centuries, millennia of cultural evo lution in Mesoamerica and must be understood against the background of previous cultures in the area. To achieve this broader perspective and synthesis, the study of written documents should be complemented by archaeological studies and an inter- disciplinary approach. There exists an extremely rich written documentation on Az- tee society on the eve of the Spanish Conquest. The uniqueness of the excavation of Templo Mayor consists in the possibility oF confronting the archaeological record with the abundant ethnohistorical information that refers to the same period and the very city of Tenochtitlan. Ie thus permits us to combine in an effective way the methodol- ogy of archaeology with that of anthropology and history. My contribution to this volume iacerprets the archaeological findings from the point of view of Aztec society and religion in the fifteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth century, the period during which the Aztec state experienced its rapid expansion and transformation into an empire that was to dominate large parts of the territory that today is known as ancient Mesoamerica. My interpretation in terms of anthropological concepts will be combined with the detailed ethnohistotical analy- sis of certain aspects of the excavation, concentrating primarily on the content of the ‘more than eighty offering caches found at the site, Since we are dealing with a eel sious topic, this approach means that we will relate the Templo Mayor as religious center to its socioeconomic and political functions. The analysis ofthe offerings fur- ther reveals important aspects of Aztec cosmology and ritual; these will also be ex- plored in their social dimensions. Society isthe soil on which the elaborate seruccure of cosmovision' and ritual was erected and to which the social and ideological? func- tions of religion were ultimately related, T would like to point out that the confrontation with the material testimony of 61