We believe that the brilliant histories of art belong to everyone, no matter their background. The most obvious meaning of the relief sculpture is that the head was a complete sculpture and not a fragment from some larger Coatlicue-esque statue. Strictly speaking the Aztecs did not call themselves Aztecs, but rather Mexica. Olmec mask (Olmec-style mask) Feathered headdress . The city of Tenochtitlan was established in 1325 on an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco (much of which has since been filled in to accommodate Mexico City which now exists on this site), and with the city’s foundation the original structure of the Templo Mayor was built. The Coyolxauhqui stone was found directly at the base of the stairway leading up to Huitzilopochtli's temple. However, architects would paint this stone, whereas they would have left the Head Monument the original greenstone. Coyolxauhqui encouraged her four hundred sisters and brothers to kill their dishonored mother. And her daughter, Bells Her Cheeks or Coyolxauhqui, becomes enraged and rallies her 400 brothers to storm Snake Mountain and kill their mother "Snakey Skirt" or Coatlicue. Between 1325 and 1519, the Templo Mayor was expanded, enlarged, and reconstructed during seven main building phases, which likely corresponded with different rulers, or tlatoani (“speaker”), taking office. The function of many Aztec monuments is dependent on their placement. Coyolxauhqui was the Moon goddess according the Aztec mythology. Archeologists found most the monumental sculptures in downtown Mexico City. Coyolxauhqui is the sister and enemy of Huitzilopochtli, the patron god of the Mexica people who live in Tenochtitlan. Copyright © 2021 Dave4Math, LLC. The myth of Coyolxauhqui, as collected by Sahagún, is integral to the myth-history of the Mexica people. Also, in the upper left corner is a badly damaged date glyph showing the year 1 Rabbit. Also, the sculptors carved her with drooping eyelids, showing that she is dead. A presidential decree gave permission for … The use of Aztec dimensions has helped to see meaning in the structure of the design and has given some insight into the artist’s knowledge of mathematics. But from Coatlicue’s pregnant womb sprang new brother Huitzilopochtli, who was somewhat over-protective of his mum and cut Coyolxauhqui ’s head off. As many Aztec scholars have demonstrated, the Templo Mayor (Great Temple) of Tenochtitlan, in fact, represents a replica of Coatepec. The Spanish cathedral looms, just as Templo Mayor once did, over the city’s public square. David Smith (Dave) has a B.S. In Mexica tradition, this flower is connected to death, which connects to Coyolxauhqui’s death at the hands of her brother. The two snakes could represent the mountain where the story happens and where Coyolxauhqui dies, Coatepec, or Snake Mountain. The circular pattern of bright yellow or orange petals of the cempoalxochitl flower is an obvious connection to the sun. All we have is a brief mention of stone carvers by Bernardino de Sahagun, the great Franciscan chronicler of 16th century Aztec life, and a drawing of Aztec stone workers in a quarry executed in a heavily Europeanized style (Pic 2). We created Smarthistory to provide students around the world with the highest-quality educational resources for art and cultural heritage—for free. The Aztec placed it in front of the steps of the Huitzilopochtli side of the Templo Mayor. Because of this, few of the existing artifacts have been found in their original position. The nose-adornment is common for the time period. This means the Aztec created this monument as of her head after her brother killed her, rather than a sculpture of her as she would have been alive. It could also mean that the severed head of Coyolxauhqui is a source of power; that as a goddess, she carries both destructive fire and creative water inside of her. An interconnected world is not as recent as we think. Unearthing the Aztec past, the destruction of the Templo Mayor. The smaller circular spots on the front of her headband represent down feathers. The southern half of the Mayor temple symbolized Coatepec, and the big stone disk with Coyolxauhqui’s dismembered body was discovered at the foot of this side of the temple. The Spanish took over the city as they colonized, building their colony over the ruins. This would make it seem like for each phase added to the temple, each new tlatoani made preperations to recreate the mythical setting of Coatepec and the story of Huitzilopochtli’s birth. The Colossal Head of Coyolxauhqui is a stone monument carved in pre-Columbian Tenochtitlan, the center of the Aztec world. Archaeological evidence of this mythical correspondence was found in 1978, when a large stone sculpture of the decapitated and dismembered Coyolxauhqui was discovered at the base of the Huitzilopochtli side of the temple during some … The image is clear. … Coyolxauhqui Monolith. In addition, as a plant the cempoalxochitl is a connection to water, referencing Coyolxauhqui’s association with fertility. The image of Coyolxauhqui is beautifully rendered in the massive stone relief that was found at the Great Temple (Templo Mayor). This is because she is the sister of the god Huitzilopochtli, the patron deity of the Mexica people. In 1978, while digging in the basement of a bookstore, workers for Mexico City's power company hit a huge stone disk. The Aztecs’ center of the universe became Centro Historico, or El Centro, the apex of public and religious life. Miss Golden Bells the Moon Goddess. The Templo Mayor was dedicated to two deities, Tlaloc and Huitzilopochtli. Aztec Life Learned Through Remaining Sculpture, Choose your video style (lightboard, screencast, or markerboard), What is Electrical Engineering? This monument, the Head of Coyolxauhqui, was carved in Tenochtitlan, the center of the Aztec world. Sometimes new constructi… . Thus a symbol of power and diety. Her name means "Golden Bells." The Great Aztec Temple saw many human sacrifices, and was soon destroyed by Spanish colonists in 1521. As the story goes, directly after his birth, Huitzilopochtli defended his mother from Coyolxauhqui, dismembered her body, and threw it from the top of the sacred mountain Coatepec. Nicholson suggests that the mentioned the head as part of the temple during the rule of Ahuitzotl, an earlier tlatoani, or king, of Tenochtitlan. During this time, the Spanish began to use the monuments for building Nueva Espana, which would explain how it wound up being used in the foundations of a church. The Coyolxauhqui stone. However, it is impossible for us today to completely understand this context, because most of the temple was destroyed during the Conquest, and the artifacts split up or crushed. Fort Ancient Culture: Great Serpent Mound. Seler hypothesizes that the Aztec placed the Head of Coyolxauhqui on a platform on the temple. Coatlicue, lived in Coatepec, where he swept for penance. Argentina streets when they encountered a huge, round stone covered with Aztec reliefs. We will discuss the iconographical significance, theorize reasons for its creation, its function in the pre-Columbian world, and what became of the monument since. Her earrings are gold trappeze earrings. On this monument, the 1 Rabbit glyph is with the 2 Reed glyph, representing the transition of the cosmos from New Fire Ceremony. Almost 11 feet across, engraved on its surface was the dismembered body of Coyolxauhqui, the Aztec moon goddess. In 1829, archeologists unearthed a colossal pre-Columbian stone monument from a colonial church’s foundations in Mexico City. Archeologists discovered the monument during renovations to the church Santa Teresa la Antigua. The Coyolxauhqui stone. Daughter of Coatlicue. References • Haslemere Educational Museum copy of the stone of Tizoc • The Word Made Stone. A sign representing the date 13 Acatl, 13 Reed, is visible on the surface of the stone. Another explanation would be that 1 Rabbit is the mythical creation date of the Earth. Even the exact location of the Great Temple was lost until 1978, when electrical workers uncovered the great stone disk of the Aztec goddess Coyolxauhqui. Help Smarthistory continue to make a difference, Help make art history relevant and engaging, Defining “Pre-Columbian” and “Mesoamerica”, Introduction to the Spanish Viceroyalties in the Americas, About geography and chronological periods in Native American art, Fort Ancient Culture: Great Serpent Mound, Mississippian shell neck ornament (gorget), Olmec mask at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Mesoamerican ballgame and a Classic Veracruz yoke, Yaxchilán—Lintels 24 and 25 from Structure 23 and structures 33 and 40, The Templo Mayor and the Coyolxauhqui Stone, Remembering the Toxcatl Massacre: The Beginning of the End of Aztec Supremacy, Mirror Pendant in the Form of a Bat-Human From Grave 5, Sitio Conte, Global trade and an 18th-century Anishinaabe outfit, Juana Basilia Sitmelelene, Presentation Basket (Chumash), Pueblo architecture and its relationship to place, Puebloan: Maria Martinez, Black-on-black ceramic vessel, Contemporary Native American Architecture, Prints and Printmakers in Colonial New Spain, Hispaniola’s early colonial art, an introduction, Classical Architecture in Viceregal Mexico, Mission churches as theaters of conversion in New Spain, The Convento of San Nicolás de Tolentino, Actopan, Hidalgo, Murals from New Spain, San Agustín de Acolman, A Renaissance miniature in wood and feathers, Mission Church, San Esteban del Rey, Acoma Pueblo, Biombo with the Conquest of Mexico and View of Mexico City, Francisco Clapera, set of sixteen casta paintings, Inventing “America,” The Engravings of Theodore de Bry, Portraits of John and Elizabeth Freake (and their baby), Gerardus Duyckinck I (attributed), Six portraits of the Levy-Franks family, c. 1735, Ostentatious plainness: Copley's portrait of the Mifflins, The Mexican-American War: 19th-century American art in context, John Brown’s “tragic prelude” to the U.S. Civil War, Thomas Hovenden, The Last Moments of John Brown, The end of an era: Remington's The Fall of the Cowboy, Inventing America, Colt’s Experimental Pocket Pistol, Seneca Village: the lost history of African Americans in New York, Cultures and slavery in the American south: a Face Jug from Edgefield county, Carleton Watkins, Eagle Creek, Columbia River, William Howard (attributed), Writing desk, The light of democracy — examining the Statue of Liberty, Carrère & Hastings, The New York Public Library, Herter Brothers, Mark Hopkins House Side Chair, Robert Mills and Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Lincoln Casey, Washington Monument, Landscape Painting in Nineteenth-Century Latin America, Complexity and vision: the Staff God at Chavín de Huántar and beyond, Nasca Art: Sacred Linearity and Bold Designs, Semi-subterranean Court at the site of Tiwanaku, Inka ushnus: landscape, site and symbol in the Andes, Portrait Painting in the Viceroyalty of Peru, Introduction to religious art and architecture in early colonial Peru, Early Viceregal Architecture and Art in Colombia, The Church of San Pedro Apóstol de Andahuaylillas. For example, we can see the bells on her cheeks for which Coyolxauhqui is named. So ubiquitous that it has been used on currency, this unfinished stone records Aztec history and a future prophecy. Templo Mayor at Tenochtitlan, the Coyolxauhqui Stone, and an Olmec Mask . Start studying Unit 1: Aztecs Art & Culture. Today this monument stands in the National Museum in Mexico City. The Head of Coyolxauhqui could similarly be propaganda for a king, where Coyolxauhqui represents a defeated enemy and so shows the power of his reign. In this paper, we have examined the iconography of the Head of Coyolxauhqui to attempt to explain the importance and function of the monument. Because the relief would have been touching the ground, this symbolically means the blood from her death flows into the earth. Because we do not know where the monument was kept during pre-Colonial times, we are unable to entirely know its function. Sources Source A: The Coyolxauhqui Stone (temple entry stone) Source B: Tzompantli (skull rack) Source C: Tonamatl (Aztec calendar stone) 3. Coyolxauhqui, represented with bells on her cheeks, is the daughter of Coatlicue, She of the Serpent Skirt. In 1978, workmen uncovered a huge, eight-tonne sculpted stone disk depicting the scattered limbs of the Aztec moon goddess Coyolxauhqui. Her death represents the rise of power of the Aztecs. This monument includes the head and a relief carving on the base. All rights reserved. Coyolxauhqui Stone is an Aztec Stone Sculpture created in 1500. In the center lay her torso, naked but for a belt of snakes. This connects to the birth of Huitzilopochtli, whose name means “Left-Side Like a Hummingbird”. The eagle feathers on her headband also connect to the idea of the sun, which references the cempoalxochitl flower. Coyolxauhqui, key finding for Mexico's archeology This special edition of Barriozona in Spanish recounts the history of the 1978 archaeological finding in Mexico City that led to the excavation of the ruins of the Great Temple of the Aztecs. They didn’t have a chance against their powerful brother. The Aztec sun stone was dedicated to Motecuhzoma II and was likely carved during his reign, 1502-1520. Also Mocteczumma II used the Teocalli as a political piece, whoing the he influeeced the cosmos as a god did. The Head of Coyolxauhqui is three feet high and carved out of diorite, or greenstone. However, the symbolism presents many different ideas about how the Mexica would have conceptualized the death of a goddess. The family drama that lead to Coyolxuahqui’s dismemberment represented here has great soap opera potential. This leads us to theorize that while the Mexica had it as part of the Templo Mayor, the Spanish moved it during the early colonial period. We see this in the circular Coyoxauhqui Stone. During the calamitous time of the Conquest, spaniards, or even indigenous community members, would deliberately move and change Aztec monuments. Unearthing the Aztec past, the destruction of the Templo Mayor (Mexico City) . The Aztec placed it in front of the steps of the Huitzilopochtli side of the Templo Mayor. Architects represented Coyolxauhqui with bells on her cheeks, trapeze earrings, and a headband of down and eagle feathers. The Mexica placed examples of these in offering deposits around the Templo Mayor. Also there appears to be a triangle, presumably representing gold, piercing her lips. We will discuss its iconographical significance, theorize reasons for its creation, its function in the pre-Columbian world, and what became of the monument since. This would connect to Coyolxauhqui’s death because the New Fire Ceremony is a rebirth of the Mexica power and a continuation of the cosmos. This could mean that Coatepec is a source of power. This is the currently selected item. This flower is the cempoalxochitl, or “Mexican marigold”. She caused a lot of domestic bother after disapproving of her mother’s bedroom liaison with a ball of feathers. Coatlicue, (Nahuatl: “Serpent Skirt”) Aztec earth goddess, symbol of the earth as both creator and destroyer, mother of the gods and mortals. The sacrifice was considered an offering to the deity. The Coyolxauhqui Stone recreates the story of Coyolxauhqui, Huitzilopochtli's sister who was dismembered at the base of a mountain, ... Motolinía and Sahagún reported that the Aztecs believed that if they did not placate Huehueteotl, a plague of fire would strike their city. In 1829, archaeologists unearthed it from the foundations of a colonial church in Mexico City. Not as recent as we think Head to the Mexica people who live in,. Famous for their clash with Cortes during the discovery of the temple is a connection to sky. 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