ANTH 1145 1st Edition Lecture 16-Islands are made of Silto When water lowers silt shrinks which causes the island to sinko Was starting to sink even before the arrival of the Spanish-Water Table allowed Spanish to only destroy the top part of pyramids-There was a popular belief that the main temple of Tenochtitlan was under the cathedral of Mexico City-Batre’s excavations 1900o Along escalerilla street-19th century accounts of Aztec sacred precinct discovered in archives of Europe-Alfred Maudslay (American archaeologist)o Didn’t believe the temple was under the cathedralThought it to be close to juncture of Iztapalapa and Tacuba street-Manuel Gamio (Mexican Archaeologist)o He believe Maudslay and excavatedo Located the south west corner of main temple in 1913o Proved it wasn’t under the cathedralThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.-With installation of urban utilities Aztec monoliths were turning up in downtown Mexico City-Main temple is the center and allowed them to start to map the limits of the sacred precinct-Cathedral was built on top of other pyramids and this caused it to have structural problemso To preserve they were going to see what was below o This gave archaeologists a chance to excavate the pyramids below-Feb. 21, 1978o Electric company discovers large carved stone with series of reliefsIt was the Coyolxauhqui Stone-Moon stone-Sister of Huitzlipochtli-Eduardo Matoso Principal researcher of templo Mayor project-Demolition of Colonial buildings revealed foundation of the great temple of Tenochtitlan-Great Temple o Constructed in 7 stagesCould be dated by glyphso Most of stage two preserved-High water table= a problem for excavationo Couldn’t get to stage 1 just stage 2-Stage 1 found only from historical documentso Built 1325 when they arrived in Tenochtitlan -2 rabbit (1390)o Acamapichtlio Stage 2 dated here-4 reed (1431)o Stage 3o Itzcoatl rules-1 rabbit (1454)o Reign of motecuzome Io Stage 4- Stage 7 is final stage and it was seen by Spaniards in 16th