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Flora and Fauna
This hall is dedicated to flora and fauna found in the Templo Mayor. The fact that many of the offerings contained animals and plants as dedicatory objects tells us of the Mexica's acute awareness of their environment and the value that they gave it in relation to their religious world. In fact, many of the pre-Hispanic gods had qualities or traits of animals, the product of that meticulous observation of the ecosystem of which humankind forms a part.
The fauna found in Templo Mayor offerings came from different ecosystems, in which three regions stand out. Animals originating in the temperate environment of the Central Highlands included the eagle, puma, wolf, turtles and serpents. From the tropical jungles were: the jaguar, crocodile, toucan, armadillo, and so forth. From estuaries, coastal lagoons and coral reefs were: pelicans, different fish such as the shark, barracuda, needlefish, sea urchin, stingray, gastropods, bivalves, coral and sea urchins, to mention just a few examples. The Mexicas were highly familiar with the environment in which they lived. They managed it and exploited it extensively, in addition to incorporating it into their daily life by way of different expressions.
The remains of fauna found in the Templo Mayor excavations provide us with a wider panorama of ecosystems and of the way of life of the Mexicas. In some of the exhibition cases of this hall, you may see examples of the remains of animals and in the upper part are modern desiccated specimens, all identified with their common name; the Nahuatl name--when known--and the scientific name as well. The identification of each species was sometimes obtained based on a single bone, thanks to the knowledge of specialized biologists who formed part of the interdisciplinary team.
In order to exemplify the preceding, we illustrate a desiccated ocelot, with its bone remains and the representation in stone of this ocelot, an animal that, obviously, played an important role in myth, since it was intimately linked with the heart of hills --Tepeyolotl-- the earth and night.
Also exhibited in this hall are some examples of common flora of the pre-Hispanic period. Although much of this material has been destroyed with time --for it is difficult to find plant remains-- still some examples of straw, agave thorns, maize cobs and seeds have been located. Specialists in archaeobotany analyze the seeds and pollen found in the soil of the offerings, preserved over the course of hundreds of years, in order to enrich our knowledge on the use of certain plants, both wild as well as cultivated species.
The content of some exhibition cases in this hall also speaks to us of the use the Mexicas gave to certain animal remains. We see, for example, a sawfish snout that was apparently placed over the throat of victims destined for sacrifice to keep their head still; fish vertebrae, wolf and lynx bones, as well as representations of animals in stone and in mother of pearl, such as these finely worked little fish.
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Last Modified: January 14, 1998.
Museo del Templo Mayor, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e História, México.
Seminario #8, Centro Histórico. Cuauhtémoc, México, D.F. 06060
©Copyright 1997
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