An earthquake has uncovered a giant, colorful snakehead from the Aztec Empire, buried underneath a law school in Mexico City. It dates back more than 500 years when the Aztecs controlled the area, and it was part of the capital of Tenochtitlan.
This amazing discovery happened after a 7.6 earthquake struck Mexico City on September 19th, 2022. The quake caused some serious damage and changed the topography of the area, uncovering the long-buried snakehead. It was found beneath a building that was part of a law school at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in a statement.
The sculpture measures 5.9 feet (1.8 meters) long, 2.8 feet (0.85 m) wide and 3.3 feet (1 m) high, and it weighs about 1.3 tons (1.2 metric tons), INAH said. But one of the coolest things about it is that 80% of the original red, blue, black, and white paint is preserved! Which is a pretty big rarity with antiquities like this.
To keep the pigment preserved, an INAH team lifted the snakehead out of the ground with a crane and constructed a humidity chamber around it. This chamber allows the sculpture to lose humidity gradually, with its color being preserved, according to María Barajas Rocha, a conservationist with the INAH who worked extensively with the sculpture.
“Thanks to the context in which this piece was discovered, but above all, thanks to the stupendous intervention of the restorers-conservators led by Maria Barajas, it has been possible to stabilize the colors for its preservation in almost all the sculpture, which is extremely important, because the colors have helped us to conceive pre-Hispanic art from another perspective,” Erika Robles Cortés, an archaeologist with the INAH, told Live Science.
While the “sheer size is impressive, as well as its artistry,” of the piece is also impressive. The colors are what makes this discovery stand out. “The survival of black, white, red, yellow, and blue paints is particularly interesting — one gains a good image of the visual impact of such sculptures as they were arrayed about the city center,” said Frances Berdan, a professor emeritus of anthropology at California State University, San Bernardino. However, Berdan was not involved with the excavation itself.
The Aztecs built temples and pyramids in the area to worship various deities. These deities include Quetzalcoatl, who was often shown as a snake. But it’s currently unclear if this sculpture depicts him, according to the archaeologists. Research is still ongoing and will continue at the site until, at least, next year.
