Found the vestiges of one of the latest ceremonies of the new Azteca fire in the center of Mexico City

Los mexicas no contaban el tiempo en una escala infinita, como nosotros, sino en unidades cíclicas de 52 años. Cada año duraba 260 días y cada 52 años todo comenzaba otra vez. Para conmemorar el nuevo ciclo hacían una gran ceremonia: la del Fuego Nuevo, la más importante del ciclo ritual de los mexicas. Cada 52 años los habitantes de México-Tenochtitlan desechaban las imágenes de sus dioses y todos sus utensilios domésticos y apagaban los fuegos de los hogares y los templos. En esa ciudad, completamente a oscuras, los sacerdotes del fuego salían del Templo Mayor hacia Huixachtlan (cerro de la Estrella), y en la cumbre realizaban una ceremonia para encender un fuego nuevo. El ritual provocaba gran incertidumbre porque se creía que si el fuego nuevo no se encendía, el mundo se acabaría y las estrellas se convertirían en monstruos que devorarían a la humanidad. Los cinco días previos a la ceremonia, el pueblo dejaba apagar sus fuegos y destruían sus enseres domésticos, mientras esperaban la catástrofe, ayunaban y se lamentaban. Los vestigios de una de esas ceremonias han sido descubiertos en el Centro Histórico de Ciudad de México. Se trata del último hallazgo de los investigadores del Instituto de Antropología e Historia (INAH), quienes encontraron — a casi un metro de profundidad — cajetes, molcajetes, alacates, figurillas de barro y algunos otros elementos como navajillas prismáticas de obsidiana, en medio de obras de drenaje, cableado eléctrico y remozamiento de banquetas.

“The pieces were found in the San Fernando pantheon, near the church of San Hipólito, in the old neighborhood of Cuepopan, which he adjoined with Tlatelolco, where the Guerrero neighborhood now is located.We were in an area of Ciénega, in lake zone.Pre -Hispanic dumps were associated with the new fire ceremony, where people were going to deposit their important objects to symbolize a new cycle, ”archaeologist Nancy Domínguez tells El País.During the ceremony, the inhabitants of the Great Tenochtitlan got rid of the divinities figures they had on their home altars;They destroyed their old belongings: trastos, clothing, petates, even the three stones of the stove (tenamaztli) considered sacred;They could not keep the instruments to make fire, or with the flinthals.Everything destroyed was burned or, in any case, thrown into the ditches, as happened in this last finding.

According to George Clapp Vaillant in his book, the Aztec civilization, the ancients “interpreted the change from one cycle to another as the termination of one life and the beginning of another new.The enclosed women were locked in barns for fear that they became wild animals and the children were to walk and they were preserved awake for fear that sleeping on that fatal night would turn them into rats.The house was also cleaned totally leaving everything in order and the fires were turned off, being in complete darkness ”.As long.

That hill is an extinct volcanic crater that rises sharply from the valley level and is visible (or was it?) From almost all parts of the capital.At the top of the temple, the priests anxiously scrutinized the sky to give the sign that the world would continue.At the precise moment in which these stars passed the meridian, the priests took wood tools and lit the new fire in the open chest of a victim who for this purpose had just sacrificed.“Priests, chieftain and commoners delirked with happiness.Special corridors lit torches of that fire and turned on the altars again in the temples of all the inhabitants and villages, where the town carried fire for their homes.The fast torches carriers ran through the night like firefly, taking all men, women and children the promise of a new life, ”says the American anthropologist George Clapp.

“Generally, a pit was digging and in this pit they threw the dishes, the pots or the vessels.They went, they threw themselves and broke.On many occasions river stones were used to break the artifacts.Fire was also used.In this case, there is no pit as such, they are simply arranged in the lake stratum, which means that people arrived with their vessels and threw them into the body of water that at that time existed.This whole area was a lake area;There were no streets as we know them, ”explains the archaeologist Domínguez, coordinator of the new excavations, where the recovery of 17 burials was also carried out, which could succumb to epidemic outbreaks in the nineteenth century.The bones were found on the periphery of the Pantheon of San Fernando, one of the oldest in the capital and final destination of the remains of several of the prominent characters in Mexican history such as Benito Juárez, Vicente Guerrero or Ignacio Zaragoza.

The project will continue with inspections until the end of January 2022, whose archaeological rescue tasks have verified the constant occupation of what is now the Guerrero neighborhood, since the late postclassic period (1250-1521), when it was the seat of Mexican families thatThey lived in a muddy area of Tenochtitlan's outskirts, through the viceregal era, when pastures and convents were established, until the nineteenth century that saw her emerge with the establishment of large houses.

If the world did not end and the stars did not become mortal monsters, the Mexican people resuscitated themselves, renewed their temples, restored their houses and made new utensils for religious and domestic uses;Festines were celebrated with special meals and sacrifices, both with their own blood and prisoners, revealed the degree of popular gratitude.

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