| Object Name: | Moctezuma's Throne |
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| Creation Date: | 1325-1521 A. D. | |
| Culture: | Aztec, Post-Classic | |
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| Moctezuma’s Throne commemorates the New Fire Ceremony of 1507 and represents the Aztecs as the legitimate power in the Valley of Mexico. This piece also called "Teocalli of the Sacred War" is the most complex Aztec monument that we know: on all sides of a temple form sixteen images and six glyphs are carved. The images were drawn from different sources and they are different from one another in scale and sometimes in style. The seated figures on the sides of the base are larger than the standing figures who flank the solar disk on the backrest; the shield and spear emblems on the seat are large in relation to the earth monster between them. All the figures on the front and sides are single images. On the back is carved a unified scene within a natural setting, the eagle on the cactus being the most naturalistic representation yet found in Aztec relief sculpture. In its form the monument combines elements of a temple, a royal throne, and a year bundle. In Mesoamerican thought, the main temple of the city was the city’s symbol: in manuscripts a burning temple symbolizes that city’s conquest: the name for city, altepetl, means literally water-mountain, and the pyramids were symbolic of mountains. | ||
