Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Montezuma's Meditation Room Unearthed


The Aztec emperor Montezuma meditated on the visions of his seers and shamans in the room recently unearthed.


Mexican archaeologists have found remains of an Aztec palace once inhabited by the emperor Montezuma. During restoration of a building in downtown Mexico City, experts identified pieces of a wall and some basalt flooring believed to have been part of a room where Montezuma meditated.

“This is another piece of the puzzle, and we hope to find several more pieces,” Elsa Hernandez, leader of the archeology team working at the site, said Monday.

The emperor’s palace complex comprised five interconnected buildings containing Montezuma’s office, chambers for his several wives and children and even a zoo. The newly unearthed section belongs to the Casa Denegrida, or Black House, which Spanish conquerors described as a windowless room, painted black, where Montezuma reflected on visions told to him by seers and shamans. Some historians believe it was Montezuma’s reliance on such visions that led to his downfall because he initially thought the Spanish invaders to be divine.

Montezuma died after the Spaniards captured him in 1521, leading to collapse of the Aztec empire.

Click here for the complete article in the International Herald Tribune.

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