Crustaceans as part of the Mexica worldview: case study of Offering 125 associated to the Tlaltecuhtli monolith

Summary

Tlaltecuhtli monolith was discovered over offering number 125. It was buried in the sixth stage of construction of Tenochtitlan Sacred Precinct during Ahuítzotl government (1486-1502). The offering was composed of biotic elements from Panamic and Caribbean provinces. A microcosm is reflected due the offering disposition, vertical levels represented biota and elements of underworld, terrestrial and aerial stage. The inferior level as underworld, recorded aquatic biota. Crustacean were identified based on eight exoskeleton fragments as, Macrobrachium sp. prawn and Coelocerus spinosus crab. This contribution analyzed the decapod fragments found with 125 offering, and those were compared with organisms of M. americanum from the CNCR (Colección Nacional de Crustáceos, UNAM, Mexico) and C. spinosus from the CNCR and IZ-NMNH (Invertebrate Zoology collection of National Museum of Natural History, USA). The large estimated size of both species exclude them as foodstuff symbolism and support, as other species found on the same offering, its relevance as some morphological particularity in the prawn case or as a scarce know specimen on the crab. This study also contributes to the actual knowledge of the C. spinosus crab increasing the number of records known worldwide to 23 from 21 localities.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Animals and the Sacred Precinct of Tenochtitlan: Biology, Archaeology, History, and Conservation

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 13253