Entering the Underworld. Animal Offerings at the Foot of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan (López Luján, Chávez Balderas, Zúñiga Arellano, Aguirre and Valentín) (original) (raw)

Archaeological data relating to the fauna exploited by the Mexicas and their neighbors in the Basin of Mexico are relatively sparse. To a large extent, this is due to the fact that the majority of pre-Hispanic settlements from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries have gradually been buried under Mexico City, a megalopolis that today houses more than 20 million inhabitants and that continues to grow at an unbridled rate (see Parsons 1989). Archaeologists have excavated only a few rural sites in detail, revealing some of the complex human-animal relationships in these kinds of contexts at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards. Outstanding examples include the projects of Elizabeth M. Brumfiel (2005) at Xaltocan, Raúl Ávila López (2006) at Mexicaltzingo, and Mary G. Hodge at Chalco, which focus on these modest settlements located at opposite ends of the Basin's lake system.