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Templo Mayor Museum to show a
color replica of Goddess Coyolxauhqui
Notimex/JOT - El Financiero – April, 2008
 Lunar Goddess will be exhibited starting April.
An exact color replica of the monolith can be admired starting April within the temporary exhibit "Coyolxauhqui y el Templo Mayor: 30 años reconstruyendo el pasado" (Coyolxauhqui and the Main Temple: 30 years rebuilding the past).
The idea of "coloring" and showing a replica of this Goddess, offers us the possibility of imagining the scenery and magnificence pre-Hispanic buildings had in their time, according to researchers Lourdes Cué and Fernando Carrizosa.
According to a study by the researchers on the diverse original colors of the monolith, clues arising from the launching of the Main Temple Project have shed light on the colors this space originally had.
The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) informed that these experts’ project started in 2007 and will continue during the present year supported by optical instruments for special lighting and enlargement. The project has allowed insight into most of the original color spectrum applied to the monolith, visitors will also be able to have their picture taken with it.
Lourdes Cué explained that coloring those few zones whose original colors are still in doubt was based on other types of technologies which will be corroborated with segments from other representations of the Goddess also found in the Main Temple.
According to professor Raúl Arana, who was in charge of the monolith’s rescue, the colors observed were ochre, red, yellow and a little bit of blue and white.
Although colors have faded notably with time, if observed in detail, said Cué on her part, it is possible to detect them with over 80 percent certitude.
Contrasting with the first interpretation of the chromatic spectrum of Coyolxauhqui performed at the end of the 70’s by Dr. Carmen Aguilera; Fernando Carrizosa, archaeologist and expert on colors of murals and sculptures of the Tenochca ceremonial center noted that this second reconstruction stems from the data contained in the monolith itself.
He further emphasized that the scarcity of color in the piece made Dr. Aguilera resort to other written and graphic sources for her initial interpretation, from which other proposals have arisen.
“We do not know how much the iconographic concept of Coyolxauhqui may vary with or without colors, what cannot change is the myth of the birth of God Huitzilipochtli represented there”. What remains true is that after thirty years of research on the Main Temple, no reconstructions can be made stemming from different languages. Codexes, for instance present a much wider range of colors compared to that found physically on sculptures and murals of the Mexica ceremonial center, the archaeologist and the doctor concluded. Email to a friend
Source: www.presidencia.gob.mx/
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