According to archaeologists, Tepoztcatl, the deity of pulque, is most likely represented by the pre-Columbian wall painting of a god wearing a feathered headdress.
The connection between Mexico’s Indigenous people and the Catholic church, which strove to regulate cultural expression after the Spanish conquest in the 16th century, may be better understood in light of a pre-Columbian wall mural that was uncovered in a convent in Tepotzlán.
In a corner chapel at the Ex Convento de la Natividad, the wall mural was discovered by archaeologists earlier this month, according to a report from the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia (INAH). It had been covered in multiple layers of whitewash (the former Convent of the Nativity).
A crimson circle around one meter in diameter makes up the mural. Several pre-Columbian imagery, including an axe, a chimalli or shield, a sprig of flowers, and a feathered hat, or “penacho,” which was customarily worn by an Aztec nobleman, are shown inside the circle.
Penachos have been found in relatively small numbers, and there aren’t many pictures of them on walls because of how delicate the feathers and other organic elements are. The Welt Museum, an anthropological institution in Vienna, Austria, now has the most well-known specimen of the original headgear, the Moctezuma headdress. In 2021, the museum turned down a proposal to loan the object to a show in Mexico.
The discovery at the convent shocked the restoration specialists who had been hired to fix the church’s main building before it was included on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1994. The structure sustained damage as a result of the series of earthquakes and aftershocks that shook Mexico’s central pacific coast in September 2019.
While its importance has not yet been conclusively determined, scholars assume that the corner chapels, known as “capillas posas” (posing chapels), were constructed to house a priest and his accouterments during services intended to hasten the mass conversion of Indigenous people to Christianity. There are now just three corner chapels standing at the location, none of which are in especially excellent shape. Only one of these chapels has been identified to include the circle with the pre-Columbian symbols.
Every year, the neighborhood still conducts a pilgrimage to the nearby mountain that is home to the archaeological site El Tepozteco, which features a temple dedicated to Tepoztcatl, the Aztec god of the alcoholic beverage pulque, who was worshipped by the Nahuatl-speaking Aztecs who lived in the region and likely provided the majority of the labor force for the convent’s construction.
The monastery was built for a Dominican order between 1555 and 1580, and restoration workers were aware of symbols of a similar size on a neighboring wall from the same time period. However, they noticed that all of those markings were unmistakably Christian and linked with the Virgin Mary. In a statement, INAH said that it’s conceivable the latest discovery had anything to do with Tepoztécatl.
The artwork was discovered by restorers when they were scraping a layer of limestone whitewash off the walls of one of four tiny buildings placed at each corner of the convent’s outside courtyard, according to Frida Mateos Gonzalez, the project coordinator.
Despite keeping a lookout for anything out of the ordinary, she adds, “it was an unbelievable surprise since it was not anything we expected to see.” It was an extremely delicate job since we had to carefully peel each layer to avoid removing paint.
“We will be looking at the other chapels and areas of the complex as soon as we can,” she continues, “but this is a very lengthy process, and I can’t estimate how long it will take.”
The chapel is not open to the public right now. Mateos Gonzalez also exclusively disclosed that investigation into the origin of the pigment will start right away and that traces of a different color, yellow, had also recently been discovered on a wall at the convent.