Giant Aztec Snakehead Statue Revealed by an Earthquake in Mexico; Conservation Process Includes Color Preservation

A hidden treasure lurked beneath a law school in modern-day Mexico City. It's a giant, colorful snakehead statue which was unveiled by an earthquake that struck the area last year.

A Rare Archeological Find

On September 19, 2022, a magnitude-7.6 earthquake struck Mexico City, revealing the subsoil of the area. The seismic event also damaged and changed the topography of the site which exposed the bowels of ancient Tenochtitlan. This led to the discovery of an ancient snakehead statue beneath a building of a law school at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

The colossal snake head sculpture measuring 5.9 feet (1.8 meters) long and 2.8 feet (0.8 meter) wide was recovered by personnel from the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Mexico. It was identified outside its original context, but it was found associated with a series of architectural elements. Meanwhile, the conservation work was carried out by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).

According to INAH, the carving is more than 500 years old, and was made during the time when the Aztecs controlled the area which used to be part of the thriving capital of Tenochtitlan. The Aztec civilization built temples and pyramids and worshiped several deities, including Quetzalcoatl who was often depicted as a snake. It is unclear, however, if the sculpture depicts this snake god.

Impressive Color Restoration

The Mexica snakehead presents the greatest vestiges of color, preserving about 80% of the polychrome on its surface. What makes this statue more peculiar is the fact that the mixtures of mud and water which covered it for almost half a millennium also enabled its stucco to be preserved along with traces of white, black, blue, and red colors.

To keep the colors preserved, the INAH team lifted the 1.3-ton (1.2 metric tons) snakehead sculpture out of the ground with a crane and constructed a humidity chamber around it. This chamber enables the sculpture to gradually lose humidity while preserving its colors.

Other snakehead carvings have been discovered at Tenochtitlan, but this one is particularly important due to its preserved colors, according to archeologist Erika Robles Cortés.

Experts were able to stabilize the colors for its preservation in almost all the sculpture, thanks to the context in which the carving was found as well as the remarkable intervention of the restorers-conservators. Its color preservation is extremely important because the hues help the researchers conceive pre-Hispanic art from a different perspective.

As described by professor Frances Berdan from California State University, the sheer size and artistry of the sculpture is impressive, but the survival of the colors is remarkable. The survival of white, black, blue, red, and yellow paint is particularly interesting because they give a visual impact of the statues they were arrayed about the city center.

Humanities associate professor Bertrand Lobjois from the University of Monterrey in Mexico praised the conservation work which allowed the colors to survive. The conservation process enabled them to appreciate the naturalistic approach of figuration, he noted.