Researchers of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) discovered basalt slabs, corresponding to an open space of the Palace of Axayàcatl , home of Hernán Cortés since he arrived at Tenochtitlan in 1519 until June 1520, as well as vestiges of the house of the Spanish colonizer, that was then the first New Spain’s city hall.
The discoveries were made under the Nacional Monte de Piedad, next to the Metropolitan Cathedral, in downtown Mexico City , because as historical sources mentiond, that place was known as Old Houses of Axayàcatl, who was Tenochtitlàn’s tlatoani between 1469 and 1481.
The discoveries were part of the works of the Urban Archeology Program (PAU), led by Raúl Barrera Rodríguez and his co-worker José María García Guerrero, that are taking place in this site along with rehabilitation works for the Nacional Monte de Piedad’s facilities.
“The excavations resulted in the finding of basalt slabs floors, which must have been part of the open space of the Palace of Axayácatl, the governor who led the destiny of Tenochtitlan from 1469 to 1481,” said the INAH in a statement.
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Nevertheless, it was not the only discovery, for archeologists also found the remains of a house from the early viceregal period (1521-1620) that was inhabited by Hernán Cortés and that was the first city hall in New Spain near 1525.
Raúl Barrera and José María García explained that they dug 12 boreholes of 2 meters long and 1.5 meters deep around the main patio of the Nacional Monte de Piedad, in the place where workers are reinforcing the columns that give support to the building’s first floor.
Through the boreholes, in the northern, eastern, and western sides, they located the remains of walls made of stone and mortar – of 1.50 meters tall and 1.25 meters wide – which was the basement for a series of columns of the property constructed near 1755, which suggest that central patio was originally larger.
Moreover, in the western are of the same space, they found the floor plans: bases and a shaft from the nascent Viceregal period.
In the next room, the PAU archeologists dug and located the remains of a room made with blocks of basalt and tezontle, whose floor plan went from a basalt slab floor. Further analysis allowed to conclude that this was Hernàn Cortés' home after the fall of Mexico-Tenochtitlan in 1521.
Underneath Cortés’s house, over three meters deep, they detected the remains of another basalt slabs floor but from the pre-Hispanic period. Due to its characteristics, the experts believe it was part of an open space of the old Palace of Axayàcatl, probably a patio.
Barrera and Garcìa said that the vestiges correspond to materials reused from the Houses of Axayácatl .
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In the colonial chamber, they detected two pre-Hispanic dressed stones with sculptures carved in high relief that represent a feathered serpent (Quetzalcòatl) and a feathers headdress that must have belonged to a panel of the Palace of Axayácatl. They also registered another Aztec sculpture with the glyph that symbolizes the tianguiztli or market.
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