1. Teacher’s Sheet
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY – MEXICO CITY
PRE-VIEWING
Read the text below and answer the questions that follow it.
WHAT WAS TENOCHTITLAN?
Tenochtitlan was a city state located on an island in Lake Texcoco in the
Valley of Mexico. Founded in 1325, it was the capital of the growing Aztec
empire in the 15th century until its defeat in 1521. Today ancient Tenochtitlan
is known as Mexico City.
The city fell on August 13, 1521. According to the chronicler Alva Ixtlilxóchitl,
“Almost all the Aztec nobility died, the only survivors being a few lords and
gentlemen, mostly children or extremely young people.” Cuauhtémoc, the last
emperor, was taken prisoner and kept alive for a time. Then he was executed
on the pretext of a plot. The Aztec empire had collapsed and Tenochtitlan was
gone. Cortés set out to rebuild the capital and continue the conquest. A year
later he became governor and captain-general of New Spain.
After the Spanish conquest and the subsequent building programs they
instituted, most of the great city of Tenochtitlan remained buried until the year
1790, when excavation for water pipes uncovered two Aztec sculptures, the
Sun Stone and the Statue of Coatlicue or the mother goddess.
Today, the ruins of Tenochtitlan are a very popular attraction, located under
the present day Mexico City. After nearly five hundred years, little has been

2. found of Tenochtitlan, though excavation continues in hopes that more will be
uncovered.
Adapted from: http://quezi.com/4953
QUESTIONS
1. What was the name of the capital of the Aztec Empire?
2. For how long did this Empire exist?
3. Why was the last emperor of the Aztec Empire executed?
4. What happened to Tenochtitlan after the Spanish conquest?
5. Has all Tenochtitlan been uncovered?
WHILE VIEWING A
“Coatlicue” was an Aztec goddess. Watch the video and pay attention to why
“Coatlicue” is a fascinating piece of work.
WHILE VIEWING B (ANSWER KEY)
Watch the video and fill in the blanks with the words you hear in the
description of “Coatlicue”.
MEXICO CITY MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY
Mexico City’s Museum of Anthropology is considered one of the best of its
kind in the world. It houses archeological treasures charting Mexican culture
from pre-historical times right through to Modern indigenous life.
This is the most fascinating piece of work for me at the Museum. It’s called
Coatlicue, which means “Skirt of Serpents” and it’s the “Goddess of Earth”,
and actually what she has for a head, because here, right here in the skin of a
serpent there is a square and a little circle inside, which is the Aztec symbol
for blood. So, what she actually has as a head is two great spurts of blood that
go all the way around, making two heads, two serpent heads. They come out
of her neck.
That’s right. And they’re like kissing each other and you can see the teeth and
the tongue that goes next to the mouth of the Goddess and on the breast she
has a collar with hands and hearts and then, all the way around she has the
serpent skirt. She’s pinned it on her back with another skull, and also her
shoulders are serpent faces. And that center over there is actually the center
of Tenochtitlan, which is the same as this one.
And is this what this Okolo is today?

3. It’s the same place. It’s just like…..they put the pyramids down and destroyed
everything.
So the colonialists destroyed all these buildings.
And put the churches over them.
But what priests did in order to perform the human sacrifices is to
……well….kill the person and then they took the skin of the person out with
her and everything and the priest put the skin over him and then he took the
beating heart and … in one of these, the heart also beating……..
Like, in this?
In this rock.
This rock saw many beating hearts.
That’s right.
WHILE VIEWING C
Watch the video again and check your answers.
POST-VIEWING
Look at the sculpture of “Coatlicue” and use the vocabulary in the box below to
write a paragraph describing it.

4. snake woman circle
teeth tongue skirt
hands mouth face
square blood goddess
human heads feet serpents
claws necklace breasts
shoulders skull
“Coatlicue” is represented as a woman wearing……….