Scarce rain, excessive rain, inopportune rain… These three phenomena were the nightmares to all ancient societies who based their lives on dry farmed crops, without the use of irrigation. Thus, the peoples of Mesoamerica welcomed rainfall only when it was received in adequate quantities and at precise moments. If both elements –amount and time— did not occur in the proper combination, the consequences could be devastating and culminate in tragic famines, mortalities, or migrations.
The often unforeseeable character of rainfall was a hallmark of Mesoamerican religions. Throughout time the peoples of ancient Mexico have had an obsession about controlling rainfall by means of invoking supernatural forces. This is very clear in the Aztec 365-day calendar: nine of its 18 twenty-day months, were dedicated to the cult of the rain and fertility deities. In these months, most of the prayers, offerings, and child sacrifices were addressed to Tlaloc, the Rain God, and to his tiny assistants, named tlaloque. Tlaloc was also normally invoked as Tlamacazqui, “The Giver”, because he provided everything required for plant germination. This cherished god sent rains and currents of water from Tlalocan, the place of fog, of infinite abundance and of everything green.
During the XVth and XVIth centuries, the most impressive propitiatory rituals addressed to the rain gods took place at the Tenochtitlan’s Great Temple. The inhabitants of this imperial capital conceived their main pyramid as a representation of Tlaloc’s mythical mountain, hollow, and full of water and riches. In fact, several decorative elements of this impressive architectural monument, such as blue mural paintings, sculptures of Tlaloc, serpents, frogs, whirlpools, and protruding stones, recall that mountain. Each time the Great Temple was enlarged, the architects were careful to repeat the previous structure and, in this way, reproduced the Mountain of Tlaloc.
A formal resemblance, however, was not the only requisite for becoming a sacred place. When this pyramid was dedicated, the Aztecs were obliged to perform certain rituals that repeated the mythical acts of the rain gods for the purpose of guaranteeing the temple’s reality and permanence. Because of this, I will describe in this presentation two complexes of buried offerings excavated by the Great Temple Project in downtown Mexico City. These offerings are the material vestiges of ceremonies that, through a mechanism of sympathetic magic, attempted to imitate a sacred mountain and re-enact the primordial actions of the gods. The ten offerings I will analyze here were propitiatory methods to generate clouds, rain, and, consequently, the earth’s fertility.

降雨不足、降雨频繁、不合时机的降水——这三种自然现象对于所有依赖于不需灌溉的旱作谷物的古代社会经常构成威胁。中部美洲的先民遇上不合时宜的降雨时无可避免地经常要面对饥荒、迁徙以及死亡。因此，中部美洲文明的宗教多与无法预测的降雨有着密切的关系。历史以来很多的古代墨西哥文明都有着控制雨量的执着, 经常呼唤神灵为祈求减少雨灾和旱灾的发生。一个比较显著的例子为阿兹特克太阳历。太阳历把某一些月份都奉献给雨神和丰收神灵的崇拜。大部分的祷告、祭品和小孩殉葬都为供给特拉洛克（阿兹特克的雨神）和他的助手。于15和16世纪时，最大型和堂皇的奉献给特拉洛克的雨祭仪式一般于特诺奇提特兰大神殿举行。本报告将讨论两个于墨西哥市中心的大神殿发掘项目中出土的供奉堆积。堆积内的祭品为一种交感巫术祭祀仪式的遗存。仪式主要模仿和重演神灵传说的情节。本报告讨论的十件祭品为阿兹特克人祈求特拉洛克去创造云和雨从而令土地肥沃所供奉的礼物。

Leonardo López Luján is a Mexican archaeologist and the current director of the Templo Mayor project of National Institute of Anthropology and History. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Archaeology from Mexico’s National School of Anthropology and History and a doctorate from France’s Université de Paris Ouest. He specializes in the politics, religion, and art of Pre-Columbian urban societies in Central Mexico. Throughout his academic life, he has held many prestigious offices with the various Mexican Academies and has served as a visiting professor at Université de Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Sapienza-Università di Roma, École pratique des hautes études in Paris, and the Francisco Marroquín University of Guatemala. He has been a guest researcher at such institutions as Princeton, the Musée de l’Homme, Dumbarton Oaks, and the Institut d’études avancées de Paris. Since 1988, he has been a full-time researcher at INAH. In 2013, he was elected correspondent member of the British Academy and honorary member of the Society of Antiquaries of London for his contributions in Mesoamerican studies. He received the 2015 Shanghai Forum Archaeology Award as the director of one of the ten best archaeological research programs in the world.

李奥那多‧洛佩斯‧卢汉是一位墨西哥考古学家，现担任墨西哥国家人类学与历史研究机构Templo Mayor大神殿项目的主任。洛佩斯‧卢汉于墨西哥国家人类学与历史研究机构取得学士学位并于法国巴黎第十大学取得博士学位。主要研究方向为墨西哥中部前哥伦布时期城市社会的政治、宗教和艺术。洛佩斯‧卢汉曾担任多个墨西哥学府的荣誉职位，亦曾于巴黎、意大利、美国和危地马拉等地多个学府担任客籍教授及客籍研究员。1988年开始成为墨西哥国家人类学和历史学研究所(INAH)的全职研究员。2013被选为英国国家学术院的通讯成员以及伦敦文物学会的荣誉会员。洛佩斯‧卢汉亦于2015年上海世界考古论坛荣获世界十大考古研究项目之一的负责人。