Skip to main content

Primary sourceArtifact1503

Stone of the Five Suns, Coronation Stone of Motecuhzoma II

1503

A carved stone dated 1503 and linked to the coronation of Moctezuma II, now in the Art Institute of Chicago.

This stone is identified as the coronation stone made for Moctezuma II's accession to power in 1503.

Ask Montezuma II about this sourceView the original(opens in new tab)
Photograph of a carved grey volcanic stone slab with raised relief designs: a central sun-disc with radiating motifs, serpent and jaguar heads at the corners and sides, and a framed panel at the bottom with a feathered element.
Coronation Stone of Motecuhzoma II, 1503. Art Institute of Chicago. Photograph by Sailko, 2016.

About this source

What it is

This is a carved grey volcanic stone slab with a central sun-disc design, serpent and jaguar heads, and a framed panel. It is dated to 1503 and identified as the coronation stone of Motecuhzoma II (Moctezuma II). It is held in the Art Institute of Chicago as part of its pre-Columbian art collection.

Why it matters

Stones like this were carved to mark major events in the lives of Mexica rulers, such as a coronation. Its imagery of suns, serpents, and jaguars connects Moctezuma II's rule to Mexica religious and calendar traditions, showing how political power was tied to cosmology and ritual.

Look closer

  • What might the sun-disc and animal heads have meant to people who saw this stone in 1503?
  • Why would a new ruler want a stone like this carved at the time of his coronation?
  • What does the survival of this stone in a museum collection today tell us about how such objects traveled from Mexico?

This artifact is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Montezuma II on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

More Montezuma II sources

Meet the AI Montezuma II →
A painted page from a colonial Mexican manuscript with a blue-green border column of glyphs on the left. Rows of hilltop place-sign glyphs with Nahuatl labels and small pictorial symbols such as a seated figure, a bird, a shield with arrows, and plants, arranged on pale paper with a footer of writing at the bottom.Document

Secondary source

Codex Mendoza, Folio 15v

Unknown author · 16th century

Black-and-white lithograph titled 'Prision de Motezuma' showing Spanish armored soldiers with helmets and halberds on the left facing a group of Aztec-style figures in feathered headdresses on the right, including a central man in a feathered crown and cloak. A large draped canopy and stone columns frame the scene; a shield lies in the lower right. Printed credits read 'J. Serra lit.', 'Lit. Vidal, Olmo 29' and 'Riera, Editor Barcelona'.Painting

Secondary source

Prisión del emperador Moctezuma

Rafael del Castillo de la Cuesta · 1880

Open bound manuscript on a green cloth, showing two pages of handwritten text in columns with small painted illustrations of fish, a shell, a crab, and shrimp. Page headed 'Libro undecimo'.Book

Secondary source

Florentine Codex

Bernardino de Sahagún with Nahua collaborators · 1569

Painting showing Hernán Cortés seizing Moctezuma, a later imagined depiction of the event.Painting

Secondary source

Hernán Cortés takes Moctezuma prisoner

Louis Auguste Turgis · 1895

Woodcut title page of a 1522 Spanish printed letter. A seated, crowned figure holds a scepter in an arched room with checkered floor, flanked by a city scene and a landscape. Below is black-letter Spanish text beginning 'Carta de relación enviada a su S. majestad del emperador nuestro señor por el capitán general de la nueva España, llamado Fernando Cortés', with a handwritten signature at the bottom.Letter

Primary source

Second Letter to Charles V

Hernán Cortés · 1520 (printed 1522)

Ready when you are

Start chatting with Montezuma II now.

20 messages free · No credit card · Available in 50+ languages.

Trial Humy for freeGet a quote for institutions