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Primary sourceArtifact

Stone Sacrificial Chest of Moctezuma II

A carved stone box bearing Moctezuma II's royal name glyph, commissioned by the emperor himself.

This stone chest was commissioned by Moctezuma II and carries his own royal name glyph.

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A grey-green stone chest with a lid resting slightly offset on top of a rectangular base. The side of the base has a carved relief of figures and glyph-like motifs. The chest sits on a dark display base in a museum case, with other objects blurred in the background.
Stone sacrificial chest (tepetlacalli) of Moctezuma II. Museum am Rothenbaum, Hamburg.

About this source

What it is

This is a lidded stone chest, called a tepetlacalli, carved with the royal name glyph of Moctezuma II. It is held today by the Museum am Rothenbaum in Hamburg.

Why it matters

Very few surviving objects carry Moctezuma II's own name sign, making this chest a rare direct link to his reign. Stone boxes like this were used in ritual contexts, showing how Aztec rulers combined political power with religious authority.

Look closer

  • What details on the box might tell you it belonged to a ruler rather than an ordinary person?
  • Why might a name glyph be carved into a stone object meant to last?
  • What questions can't this object answer about how it was used?

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.

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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)

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