MEXICO: A relief depicting a golden eagle emerged from excavations near the base of the Templo Mayor in the ancient Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. The ornate 15th-century carving once decorated the floor of a plaza below the city’s most important religious structure, which was dedicated to the worship of the gods Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc. For the Aztecs, golden eagles were sacred creatures that had a particularly close association with Huitzilopochtli, the god of the sun and war.