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Eduardo Matos Moctezuma rose to the top of archaeological achievements in Mexico when he directed (1978–2001) the massive, multidisciplinary Templo Mayor Project, which is excavating the Great Temple of the Mexica island capital of Tenochtitlan, next to the Metropolitan Cathedral and the Zócalo, Mexico City’s famous central plaza. His extraordinary ability to build a team of archaeologists, historians, physical anthropologists, art historians, biologists, botanists, restorers, and other specialists has resulted in many stunning discoveries, productive symposia, and celebrated publications.
In addition to directing the excavation of the Templo Mayor, Matos has also worked at Comalcalco, Bonampak, Tepeapulco, Coacalco, Tlatelolco, Cholula, Teotihuacan, and Tula, and has served as president of the Archaeology Council, director of Pre-Hispanic Monuments, director of the Center for Research and Advanced Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS), and director of the National Museum of Anthropology (MNA), among other important positions in Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). He holds advanced degrees from the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH) and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), as well as an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Colorado.
He has participated in more than a thousand conferences in Mexico and throughout the world, and has received several major honors and awards, including Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques (Knight in the Order of Academic Palms), Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite (Knight of the National Order of Merit), and Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters) from the French government, the Andrés Bello Order from Venezuela, the Benito Juárez Medal from the Mexican Society of Geography and Statistics, the inaugural H. B. Nicholson Award for Excellence in Mesoamerican Studies (2002) from Harvard University, the National Science and Arts Prize (2007), and prestigious memberships in the German Archaeological Institute, the Archaeological Institute of America, the London Society of Antiquaries, and the Mexican Academy of History. In 2017, Harvard launched a five-year Eduardo Matos Moctezuma Lecture Series to honor him and to present the latest scholarship about Mexican history and culture to the University community and the wider public.
Matos has published more than five hundred articles, exhibition catalogues, and monographs, including Muerte a filo de obsidiana: Los nahuas frente a la muerte (Death by Obsidian Blade: Nahuas Facing Death, 1975), The Aztecs (1989), Teotihuacan, the City of the Gods (1990), Life and Death in the Templo Mayor (1995), Breaking through Mexico’s Past: Digging the Aztecs with Eduardo Matos Moctezuma (with Davíd Carrasco and Leonardo López Luján, 2007), and Mexica Monumental Sculpture (with Leonardo López Luján, 2009), leading to his election to Mexico’s Colegio Nacional, the equivalent of being named a national treasure. From 1979 to the present, he has worked with Davíd Carrasco in setting the research and publishing agenda of what has become the Moses Mesoamerican Archive and Research Project (MMARP).