This mural was discovered in the 1940s during excavations of the ancient Mesoamerican city of Teotihuacan, located in what’s now Mexico.
Painted sometime between 700 BCE and 100 BCE, this beautifully preserved painting in the Tetitla compound depicts the Great Goddess of Teotihuacan. This and surrounding compounds, which housed high-ranking members of Teotihuacan society, are full of cultural treasures.
Thought to be a goddess of the underworld, historians still aren’t sure what the “Spider Woman’s” significance was to the ancient peoples of Teotihuacan. She’s not found outside the area, and “she” was only classified as a feminine deity in the 1970s.