Aztec Artifacts

The Aztec civilization is one listed among the greats. They completed massive architectural structures, operated under well designed social systems, and displayed unique artistry in all aspects of their culture. This art can be seen today in the artifacts historians have found from a time past but not forgotten. The most common and well intact artifacts remaining today are those made of the more durable materials of the time such as stone and shell.

Figure 1 is a statue of the Aztec goddess Coatlicue taken at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. The photo was taken from the Ancient History Encyclopedia website. https://www.ancient.eu/Aztec_Art/.

Above is a stone statue of the Aztec goddess Coatlicue. Coatlicue has two serpent heads coming together to form one full face, a necklace made of human remains, a skirt made of snakes, and she possesses clawed hands and feet.

Who is Coatlicue?

Coatlicue is one of the most monumental of deities in Aztec theology being the Aztec earth-mother and oversees earth worship, childbirth, warfare, governance, and agriculture (Cartwright, Coatlicue 2013). She is also considered to be the embodiment of the divine famine; partner to the divine male entity Ometeot (Cartwright, Coatlicue 2013). The word Coatlicue appropriately means “Serpent Skirt” as the goddess Coatlicue herself wears a skit made of serpents as her primary article of clothing (Cartwright, Aztec Art 2014).

How was Coatlicue worshiped?

Coatlicue was worshiped through the sacrificial ceremony. A member of the Aztec society would impersonate the goddess and then be killed in her name (Cartwright, Coatlicue 2013). It was believed that those who were sacrificed to Coatlicue would earn their place in her necklace in the afterlife.

Ceremonial human sacrifice was a large part of Aztec culture and society (Strayer and Nelson 2016, 525) Sacrifice ceremonies were often conducted to please the gods. hoping that they would create favorable circumstances by replenishing the earth’s energy (Strayer and Nelson 2016, 525). Beautifully designed tools were used for these ceremonies and held with profound respect.

Figure 2 “[is an] Aztec ceremonial knife with a cedarwood handle and flint blade. The figure of the handle is covered in turquoise and shell mosaic and represents an Aztec Eagle knight. 1400–1521 CE.” (British Museum, London) (Cartwright, Aztec Ceremonial Knife 2014). The photo was taken from the Ancient History Encyclopedia website. https://www.ancient.eu/Aztec_Art/.

Figure 3 is an Aztec ceremonial knife. The photo was taken from word online picture search “Aztec Ceremonial Knife”, Author Unknown.

These knives have a flint blade attached to a carved cedar wood handle adorned with a colored mosaic pattern (Cartwright, Aztec Ceremonial Knife 2014). The handles are carved as creatures with distinguishable faces. The knife is bound and held together with Protium resin and a cord made of agave fibers (Cartwright, Aztec Ceremonial Knife 2014).

What are the carved figures on the handles?

These diligently hand-crafted tools are designed to look like the elite eagle-warriors of Aztec military forces who, according to Aztec philosophy, were bestowed the task of feeding the earth with the blood of human sacrifices (Cartwright, Aztec Ceremonial Knife 2014).

How are the details made to be so colorful?

Craftsmen spent ample time on the mosaic patterns used to detail the knife's base. They worked with many different materials to add blue, yellow, red, and green colors to adorn the carved warriors. These materials include turquoise, malachite, conch shell, oyster shell, pearl, and other various colored shell pieces (Cartwright, Aztec Ceremonial Knife 2014). The craftsmen men attached these pieces using pine and copal (Cartwright, Aztec Ceremonial Knife 2014).

These artifacts show a simple look at the art, technology, and cultural practice during the time of Aztec society and show the artistic and intellectual side of a culture with very violent practices.

Figure 6 is the Aztec Sun Stone located at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.

Above is the Aztec Sun Stone also referred to as the calendar stone. This massive “eleven foot in diameter, three-foot-thick, and 25-ton basalt stone” is not a calendar at all. It was used to depict the suns of the time.

What was the purpose of this carved stone?

The Sun Stone depicted the current sun and the fifth sun which would be the final sun, meaning the end of that rule. This mechanism is divided into four distinct eras, or suns: Jaguar, Wind, Rain, and Water (Villela,2010). Each era, or sun, is used to describe the past, up until the present, each era ending with some type of calamity, such as monsters, flooding, etc. (Villela, 2010). Its original location was in the center of the capital city of the Aztec Empire: Tenochtitlánas and was meant to serve the purpose of showing that Tenochtitlan was the center of the world (K. Mills)(New Interpretation For Aztec Sun Stone Shows It Is A Named Portrait — UT News, 2018). The stone represented the religious thoughts of Aztec society, served as a record of the past, was a political symbol.

Though the Aztecs practice rituals that modern civilizations would challenge as barbaric, they were far more than savages who sacrificed their people to deities. From the artifacts we have today, we can look back and see a very diverse culture present in an anceitn civilization.

Works Cited

Cartwright, Mark. 2014. “Aztec Art.” Ancient History Encyclopedia. https://www.ancient.eu/Aztec_Art/.

Cartwright, Mark. 2014. “Aztec Ceremonial Knife.” Ancient History Encyclopedia. https://www.ancient.eu/article/650/aztec-ceremonial-knife/.

Cartwright, Mark. 2013. “Coatlicue.” Ancient History Encyclopedia. https://www.ancient.eu/Coatlicue/.

Cartwright, Mark. 2013. “Sun Stone.” Ancient History Encyclopedia. https://www.ancient.eu/Aztec_Art/.

K. Mills, W. B. Taylor & S. L. Graham (eds), Colonial Latin America: A Documentary History, ‘The Aztec Stone of the Five Eras’, pp. 25–6

“Museo Nacional De Antropología | Sala En Reestructuración”. 2018. Mna.Inah.Gob.Mx. Accessed December 9. http://mna.inah.gob.mx/sala_reestructuracion.php?ids=1.

“New Interpretation For Aztec Sun Stone Shows It Is A Named Portrait — UT News”. 2018. UT News. https://news.utexas.edu/2018/02/22/new-interpretation-for-aztec-sun-stone-shows-it-is-a-named-p/.

Strayer, Robert W, and Eric W Nelson. 2016. Ways of the World a Brief Global History With Sources. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

“Tenochtitlán, 1521”. 2017. Wdl.Org. https://www.wdl.org/en/item/503/#additional_subjects=Aztecs.

“The Splendid Narrative Of Ferdinand Cortes About The New Spain Of The Sea And Ocean Transmitted To The Most Sacred And Invincible, Always August Charles Emperor Of The Romans, King Of The Spaniards In The Year Of The Lord 1520: In Which Is Contained Many Things Worthy Of Knowledge And Admiration About The Excellent Cities Of Their Provinces…Above All About The Famous City Temixtitan And Its Diverse Wonders, Which Will Wondrously Please The Reader”. 2015. Wdl.Org. https://www.wdl.org/en/item/2831/#additional_subjects=Aztecs.

Villela, Khristaan; Michel Graulich (2010). “The Stone of the Sun”. The Aztec Calendar Stone. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute. p. 258.