Artefacts of the Aztecs/ancient Mexicans

Here are some carefully researched and richly illustrated story features on individual artefacts that were central to Aztec life - more on their way...!

PLUS: mini-features on intriguing artefacts (mostly in museums) we think you may find interesting... AND: check out our artefact study pages, each linked to a downloadable activity sheet (see menu, right).

‘Artefacts in the Spotlight’ Archive

‘Artefact of the Week’ Archive

Learn about Aztec furniture...

Our entry on the ‘double-headed serpent’

If you want to see a gallery of conch/shell artefacts from different parts of Mesoamerica...

The chimalli: one of the most emblematic

weapons in the history of Mesoamerica

The story behind the famous monkey

shaped obsidian jar from Texcoco...

Under the day sign One Death

Aztec slaves were released from their collars

A Mexican community rediscovers its cultural heritage in education,

history, archaeology and campaigning...

Coatlicue - the epitome

of Mexica/Aztec art...

Could this be the eighth known piece

of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican featherwork?

Guess how many feathers went

into making this famous Aztec shield?

Europe has many Mesoamerican objects

that were victims of ‘mistaken identity’...

‘The primary association of a chair

is with power....’

The Templo Mayor Museum has a rare example

of a Mexica priest’s waistcoat...

The Dumbarton Oaks ‘Aztec’ Birthing Figure

is striking, powerful, and entirely unparalleled

A stone Aztec jaguar head still lurks

just 7 blocks from the Zócalo...

You will never guess what some children

think a molinillo is for...!

Aztec pine torches gave plenty of

rich aroma as well as light!

See and Be Seen - the meaning of

‘smoking’ obsidian mirrors

An Aztec thief just had to ‘lift the lid’

of the family treasure chest

The ‘personified knives’ from Ofrenda 125

of the sacred precinct of Tenochtitlan

The V&A Museum has, stored away, a mysterious

‘monster’ metate which we’ve been allowed to see

In ancient Mexico the oldest clay stamps

were hand modelled...

The famous atlatl dart-thrower

was a truly ancient hunting weapon

Every Mexica family owned something ceramic

- what a lotta pottery!

Rulers were said to carry

a heavy LOAD of responsibility...

The best stone sauce bowls

take generations to ‘season’

The reed mat ‘petate’ -

- you could bet your life on it...

Symbol of a good Aztec citizen?

The upright digging stick

Getting to the hearth of the matter

- at the very centre of Aztec life

Did the ancient Mexicans invent

high-chairs for meal times?

We share in schools the Aztecs’ joy of carrying

the most precious artefact of all - a young baby...

Maquahuitl

- the Aztecs’ Broadsword

The Aztec Uictli

was in some contexts a sacred instrument

Strictly ‘tzictli’ - sticky chicle!

Nip up a gum tree and discover the original Aztec recipe...

¡Viva el Chicozapote!

Up the Chewing Gum Tree!

As well as chewing chicle latex

ancient peoples used it to seal and stick

Chimalli

Aztec shields - status symbols par excellence

Teponaztli

The ‘Queen’ of Aztec sacred drums ...

Metate

One of the most ancient of Aztec artefacts

Sun moon

Venus -

U-tube - a great source of music...

...for over 800 years!

An obsidian ‘microphone’

- basic kit for Aztec DJs!

Did these figures represent

multi-ethnic ancient Mexico?

Did the ancient Mexicans

play marbles, or jacks?

Artefact in the Spotlight

Cihuateotl ceramic sculpture from Central Veracruz (Río Blanco-Papaloapan culture), c. 600-900 CE, height 1.4 metres, Xalapa Museum of Anthropology, Mexico.

This sculpture represents a woman who died in childbirth and who wears a belt and earhoops. This piece still retains its original colour. Life-size sculptures of women are a typical feature of the cultures of Central Veracruz. The one we see here, naked from the waist up, wears a necklace of shells forming a bicephalous [double-headed] blue serpent and a tangle with parallel stripes tied to a bundle of shells, and over this, a blue cord knotted at the front. The tangle is white and has a red circle painted on it. The woman wears, in addition, earhoops and bracelets of shells. This female individual, dead upon giving birth, has her mouth open and eyes closed, symbols of a death that not only deified her but also gave her the right to accompany the Sun, which may be represented by the red circle painted on the woman’s skirt.

From Xalapa Museum of Anthropology - a Guided Tour, text by Rubén Morante López, Gobierno del Estado de Veracruz/Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, 2004, p. 146.

Photo by Karel Baresh/Mexicolore.