The use of mirrors in Mesoamerican culture was associated with the idea that they served as portals to a realm that could be seen but not interacted with.
[Fitzsimmons 2009, pp.96–97.] Mirrors in
pre-Columbian
In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. W ...
were fashioned from stone and served a number of uses, from the decorative to the
divinatory
Divination (from Latin ''divinare'', 'to foresee, to foretell, to predict, to prophesy') is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual. Used in various forms throughout histor ...
.
[Miller and Taube 1993, 2003, p.114.] An ancient tradition among many Mesoamerican cultures was the practice of divination using the surface of a bowl of water as a mirror. At the time of the
Spanish conquest
The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its predece ...
this form of divination was still practiced among the
Maya
Maya may refer to:
Civilizations
* Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America
** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples
** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples
* Maya (Ethiopia), a populat ...
,
Aztecs
The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those g ...
and
Purépecha
The Purépecha (endonym pua, P'urhepecha ) are a group of indigenous people centered in the northwestern region of Michoacán, Mexico, mainly in the area of the cities of Cherán and Pátzcuaro.
They are also known by the pejorative "Tarascan ...
.
In Mesoamerican art, mirrors are frequently associated with pools of liquid; this liquid was likely to have been water.
[Healy and Blainey 2011, p.241.][Healy and Blainey speculate that this liquid may have been ]mercury
Mercury commonly refers to:
* Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun
* Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg
* Mercury (mythology), a Roman god
Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to:
Companies
* Merc ...
. Quantities of liquid mercury ranging from have been recovered from elite tombs or ritual caches at six Maya sites. Healy and Blainey 2011, p.241.
Early mirrors were fashioned from single pieces of iron ore, polished to produce a highly reflective surface. By the Classic period, mosaic mirrors were being produced from a variety of ores, allowing for the construction of larger mirrors. Mosaic pyrite mirrors were crafted across large parts of Mesoamerica in the Classic period, particularly at Teotihuacan and throughout the Maya region. Pyrite degrades with time to leave little more than a stain on the mirror back by the time it is excavated. This has led to the frequent misidentification of pyrite mirror backs as paint palettes, painted discs or pot lids. By the Postclassic period
obsidian
Obsidian () is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock.
Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements s ...
mirrors became increasingly common.
Function and symbolism of mirrors in Mesoamerica
Far from being a personal cosmetic accessory, mirrors in Mesoamerica were divinatory aids and also formed a part of elite status costume.
Mirrors were viewed as metaphors for sacred
caves
A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...
and as conduits for supernatural forces; they were associated with fiery hearths and pools of water because of their bright surfaces. Mirrors were also closely associated with the sun.
Mirrors were often used in pre-Columbian
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
to reveal a person's destiny through divination.
[Olivier and López Luján 2009, p.91.] Among the Maya of the Classic period mirrors were means of communication with otherworld entities, as depicted in scenes painted on ceramic vessels.
Otherworld mirrors were believed to be the far side of earthly mirrors, and were owned and used by deities and other supernatural beings.
In central Mexico in the Postclassic period, the world was metaphorically conceived as a huge circular mirror.
Fire
Mirrors were associated with fire in Mesoamerica, and representations of mirrors could take the form of flowers and be combined with representations of butterflies. Both butterflies and flowers were associated with fire in central Mexico from the Classic to Postclassic periods, with butterflies representing flames.
The
Olmec
The Olmecs () were the earliest known major Mesoamerican civilization. Following a progressive development in Soconusco, they occupied the tropical lowlands of the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco. It has been speculated that t ...
s of the Preclassic period fashioned concave mirrors that were capable of lighting fires.
Water
Mirrors were also associated with water; an Early Classic mirror in the style of Teotihuacan was excavated at distant
Guácimo area of the
Limón province
Limón (), commonly known as Puerto Limón, is a district, the capital city and main hub of Limón province, as well as of the Limón canton in Costa Rica. It is the seventh largest city in Costa Rica, with a population of over 55,000, and is ho ...
near the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. It included Teotihuacan imagery that was a stylised convention for representing bodies of water.
[Taube 1992, p.189.] Water imagery continued to be associated with mirrors in central Mexico right up to Aztec times. These representations of water-associated mirrors in Mesoamerican art apparently use the mirror to symbolise the surface of a pool of water. During the Classic Period mirrors were placed in bowls to symbolically represent bowls of water; examples are known from Teotihuacan and throughout the Maya area. Water-filled bowls have been used as mirrors for divinatory purposes right up to modern times in Mesoamerica and the
American southwest
The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, N ...
. An incense burner from Early Classic
Escuintla
Escuintla () is an industrial city in Guatemala, its land extension is 4384 km², and it is nationally known for its sugar agribusiness. Its capital is a minicipality with the same name. Citizens celebrate from December 6 to 9 with a small fair i ...
on the Guatemalan Pacific slope combines butterfly and water imagery. The mirror has flanking ears representing the wings of the butterfly that is rising from a water-filled bowl.
Jade
A painted mural from Teotihuacan, now in the
De Young Museum
The de Young Museum, formally the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco, California. Located in Golden Gate Park, it is a component of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, along with the Legion of Honor ...
in San Francisco, has a representation of a mirror containing a glyph representing a piece of
jade
Jade is a mineral used as jewellery or for ornaments. It is typically green, although may be yellow or white. Jade can refer to either of two different silicate minerals: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in the amphibole group of ...
jewellery. Such jade pendants are depicted frequently in Teotihuacan art falling in streams. In the Maya region jade beads were frequently placed alongside mirrors in burials and offerings in the Classic and Postclassic periods. Although jade may have been placed alongside mirrors due to the high value of both to their Mesoamerican owners, it is equally likely that the association of jade with mirrors is due to jade being used in divinatory practices. Like mirrors, jade beads were used for scrying and were invested with supernatural powers.
[Taube 1992, p.177.] Jade also had an association with water.
Eyes and faces
Representations of mirrors in art from Classic period Teotihuacan and Guatemala's Pacific coastal region depict the mirror face using a glyph in the form of a reptile's eye, the meaning of which is not clear.
The ringed eyes of the central Mexican rain god
Tlāloc
Tlaloc ( nci-IPA, Tlāloc, ˈtɬaːlok) is a deity in Aztec religion. The supreme god of the rain, Tlaloc is also a god of earthly fertility and of water. He was widely worshipped as a beneficent giver of life and sustenance, as well as feared f ...
may have represented mirrors from representations at Teotihuacan in the Classic period right through to the Aztecs at the time of Spanish contact. In the , the
Nahuatl
Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...
word is used to refer to both the eye and mirrors. This association also existed among the Maya, the
Tzotzil Maya phrase is used for the pupil or eye and means literally "mirror of the face" or "mirror of the eye". This association of mirrors with eyes may derive from the highly reflective eyes of the
jaguar
The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...
. Mirror stones were used to represent the eyes in sculptures from many Mesoamerican cultures.
Spiders
From the Classic period mirrors began to be associated with spider webs, perhaps due to the network of lines on the surface of mosaic mirrors that developed at that time. Imagery associating mirrors with spiders and their webs is relatively frequently encountered at Teotihuacan.
The association of mirrors with spiders continued right up to the Postclassic and beyond, with a
polished gold Mixtec
The Mixtecs (), or Mixtecos, are indigenous Mesoamerican peoples of Mexico inhabiting the region known as La Mixteca of Oaxaca and Puebla as well as La Montaña Region and Costa Chica Regions of the state of Guerrero. The Mixtec Culture wa ...
mirror back taking the form of a spider. The modern
Huichol
The Huichol or Wixárika are an indigenous people of Mexico and the United States living in the Sierra Madre Occidental range in the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Durango, as well as in the United States in the states of California, ...
still associate mirrors with spider webs.
Sun
Mirrors have been identified with the sun in Mesoamerica since the Preclassic period, when the Olmecs associated the two.
The Maya maintained the same association throughout the Classic period,
and the relationship between mirrors and the sun has persisted into modern times, with the
Sierra Totonac
Sierra Totonac is a native American language complex spoken in Puebla and Veracruz, Mexico. One of the Totonacan languages, it is also known as Highland Totonac. The language is best known through the work of the late Herman “Pedro” Aschmann w ...
of Mexico referring to the sun as ''Espejo Sol'', "Mirror Sun". In the Postclassic period, the turquoise mirrors of the Toltecs and Aztecs represented the sun.
Mirrors in the Maya region
Mirrors have been found in almost every part of the Maya region, mostly in burials and ritual caches. They have been dated to all periods of
Maya civilization
The Maya civilization () of the Mesoamerican people is known by its ancient temples and glyphs. Its Maya script is the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas. It is also noted for its art, archit ...
from the Middle Preclassic (around 600 BC) right up to the Spanish conquest in the early 1520s. They reached the height of their production and use in the Maya highlands during the Early Classic, while most mirrors from the Maya lowlands date to the Late Classic.
Maya mirrors were produced by exceptionally skilled artisans and were highly valued by the Maya elite.
Production was likely to have been so specialised that they were made by high-status artisans dedicated to their manufacture, who may have been members of the aristocracy or even
royalty
Royalty may refer to:
* Any individual monarch, such as a king, queen, emperor, empress, etc.
* Royal family, the immediate family of a king or queen regnant, and sometimes his or her extended family
* Royalty payment for use of such things as int ...
.
[Healy and Blainey 2011, p.231.] Although hundreds of mirrors have been excavated in the Maya area, comparatively few mosaic mirrors have been recovered from lowland Maya sites. Large quantities of mirrors have been recovered from some highland sites, such as
Kaminaljuyu
Kaminaljuyu (pronounced ) is a Pre-Columbian site of the Maya civilization that was primarily occupied from 1500 BC to AD 1200. Kaminaljuyu has been described as one of the greatest of all archaeological sites in the New World by Michael Coe, a ...
and
Nebaj
Nebaj is an archaeological site of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization, located in the western Guatemala highlands near the Ixil village of Santa Maria Nebaj. What is now known as the Fenton Vase was excavated from this site. It is now held in ...
in the
Guatemalan Highlands
The Guatemalan Highlands is an upland region in southern Guatemala, lying between the Sierra Madre de Chiapas to the south and the Petén lowlands to the north.
Description
The highlands are made up of a series of high valleys enclosed by moun ...
.
The high concentration of mirrors in a few highland sites probably indicates centres of production and distribution into the
trade network
Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market.
An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct excha ...
. It is likely that they were manufactured in the highlands and then were traded as finished objects to the Maya lowlands.
Most Maya mirrors were circular with occasional oval and square examples; they range in size from across while their thickness ranged from . It is likely that the outline of Maya mirrors was initially drawn with an instrument like a
compass
A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with ...
since many examples are almost perfectly circular. Most Maya mirrors were backed with
slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
and a few were backed with
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
or
ceramic
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...
, some may have been backed with shell. Most mirror backs were plain but a few bear ornately sculpted designs or
hieroglyphic text. Some mirrors were framed with wood or bone, or a combination of the two, although these materials are poorly preserved in the archaeological record.
[Healy and Blainey 2011, p.230.] Some mirrors bear traces of
stucco
Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...
, which was probably painted, or
cinnabar
Cinnabar (), or cinnabarite (), from the grc, κιννάβαρι (), is the bright scarlet to brick-red form of Mercury sulfide, mercury(II) sulfide (HgS). It is the most common source ore for refining mercury (element), elemental mercury and ...
, a red mineral that is often found in association with elite burials in the Maya area. A mirror with hieroglyphic text on the back was excavated from
Río Azul
Río Azul is an archaeological site of the Pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It is the most important site in the Río Azul National Park in the Petén Department of northern Guatemala, close to the borders of Mexico and Belize. Río Azul is s ...
in the far north of the
Petén Basin
The Petén Basin is a geographical subregion of Mesoamerica, primarily located in northern Guatemala within the Department of El Petén, and into Campeche state in southeastern Mexico.
During the Late Preclassic and Classic periods of pre-Columb ...
of
Guatemala
Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...
. Another mirror from
Petén, found at
Topoxte
Topoxte () (or Topoxté in Spanish orthography) is a pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site in the Petén Basin in northern Guatemala with a long occupational history dating as far back as the Middle Preclassic.Pinto & Noriega 1995, pp.576–7. ...
, has a circular band of text on the back that includes the phrase ''u-nen'', meaning "his mirror".
[Healy and Blainey 2011, pp.230, 233.] Mirrors with Maya
glyph
A glyph () is any kind of purposeful mark. In typography, a glyph is "the specific shape, design, or representation of a character". It is a particular graphical representation, in a particular typeface, of an element of written language. A g ...
s on the back have been found as far away as
Costa Rica
Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...
, more than from the Maya heartland.
Polygonal mirror pieces were glued to the backing with an unknown adhesive; on the whole, the iron ore polygons have not survived and have deteriorated to a rust-like residue coating the backing. In some cases ridged deposits of adhesive outline the shape of the vanished polygonal mosaic pieces.
Mirrors excavated from Maya tombs have been found placed near the head, the chest, the small of the back, the groin and the feet of the deceased. A few were placed on the floor of the tomb at some distance from the human remains.
In
Maya art
Ancient Maya art is the visual arts of the Maya civilization, an eastern and south-eastern Mesoamerican culture made up of a great number of small kingdoms in present-day Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras. Many regional artistic traditions ex ...
, mirrors appear to be depicted as hand-held objects; sometimes they are depicted mounted on stands or held by dwarfs or servants in front of elite Maya individuals.
Advances in the decipherment of Maya script have revealed the central function of mirrors as instruments for ritual
scrying
Scrying, also known by various names such as "seeing" or "peeping", is the practice of looking into a suitable medium in the hope of detecting significant messages or visions. The objective might be personal guidance, prophecy, revelation, or in ...
.
This ritual scrying was the continuation of an ancient divinatory tradition with its ultimate origins in Preclassic
shamanistic
Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...
practices that had been formalised by the
Maya priesthood
Until the discovery that Maya stelae depicted kings instead of high priests, the Maya priesthood and their preoccupations had been a main scholarly concern. In the course of the 1960s and over the following decades, however, dynastic research c ...
. Mirrors were of considerable value within Maya society and their use was restricted to the elite.
History of Mesoamerican mirrors
Preclassic period
The earliest stone mirrors in Mesoamerica pre-date the rise of the Olmec civilization, with examples being dated as far back as the middle of the 2nd millennium BC.
From early in Mesoamerica's history, the use of iron ore mirrors was associated with a hereditary elite class. At
Paso de la Amada Paso de la Amada (from Spanish: "beloved's pass") is an archaeological site in the Mexican state of Chiapas on the Gulf of Tehuantepec, in the Mazatán part of Soconusco region of Mesoamerica. It is located in farmland between the modern town oB ...
, a
Mokaya
Mokaya were pre-Olmec cultures of the Soconusco region in Mexico and parts of the Pacific coast of western Guatemala, an archaeological culture that developed a number of Mesoamerica’s earliest-known sedentary settlements.
The Soconusco regio ...
site in the
Soconusco
Soconusco is a region in the southwest corner of the state of Chiapas in Mexico along its border with Guatemala. It is a narrow strip of land wedged between the Sierra Madre de Chiapas mountains and the Pacific Ocean. It is the southernmost pa ...
region of southern Chiapas, iron ore mirrors were excavated that have been dated to between 1400 and 1100 BC. A Mokaya tomb dating to the earlier part of this period was excavated at the Olmec enclave of
Cantón Corralito. The tomb contained the remains of an elite status woman accompanied by an adult male and a child; the woman had a large flat iron ore mirror on her chest. At present, it is not known if the remains are those of local Mokoya or of Olmecs from the Gulf coast. About the same time at
Tlapacoya in the Valley of Mexico, the
Tlatilco culture
Tlatilco culture is a culture that flourished in the Valley of Mexico between the years 1250 BCE and 800 BCE, during the Mesoamerican Early Formative period. Tlatilco, Tlapacoya, and Coapexco are the major Tlatilco culture sites.
Tlatilco cu ...
was using imported mirrors crafted from
jade
Jade is a mineral used as jewellery or for ornaments. It is typically green, although may be yellow or white. Jade can refer to either of two different silicate minerals: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in the amphibole group of ...
. During the Early and Middle Preclassic periods (approximately 1500 to 500 BC) the Olmecs fashioned mirrors from iron ore, including minerals such as
hematite
Hematite (), also spelled as haematite, is a common iron oxide compound with the formula, Fe2O3 and is widely found in rocks and soils. Hematite crystals belong to the rhombohedral lattice system which is designated the alpha polymorph of . ...
,
ilmenite
Ilmenite is a titanium-iron oxide mineral with the idealized formula . It is a weakly magnetic black or steel-gray solid. Ilmenite is the most important ore of titanium and the main source of titanium dioxide, which is used in paints, printing ...
and
magnetite
Magnetite is a mineral and one of the main iron ores, with the chemical formula Fe2+Fe3+2O4. It is one of the oxides of iron, and is ferrimagnetic; it is attracted to a magnet and can be magnetized to become a permanent magnet itself. With the ...
. The Olmecs preferred to manufacture concave mirrors; this gave the mirror the properties of reflecting an inverted and reversed image. Larger concave mirrors could be used to light fires. These early mirrors were manufactured from single pieces of stone and were therefore of small size, rarely exceeding across.
Mirrors were manufactured by using sand or some other abrasive material such as hematite powder to polish the iron ore until it produced a highly reflective surface.
[Joyce 2010, p.87.]
In the
Valley of Oaxaca
The Central Valleys ( es, Valles Centrales) of Oaxaca, also simply known as the Oaxaca Valley, is a geographic region located within the modern-day state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. In an administrative context, it has been defined as comprising ...
, only
San José Mogote
San José Mogote is a pre-Columbian archaeological site of the Zapotec, a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in the region of what is now the Mexican state of Oaxaca. A forerunner to the better-known Zapotec site of Monte Albán, San José ...
has produced evidence of mirror production dating as far back as the Preclassic. Mirrors produced at San José Mogote were distributed to relatively distant places such as
Etlatongo Etlatongo is an archaeological site in Oaxaca, Mexico. Situated in the Nochixtlán Valley within the Mixteca Alta, Etlatongo encompasses both a Mesoamerican chronology, Formative Period site, located between two rivers, and a Classic/Post-classic s ...
and the Olmec city of
San Lorenzo
San Lorenzo is the Italian and Spanish name for Lawrence of Rome, Saint Lawrence, the 3rd-century Christian martyr, and may refer to:
Places Argentina
* San Lorenzo, Santa Fe
* San Lorenzo Department, Chaco
* Monte San Lorenzo, a mountain on t ...
.
The mirrors from San José Mogote that were excavated at San Lorenzo have been dated to between 1000 and 750 BC. Towards the end of this period, mirror production at San José declined and halted altogether.
The incomplete slate back of the earliest known Maya mirror was excavated from
Cahal Pech
Cahal Pech is a Maya site located near the town of San Ignacio in the Cayo District of Belize. The site was a palatial, hilltop home for an elite Maya family, and though the most major construction dates to the Classic period, evidence of continuo ...
in Belize; it was dated to around 600 BC, in the Middle Preclassic.
Olmecs
The first Olmec mirrors were found during archaeological excavations in the early 1940s. A mirror and a mirror fragment were discovered in 1942 during excavations at La Venta directed by
Matthew W. Stirling, however, these were not recognised as being mirrors. In 1943 a complete mirror was found and was recognised for what it was. Further finds followed at La Venta, including the excavation of two especially good quality mirrors from offerings in 1945.
Several dozen Olmec iron ore mirrors are known but only a few of these have been recovered in secure archaeological excavations.
[Carlson 1981, p.117.] At the Olmec site of
Las Bocas
Las Bocas is a minor archaeological site in the Mexican state of Puebla, whose name has become attached, often erroneously, to a wide-ranging type of Olmec-style figurines and pottery.
The Las Bocas site, part of the Balsas River basin, was hea ...
in
Puebla
Puebla ( en, colony, settlement), officially Free and Sovereign State of Puebla ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Puebla), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its cap ...
, a particularly fine mosaic mirror was recovered that was dated to around 1000 BC.
[Carlson 1992, p.118.] By the Middle Preclassic period the production of high status stone artefacts, including mirrors, was probably already being carried out by specialist artisans. An Olmec mining colony has been identified in the
Cintalapa
Cintalapa is a town and one of the 122 Municipalities of Chiapas, in southern Mexico. It covers an area of 2404.6 km².
As of 2010, the municipality had a total population of 78,114, up from 64,013 as of 2005.
The municipality had 943 loc ...
valley. Among items excavated were partially worked blocks of ilmenite and mangnetite and a fragment of mirror, together with tools and San Lorenzo style ceramics. These remains date to around 950 BC. Concave Olmec mirrors were fashioned from a single pied of iron ore. The front, with the mirror face, was concave with a highly polished
lens
A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements''), ...
. The bevelled edge of the mirror was convex and the rear and sides of the mirror were roughly sawn or ground down, although there are occasional exceptions. One Olmec mirror had a back that was ground smooth and highly polished.
Concave mirrors are depicted in Olmec art, where they are frequently represented as pectorals worn on the chest.
They can be divided into two groups; those that have a single drilled hole near the top and those that have at least two drilled holes at the sides. The latter tend to be larger than the former. Most of the mirror stones have been sawn from a larger piece of rock and fashioned into an oval shape; occasionally it is possible to distinguish the original form of the parent stone. The curve of each mirror is unique and tailored to the stone from which it is worked, and none possesses perfect symmetry; this appears to be deliberate. Although the elliptical mirrors are parabolic, the circular mirrors have a spherical concavity. The circular mirrors are effective at lighting fires while the parabolic mirrors are not, although they may have been used to produce smoke. Of four large mirrors found at Arroyo Pesquero in Veracruz, two were circular and were excellent sources of ignition.
[Carlson 1992, p.119.]
Tomb A at
La Venta
La Venta is a pre-Columbian archaeological site of the Olmec civilization located in the present-day Mexican state of Tabasco. Some of the artifacts have been moved to the museum "Parque - Museo de La Venta", which is in nearby Villahermosa, ...
is one of the oldest formal tombs in Mesoamerica, dating to about 600 BC. Among the funerary offerings of this elite burial was a highly polished magnetite mirror; it also contained the figurine of a seated female who wears an obsidian mirror on her chest. A total of seven concave mirrors were excavated from Complex A at La Venta; they were fashioned from hematite, ilmenite and magnetite. These are counted as among the most outstanding examples of iron ore workmanship that the Olmecs produced. Their concave fronts are as precisely ground as modern optical lenses, although their backs were left rough and uneven. The concave lenses of these mirrors were found to form
parabolic reflector
A parabolic (or paraboloid or paraboloidal) reflector (or dish or mirror) is a reflective surface used to collect or project energy such as light, sound, or radio waves. Its shape is part of a circular paraboloid, that is, the surface generated ...
s. The borders of each of the La Venta mirrors formed a circle or an ellipse, and they usually had different
focal length
The focal length of an optical system is a measure of how strongly the system converges or diverges light; it is the inverse of the system's optical power. A positive focal length indicates that a system converges light, while a negative foca ...
s for each axis.
The three iron ores used are the best available minerals to produce durable highly reflective mirrors with a non-tarnishing metallic surface.
All of these mirrors had drilled holes near their edges and were probably worn as chest ornaments since many
Olmec figurine
Olmec figurines are archetypical figurines produced by the Formative Period inhabitants of Mesoamerica. While not all of these figurines were produced in the Olmec heartland, they bear the hallmarks and motifs of Olmec culture. While the extent o ...
s depict such mirrors being worn.
[Diehl 2004, p.94.] The concave lenses of some of these iron ore mirrors are able to project ''
camera lucida
A ''camera lucida'' is an optical device used as a drawing aid by artists and microscopists.
The ''camera lucida'' performs an optical superimposition of the subject being viewed upon the surface upon which the artist is drawing. The artist se ...
'' images onto a flat surface and can also be used to light fires. The grinding of the concave surface was done manually, probably using powdered iron ore as an
abrasive
An abrasive is a material, often a mineral, that is used to shape or finish a workpiece through rubbing which leads to part of the workpiece being worn away by friction. While finishing a material often means polishing it to gain a smooth, reflec ...
. Similar mirrors were not only found at San Lorenzo but also at Río Pesquero and as far as
Guerrero
Guerrero is one of the 32 states that comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 81 municipalities and its capital city is Chilpancingo and its largest city is Acapulcocopied from article, GuerreroAs of 2020, Guerrero the pop ...
on the Pacific Coast of southwestern Mexico.
The Olmecs never used iron pyrite in their concave mirrors, presumably because it degrades with time.
Mirrors were among the ritual paraphernalia used by Olmec priests, shamans and rulers; the Olmecs closely identified mirrors with the sun.
Classic period
By the Classic period (c.AD 250–900)
iron pyrite
The mineral pyrite (), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral.
Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue giv ...
was the mineral of choice for fashioning mirrors. Instead of crafting the mirror from a single piece of pyrite, pre-cut pieces of pyrite would be fixed to a piece of
slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
, forming a mosaic mirror fashioned from finely fitted pieces. The slate was often finely sculpted and circular in shape; these mirrors could be much larger than earlier mirrors and mosaic mirrors represented in
Mesoamerican art suggest that they may have reached sizes of over .
Mosaic mirrors using iron pyrite are not well preserved in the archaeological record due to the instability of the mineral, which rapidly
oxidises. Usually, these mirrors survive only as the slate backing with a red or yellow stain where the mirror was fitted.
This has led to the frequent misidentification of mirror backs as paint palettes, painted discs or pot lids.
During the Classic period circular pyrite mirrors were worn over the small of the back by Mesoamerican nobles and they have been found thus positioned in burials dating to the Early Classic (c.AD 250–600) at the great metropolis of
Teotihuacan
Teotihuacan (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Teotihuacán'') (; ) is an ancient Mesoamerican city located in a sub-valley of the Valley of Mexico, which is located in the State of Mexico, northeast of modern-day Mexico City. Teotihuacan is ...
in the
Valley of Mexico
The Valley of Mexico ( es, Valle de México) is a highlands plateau in central Mexico roughly coterminous with present-day Mexico City and the eastern half of the State of Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the Valley of Mexico wa ...
and at the
Maya city
Maya cities were the centres of population of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica. They served the specialised roles of administration, commerce, manufacturing and religion that characterised ancient cities worldwide.Sharer & Trax ...
of
Kaminaljuyu
Kaminaljuyu (pronounced ) is a Pre-Columbian site of the Maya civilization that was primarily occupied from 1500 BC to AD 1200. Kaminaljuyu has been described as one of the greatest of all archaeological sites in the New World by Michael Coe, a ...
in the Valley of
Guatemala
Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...
.
Ceramic incense burner figurines from the
Escuintla
Escuintla () is an industrial city in Guatemala, its land extension is 4384 km², and it is nationally known for its sugar agribusiness. Its capital is a minicipality with the same name. Citizens celebrate from December 6 to 9 with a small fair i ...
region of Pacific Guatemala frequently depict the wearing of mirrors upon the chest.
[Taube 1992, p.178.] The use of mosaic mirrors allowed for a much larger diameter, and mirrors were crafted that were too big to be worn as part of the costume; these mirrors were placed on temple altars and were sometimes held in the arms during rituals.
[Taube 1992, p.179.] Such mirrors may have measured up to across.
At the Classic period
Zapotec city of
Monte Albán
Monte Albán is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site in the Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán Municipality in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca (17.043° N, 96.767°W). The site is located on a low mountainous range rising above the plain in the ...
in
Oaxaca
Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of Mexico. It is ...
a cache was excavated that contained sixteen figures. Of these, three were holding large discs that have been identified as representations of mirrors.
[Taube 1992, p.180.]
Teotihuacan
Mirrors are frequently represented in the iconography of the great city of Teotihuacan in central Mexico. Mirrors in Classic period Teotihuacan, as elsewhere in Mesoamerica, where associated with a corpus of spiritual beliefs, some of which have been passed down to the modern period. Mirrors were fashioned from three different types of stone at Teotihuacan, these were
mica
Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into extremely thin elastic plates. This characteristic is described as perfect basal cleavage. Mica is ...
, obsidian and iron pyrite.
[Taube 1992, p.169.] Circular mirrors at Teotihuacan were associated symbolically with eyes and faces, flowers and shields;
they are quite frequently encountered during excavations in the ruined city. Iron pyrite mosaic mirrors were fashioned by fixing pieces of pyrite together on a thin disc that was usually crafted from slate. The mirror backing slate was often perforated with two drilled holes and sometimes its reverse was intricately decorated. On the whole, the recovery of mirrors from Teotihuacan has been poorly documented so their archaeological context is unclear.
[Taube 1992, p.170.]
At Teotihuacan the largest mirrors were worn on the back, mirrors were also frequently worn on belts. Mirrors worn as a part of costume frequently had cloth or feather tassels attached. These costume mirrors were forerunners of the Aztec ''tezcacuitlapilli'', which was a mirror worn on the lower part of the back.
A number of mirrors were excavated from the
Temple of the Feathered Serpent
The Temple of the Feathered Serpent is the third largest pyramid at Teotihuacan, a Pre-Columbian Mexico, pre-Columbian site in central Mexico (the term ''Teotihuacan'', or ''Teotihuacano'', is also used for the whole civilization and cultural com ...
at Teotihuacan. Fifteen individuals were interred with back mirrors placed at the small of the back in Burial 190 alone.
[Taube 1992, p.174.] Mirrors were additionally worn upon the chest and the representation of chest mirrors upon ceramic figurines is very common.
Additionally, circular mirrors were frequently worn as part of a headdress, usually occupying a central position.
Teotihuacan had strong contacts with the distant Maya city of Kaminaljuyu, which covered an area now enveloped by modern
Guatemala City
Guatemala City ( es, Ciudad de Guatemala), known locally as Guatemala or Guate, is the capital and largest city of Guatemala, and the most populous urban area in Central America. The city is located in the south-central part of the country, nest ...
. A large quantity of circular pyrite mirrors were excavated from Kaminaljuyu, although their purpose was not recognised by the excavators due to the complete oxidation of the reflective surface. A number of the mirror backs were decorated with scenes in a pure Teotihuacan style.
In Teotihuacan art back mirrors are often represented with prominent flares similar to
earspool
A plug (sometimes earplug or earspool), in the context of body modification, is a short, cylindrical piece of jewelry commonly worn in larger-gauge body piercings. Modern western plugs are also called flesh tunnels. Because of their size—which ...
s, and a mirror found at Kaminaljuyu had two such jade earspools closely associated with it, although their original position was difficult to determine due to the deterioration of the pyrite mirror face, it is likely they were attached to it in the same way as represented in Teotihuacan art. On some mirrors, these spools were placed near the rim; there are examples both in art and from excavation at Kaminaljuyu, of jade spools being placed in the centre of the mirror.
[Taube 1992, p.176.]
Circular elements adorned with a feathered border detail are extremely common in the iconography of Teotihuacan and are found in diverse mediums such as ceramics, monumental sculpture, figurines and murals. The feathers are generally raised above the central disc and radiate from the centre.
Such discs also appear as costume elements and some of the better preserved ceramic copies of these elements have a central disc crafted from reflective mica. Archaeologist
Karl Taube
Karl Andreas Taube (born September 14, 1957) is an American Mesoamericanist, Mayanist, iconographer and ethnohistorian, known for his publications and research into the pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica and the American Southwest. he ...
has identified these elements as representations of mirrors in Teotihuacan art.
[Taube 1992, p.172.] Teotihuacan had a strong influence in the Maya area, and Teotihaucan mirror imagery appears particularly on Early Classic Maya art that uses the Teotihuacan style.
A number of stone beads from the
Balsas River Valley in Guerrero were modelled after Teotihuacan mirrors and included small inlaid pieces of iron pyrite to represent the face of the mirror.
= Symbolic meaning of mirrors at Teotihuacan
=
Mirrors had a great many symbolic associations at Teotihuacan; they could represent human eyes, faces, caves, passageways, spider webs, flowers, shields, the sun, a fiery hearth or the world as a whole.
[Taube 1992, p.181.] The association of the human eye with mirrors was so strong that stylised eyes were frequently used in Teotihuacan art as a substitute for the face of a mirror. Mirrors could also be replaced by an entire face, rather than just an eye, reflecting widespread practice in Mesoamerica.
[Taube 1992, p.182.] Sometimes mirrors were fashioned so the rim resembled petals of a flower, with the mirror face the centre. In art, representations of butterflies were sometimes positioned as if they were feeding from the mirror-flower. Sometimes metaphors could be combined in imagery, so that the mirror-flower was worked in such a way as to also resemble a face. Both flowers and butterflies were associated with fire at Teotihuacan,
[Taube 1992, p.184.] with butterflies symbolising flames. At the same time, the face of the mirror symbolised fire. One mirror in the Teotihuacan style has a representation of a goddess on the back that is flanked by pairs of burning torches; fire signs cover her body.
[Taube 1992, p.186.]
A Teotihuacan-style mirror excavated in Costa Rica was decorated with iconography that, at Teotihuacan, symbolically represented bodies of water. The association of mirrors with water in central Mexican art persisted right up to Aztec times. In Teotihuacan art mirrors were relatively frequently shown standing upright in bowls, symbolising bowls of shining water. The composite surface of circular pyrite mosaic mirrors led to their association with spider webs. A scene depicted at Teotihuacan shows a mirror covered with a net and flanked by a waterlily and a cotton plant, symbolising water and weaving respectively.
The spider webs on mirrors can sometimes be realistically represented in Teotihuacan art, sometimes including a spider in the design. This also fed back into imagery of spider webs themselves, which could be represented by the depiction of a mirror. A mural at the Tetitla compound of Teotihuacan depicts a
spider-woman deity standing in a mirror-bowl.
Mirrors were so closely associated with shields at Teotihuacan that it is difficult to distinguish the two in Teotihuacan art. Both shields and mirrors were circular with a raised rim decorated with feathers. Teotihuacan shields frequently had central tassels that resembled the central spool found on some Teotihuacan mirrors. Mirrors worn on the back and the chest could have served a dual protective function, deflecting physical blows as well as supernatural attacks. The mirror itself may have symbolised war in Teotihuacan; the combination of its association with fire and water may have been a precursor of the Aztec ''atl-tlachinolli'', Nahuatl for "water-fire", the phrase that the Aztecs used for war.
[Taube 1992, p.192.]
Classic Maya
Among the Maya of the Classic period mirrors were fashioned from solid pieces of hematite or mosaics of iron pyrite. They tended to be larger than earlier Olmec mirrors and were mounted on a slate backing that was often drilled with holes, indicating that they were attached to another object; either mounted on a wooden frame or worn with clothing. Hundreds of such mirrors have been recovered from archaeological sites in the Maya region.
[Healy and Blainey 2011, p.229.] Such mirrors have been excavated from royal burials throughout the Maya area, with the greatest quantity of mirrors being recovered from
Altun Ha in Belize.
In
Piedras Negras Piedras Negras may refer to:
* Piedras Negras, Coahuila, a city in the state of Coahuila, Mexico
** Piedras Negras Municipality, a municipality in Mexico, with the center in the eponymous city
* Piedras Negras (Maya site)
Piedras Negras is the ...
, on the Guatemalan side of the
Usumacinta River
The Usumacinta River (; named after the howler monkey) is a river in southeastern Mexico and northwestern Guatemala. It is formed by the junction of the Pasión River, which arises in the Sierra de Santa Cruz (Guatemala), Sierra de Santa Cruz ...
, a sizeable iron pyrite mirror was set at an angle within the tomb of king
K'inich Yo'nal Ahk II in such a way that the deceased king would theoretically be able to view himself laid out in his tomb. The tomb of his successor,
Ruler 4, also contained a mirror; it bore the image of an important war captive. At
Bonampak
Bonampak (known anciently as ''Ak'e'' or, in its immediate area as ''Usiij Witz'', 'Vulture Hill') is an ancient Maya archaeological site in the Mexican state of Chiapas. The site is approximately south of the larger site of the people Yaxchilan ...
in
Chiapas
Chiapas (; Tzotzil language, Tzotzil and Tzeltal language, Tzeltal: ''Chyapas'' ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas), is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, ...
, a mirror was interred at the feet of the deceased. In all these cases it is likely that the mirror was installed in the tomb in order to open a supernatural location within it.
[Fitzsimmons 2009, p.97.] Among the Classic Maya, mirrors were considered to be used jointly by gods and mortals, as evidenced by scenes painted on polychrome ceramic vases.
Mirror production continued in Belize during the Classic period. At
Pacbitun
Pacbitun is a Maya archaeological site located near the town of San Ignacio, Belize, in the Cayo District of west central Belize.Healy, Paul F. (1990a), “The Excavations at Pacbitun, Belize: Preliminary Report on the 1986 and 1987 Investigations ...
in
Belize
Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...
, near to where the earliest known Maya slate mirror back was found, considerable evidence was found of Late Classic slate working.
Archaeological investigation of one of the rapidly abandoned buildings of the Late Classic royal palace at
Aguateca in the
Petexbatún region produced 300 pyrite and indicates the likely presence of a mirror workshop within the royal court. The structure in question was apparently the residence of an elite status courtier.
[Healy and Blainey 2011, p.232.] Several Early Classic mirrors from
Copán
Copán is an archaeological site of the Maya civilization in the Copán Department of western Honduras, not far from the border with Guatemala. This ancient Maya city mirrors the beauty of the physical landscape in which it flourished—a fert ...
in Honduras had stuccoed backs that were painted with motifs in the style of distant Teotihuacan.
A mirror back from Kaminaljuyu sculpted with an ornate
volute
A volute is a spiral, scroll-like ornament that forms the basis of the Ionic order, found in the capital of the Ionic column. It was later incorporated into Corinthian order and Composite column capitals. Four are normally to be found on an Ion ...
design apparently derived from the Classic period culture of
Veracruz
Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...
on the coast of the
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...
.
Pyrite mirrors at Kaminaljuyu were placed upon the small of the back of two individuals in Early Classic tomb B-1. The mirrors were placed with the reflective surface facing up, even though one of them had a finely sculpted back in the Veracruz style, demonstrating that it was the mirror surface itself that was the display surface even when the back was a work of art in itself. Large mirrors were also placed upon the chest of the deceased at Kaminaljuyu.
A broken half of an Early Classic mirror from
Zaculeu
Zaculeu or Saqulew is a pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site in the highlands of western Guatemala, about outside the modern city of Huehuetenango. Occupation at the site dates to the Early Classic period (AD 250–600) of Mesoamerica ...
in the Guatemalan Highlands had a border formed by six curved iron pyrite plates, very similar to representations of mirrors in Teotihuacan art.
Pyrite mirrors from Nebaj and Zaculeu were found placed in Early Classic censers, suggesting the same association between mirrors and fire as was found at Teotihuacan.
Two Early Classic style Maya mirrors were traded as far away as Costa Rica.
= Mirrors in Classic Maya art
=
Maya mirrors and their use are depicted on Classic Maya polychrome ceramics, where pictorial vases frequently depict scenes from courtly life.
One vase depicts an anthropomorphic dog staring into the depths of a vase, behind the vase an anthropomorphic monkey dances while staring into a mirror held up in one hand. Another vase has a scene involving a group of elderly gods; one of these is applying makeup while using a mirror held up to his face by a female helper. This scene is unlikely to represent the application of cosmetics in a modern sense, since the reflection provided by an iron ore mosaic mirror was unlikely to be of great use due to the distorted image it presented. Instead, the deity is likely to be ritually transforming himself into the dark face of the mirror by applying dark paint.
[Healy and Blainey 2011, p.233.] An important vase from Chama near Nebaj, in the highlands, shows a Maya lord communicating with a
rabbit spirit through a mirror, demonstrating the mirror's importance as a portal between worlds. The rabbit spirit is talking to the lord, with its speech scroll passing directly over the mirror. These scenes appear to represent what the Maya believed was happening on the other side of the surface of their mirrors. Although mirrors are represented on ceramics, mirrors rarely appear on publicly visible art, such as
Maya stelae
Maya stelae (singular ''stela'') are monuments that were fashioned by the Maya civilization of ancient Mesoamerica. They consist of tall, sculpted stone shafts and are often associated with low circular stones referred to as altars, although thei ...
or openly visible
Maya architecture
Maya architecture spans several thousands of years, several eras of political change, and architectural innovation before the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Often, the buildings most dramatic and easily recognizable as creations of the Ma ...
.
[Healy and Blainey 2011, p.234.]
Tikal Stela 31 includes mirror imagery in the Teotihuacan warrior garb of king
Yax Nuun Ayiin depicted on its sides. Here the king wears a back mirror; the left hand side of the stela displays the face of the mirror and its rim while the right hand side shows the back of the mirror with lines near the edge of the mirror's disk that probably represent cord threaded through drilled holes to bind it to the king's costume.
This stela was erected in AD 445. A back mirror is represented on Late Classic Stela 11 from
Yaxchilan
Yaxchilan () is an ancient Maya city located on the bank of the Usumacinta River in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. In the Late Classic Period Yaxchilan was one of the most powerful Maya states along the course of the Usumacinta River, with Piedra ...
on the Mexican bank of the Usumacinta River. In this representation the mirror has a central spool with attached tassel similar to Early Classic mirrors and their representations from Teotihuacan and Kaminaljuyu.
Acanceh
Acanceh () is a town and ancient Maya archaeological site located in Mexico's Yucatán State, 21 kilometers from Mérida, the capital of Yucatán. It is the seat of Acanceh Municipality. The modern town of Acanceh, is partially atop the pre-Col ...
is an Early Classic Maya site in Yucatán that also displays the influence of Teotihuacan. Five stucco figures at the site wear back mirrors in the Teotihuacan style.
The Classic period Maya god
K'awiil was closely associated with mirrors. This deity was represented with one leg in the form of a serpent and a mirror on the forehead that was penetrated by an axe or
celt
The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient ...
and emitted either flames or smoke. K'awiil was a deity who was associated with Maya divine kingship and the royal lineage and bears attributes that were later inherited by the Aztec Tezcatlipoca, or "Smoking Mirror". Four Late Classic sculptures of K'awiil were excavated from Burial 195 at Tikal, in each the deity grasps a mirror in its outheld hands.
[Taube 1992, pp.172–173.]
Postclassic period
In the Postclassic period (c.AD 900–1521) mirrors continued to be worn over the back in Central Mexico; they were called ''tezcacuitlapilli'' in the
Nahuatl
Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...
language of the Aztecs.
Metal mirrors appear in the Postclassic period; a
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
mirror back in the form of a spider was excavated from Tomb 7 at Monte Alban in Oaxaca. This mirror was the product of
Mixtec
The Mixtecs (), or Mixtecos, are indigenous Mesoamerican peoples of Mexico inhabiting the region known as La Mixteca of Oaxaca and Puebla as well as La Montaña Region and Costa Chica Regions of the state of Guerrero. The Mixtec Culture wa ...
artisans.
[Taube 1992, p.191.]
Toltecs
During the Early Postclassic (c.900–1200) the
Toltec
The Toltec culture () was a Pre-Columbian era, pre-Columbian Mesoamerican culture that ruled a state centered in Tula (Mesoamerican site), Tula, Hidalgo (state), Hidalgo, Mexico, during the Epiclassic and the early Post-Classic period of Mesoam ...
inhabitants of
Tula
Tula may refer to:
Geography
Antarctica
*Tula Mountains
*Tula Point
India
*Tulā, a solar month in the traditional Indian calendar
Iran
* Tula, Iran, a village in Hormozgan Province
Italy
* Tula, Sardinia, municipality (''comune'') in the pr ...
in Central Mexico favoured a back mirror in the form of a central disc crafted from iron pyrite surrounded by representations of the
Xiuhcoatl
In Aztec religion, Xiuhcoatl was a mythological serpent, regarded as the spirit form of Xiuhtecuhtli, the Aztec fire deity sometimes represented as an atlatl or a weapon wielded by Huitzilopochtli. Xiuhcoatl is a Classical Nahuatl word that tra ...
fire-serpent depicted with mosaicwork fashioned from
turquoise
Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula . It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gemstone and ornamental stone for thousands of yea ...
. This form of Mesoamerican mirror was widely distributed during the Early Postclassic, with examples being reported from
Chichen Itza
Chichen Itza , es, Chichén Itzá , often with the emphasis reversed in English to ; from yua, Chiʼchʼèen Ìitshaʼ () "at the mouth of the well of the Itza people" was a large pre-Columbian city built by the Maya people of the Terminal ...
in the northern
Yucatán Peninsula
The Yucatán Peninsula (, also , ; es, Península de Yucatán ) is a large peninsula in southeastern Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north ...
and from
Casas Grandes
Casas Grandes (Spanish for ''Great Houses''; also known as Paquimé) is a prehistoric archaeological site in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. Construction of the site is attributed to the Mogollon culture. Casas Grandes has been design ...
in
Chihuahua.
[Miller and Taube 1993, 2003, p.115.] It is probable that these Toltec mirrors were identified as representations of the sun.
The atlante columns at Tula have representations of mirrors sculpted on their backs with four smoking serpents, one in each quadrant.
The faces of the mirror are replaced with human faces on all of them, corresponding to the close association between faces and mirrors across Mesoamerica.
Aztecs
In the Late Postclassic (c.1200–1521)
obsidian
Obsidian () is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock.
Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements s ...
came to be the stone of preference for fashioning mirrors in Central Mexico.
Broken pieces of raw obsidian were likely to have been used as mirrors as far back as the Preclassic but obsidian was not commonly ground and polished to manufacture mirrors until this period.
Obsidian mirrors were used ritually to spiritually access the Aztec underworld and communicate with the realm of the dead. The name of the important
Aztec deity
The Aztec religion is a monistic pantheism in which the Nahua concept of was construed as the supreme god , as well as a diverse pantheon of lesser gods and manifestations of nature. The popular religion tended to embrace the mythological and ...
Tezcatlipoca
Tezcatlipoca (; nci, Tēzcatl ihpōca ) was a central deity in Aztec religion, and his main festival was the Toxcatl ceremony celebrated in the month of May. One of the four sons of Ōmeteōtl, Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, the God of providenc ...
means "Smoking Mirror" and he was apparently the supernatural embodiment of a polished obsidian mirror. Depictions of the god frequently replace one of his feet with a smoking mirror and position another at the back of his head.
Spanish chronicler
Diego Durán
Diego Durán (c. 1537 – 1588) was a Dominican friar best known for his authorship of one of the earliest Western books on the history and culture of the Aztecs, ''The History of the Indies of New Spain'', a book that was much criticised in hi ...
described the image of Tezcatlipoca in the
Great Temple of
Tenochtitlan
, ; es, Tenochtitlan also known as Mexico-Tenochtitlan, ; es, México-Tenochtitlan was a large Mexican in what is now the historic center of Mexico City. The exact date of the founding of the city is unclear. The date 13 March 1325 was ...
as being fashioned from polished obsidian and bearing a mirror of polished gold. The deity was supposed to observe everything that happened in the world through his mirror. The obsidian mirror was a metaphor for rulership and power among the Aztecs.
[Saunders 2001, p.222.] Aztec rulers used a double-sided obsidian mirror to oversee their subjects; by gazing into one side the ruler could see how his subjects were comporting themselves and in the other side his subjects could see themselves reflected back.
The gods were said to reveal their wishes to a ruler through the use of a mirror.
An Aztec hemispherical iron pyrite mirror in the collection of the
Musée de l'Homme
The Musée de l'Homme ( French, "Museum of Mankind" or "Museum of Humanity") is an anthropology museum in Paris, France. It was established in 1937 by Paul Rivet for the 1937 ''Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne' ...
in Paris has a sculpted representation of the wind god
Ehecatl
Ehecatl ( nci-IPA, Ehēcatl, eʔˈeːkatɬ, ) is a pre-Columbian deity associated with the wind, who features in Aztec mythology and the mythologies of other cultures from the central Mexico region of Mesoamerica. He is most usually interpreted as ...
on its convex back.
Xipe Totec
In Aztec mythology and religion, Xipe Totec (; nci-IPA, Xīpe Totēc, ˈʃiːpe ˈtoteːk(ʷ)) or Xipetotec ("Our Lord the Flayed One") was a life-death-rebirth deity, god of agriculture, vegetation, the east, spring, goldsmiths, silversmiths, ...
, "Our Lord the Flayed One", was the Aztec god of rebirth. One of his names was Tlatlauquitzezcatl, meaning "Red Mirror" or "Mirror of Fiery Brightness". The Aztec Emperor
Moctezuma II
Moctezuma Xocoyotzin ( – 29 June 1520; oteːkˈsoːmaḁ ʃoːkoˈjoːt͡sĩn̥), nci-IPA, Motēuczōmah Xōcoyōtzin, moteːkʷˈsoːma ʃoːkoˈjoːtsin variant spellings include Motewksomah, Motecuhzomatzin, Montezuma, Moteuczoma, Motecu ...
was said to have seen the overthrow of his empire in a mirror; some fishermen caught a strange bird with a mirror on its forehead. They brought the bird before their emperor, who peered into the mirror and saw warriors mounted on deer.
[Horses were unknown in Mesoamerica before the arrival of the Spanish. In native accounts they were usually described as deer.] This purported incident was described by
Franciscan
The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...
friar
A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ol ...
Bernardino de Sahagún
Bernardino de Sahagún, OFM (; – 5 February 1590) was a Franciscan friar, missionary priest and pioneering ethnographer who participated in the Catholic evangelization of colonial New Spain (now Mexico). Born in Sahagún, Spain, in 1499, he ...
in his ''Historia de las cosas de Nueva España'' ("History of the things of New Spain"):
Aztec mirrors were originally held in wooden frames and were decorated with perishable ornaments such as feathers. Mirrors were among the gifts that
Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca (; ; 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of w ...
sent back to the royal court in Spain and they became widely collected among the European aristocracy.
[Vila Llonch 2009, p.238.] One such mirror was acquired by
Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".
El ...
's court astrologer
John Dee
John Dee (13 July 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, teacher, occultist, and alchemist. He was the court astronomer for, and advisor to, Elizabeth I, and spent much of his time on alchemy, divinatio ...
and is now in the collection of the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
.
Mirrors are represented in association with fire in two codices of the
Borgia Group
The Borgia Group is the scholarly designation of number of mostly pre-Columbian documents from central Mexico. In 1830–1831, they were first published in their entirety as colored lithographs of copies made by an Italian artist, Agustino Aglio, ...
from central Mexico during the Aztec period (
Codex Borgia
The Codex Borgia ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Borg.mess.1), also known as ''Codex Borgianus'', ''Manuscrit de Veletri'' and ''Codex Yohualli Ehecatl'', is a pre-Columbian Middle American pictorial manuscript from Central Mexico featuring calendrica ...
and
Codex Vaticanus B). The mirrors are placed with censers that serve as hearths for the fire goddess
Chantico
In Aztec religion, Chantico ("she who dwells in the house") is the deity reigning over the fires in the family hearth. She broke a fast by eating paprika with roasted fish, and was turned into a dog by Tonacatecuhtli as punishment. She was asso ...
. Another scene from the Codex Borgia depicts a burning Toltec-style mirror used as a hearth for a sizeable pot. The mirror-hearth and pot are framed by four
fire serpents. On another page of the same codex, the god of fire
Xiuhtecuhtli
In Aztec mythology, Xiuhtecuhtli ("Turquoise Lord" or "Lord of Fire"), was the god of fire, day and heat. In historical sources he is called by many names, which reflect his varied aspects and dwellings in the three parts of the cosmos. He was t ...
is making fire from a mirror placed on the back of a fire serpent.
An Aztec sculpture of a seated figure bears a smoking mirror on its back to represent the
fifth sun
In the context of creation myths, the term Five Suns describes the doctrine of the Aztec and other Nahua peoples in which the present world was preceded by four other cycles of creation and destruction. It is primarily derived from the mythologic ...
.
The iconography of the
Aztec sun stone
The Aztec sun stone ( es, Piedra del Sol) is a late post-classic Mexica sculpture housed in the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City, and is perhaps the most famous work of Mexica sculpture. It measures in diameter and thick, and wei ...
closely conforms to that of Postclassic turquoise mirrors; and is based upon the design of earlier Toltec pyrite mirrors.
Bowls of water were used as mirrors to examine the reflections of sick children. If the child's reflection was dark then his soul, or ''tonalli'' in Nahuatl, had escaped from his body. The association between mirrors and water was also present in Aztec art; page 17 of the Codex Borgia depicts Tezcatlipoca with a water-filled mirror placed at the back of his head instead of the more customary smoking mirror. The
day sign for water, ''Atl'', is placed upon the mirror.
Postclassic Maya
Hematite mirror fragments were excavated from the ruins of a ceremonial hall in the
Kowoj
The Kowoj oʔwox(also recorded as ''Ko'woh'', ''Couoh'', ''Coguo'', ''Cohuo'', ''Kob'ow'' and ''Kob'ox'', and ''Kowo'') was a Maya group and polity, from the Late Postclassic period (ca. 1250–1697) of Mesoamerican chronology. The Kowoj clai ...
Maya city of
Zacpeten
Zacpeten is a pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site in the northern Petén Department of Guatemala. It is notable as one of the few Maya communities that maintained their independence through the early phases of Spanish control over Mesoameric ...
, dating from a time when the Kowoj were already in contact with the Spanish, since European artefacts were also recovered. One Postclassic mirror, and possibly more, from
Lamanai
Lamanai (from ''Lama'anayin'', "submerged crocodile" in Yucatec Maya) is a Mesoamerican archaeological site, and was once a major city of the Maya civilization, located in the north of Belize, in Orange Walk District. The site's name is pre-Columb ...
in Belize was set in an unusual ceramic frame.
Maya books dating from the time of first contact with the Spanish suggest that mirrors were worn on the back or shoulder.
Modern Mesoamerica
The
Huichol people
The Huichol or Wixárika are an indigenous people of Mexico and the United States living in the Sierra Madre Occidental range in the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Durango, as well as in the United States in the states of California, ...
of the
Nayarit
Nayarit (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Nayarit ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Nayarit), is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 20 municipalities and its ...
state of western Mexico have a considerable body of native lore regarding mirrors. They view mirrors as supernatural portals and link them symbolically with the sun, moon, eyes, faces and flowers, much like at Teotihuacan during the Classic period.
The Huichol use circular glass mirrors for divination; in the
Huichol language
The Huichol language ( hch, Wixárika) is an indigenous language of Mexico which belongs to the Uto-Aztecan language family. It is spoken by the ethnic group widely known as the Huichol (self-designation ''Wixaritari''), whose mountainous terri ...
they are called ''nealika'', a word with a dual meaning of "face".
[Taube 1992, p.183.] In modern Huichol lore, the first ''nealika'' seeing-instrument was formed by a spider-web across a gourd bowl.
In Huichol mythology, fire first appeared as a mirror.
In modern
Nahua
The Nahuas () are a group of the indigenous people of Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. They comprise the largest indigenous group in Mexico and second largest in El Salvador. The Mexica (Aztecs) were of Nahua ethnicity, a ...
tradition the sky is regarded as a living crystal mirror.
[Saunders 2003, p.20.] The modern
Sierra Totonac
Sierra Totonac is a native American language complex spoken in Puebla and Veracruz, Mexico. One of the Totonacan languages, it is also known as Highland Totonac. The language is best known through the work of the late Herman “Pedro” Aschmann w ...
of Mexico associate the sun with mirrors, referring to it as ''Espejo Sol'', Spanish for "Mirror Sun".
[Taube 1992, p.193.]
Notes
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{{refend
Mirrors
Mesoamerican artifacts
Hardstone carving
Divination
Lithics