#mesoamerica

[theancientwayoflife]

~ Skull Necklace.

Culture: Aztec

Period: Late Postclassic

Date: A.D. 1200-1520

Medium: Shell

[dyke-delphinia]

3D Reconstruction of Tenochtitlán by Thomas Kole

[memories-of-ancients]

Vessel in the form of a dog, Colima, Mexico, 100 BC - 300 AD

from The Walters Art Museum

[canisvesperus]

And we wouldn’t have to pay to see ourselves in museums.

Source

[jstor]

Happy Monday! Here are three Aztec stone snakes for you. The greenish one (13th-16th century) is from the Cleveland Museum of Art and the other two (15th-early 16th century) are from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, two open access collections on JSTOR.

[larrycoyote]

Sculpture of a seated warrior with two dogs. Veracruz, Mexico, 400-800 AD

[tlatollotl]

Can I share something neat for a moment?

Look at this ceramic figurine. Three people are participating in a group cheek piercing ceremony. We believe it is a form of auto sacrifice, akin to cutting earlobes, piercing foreskin, or running a nettle filled thread through the tongue.

What is neat about the cheek piercing ceremony is that the aftermath of the ceremony is depicted on other, larger, hollow figurines. Take this figurine for example. You can see the vertical scars of multiple ceremonies. As a result, this person's mouth now droops.

We see the drooping mouth in other figurines, but without the scars. These two figurines also happen to be musicians. While there could be a connection between music and group ceremonies....

There are other figurines, like this starving (?) woman in the middle of preparing maize who also has the characteristic drooping mouth. This figurine also demonstrates that the ceremony was not gender exclusive, but rather practiced by all.

[illustratus]

[shi-gu]

Codex Black character design sketches. A traveler guy named Tecolli, and a local Zapotec goddess named Yaghelao.

[justsomeectoplasm]

MAN

[yekokataa]

shoutout to ancient mesoamerican artists. greatest creature designers of all time

[theancientwayoflife]

~ Eccentric Flint in the Form of a Scorpion.

Place of origin: Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, or Mexico (Mesoamerica)

Culture: Maya

Date: A.D. 600–900

Medium: Stone, Chert

[zippocreed501]

The Olmec heads of ancient Mesoamerica. First discovered by José María Melgar y Serrano and later uncovered by Matthew and Marion Stirling (pictured).

[memories-of-ancients]

Frog vessel, Colima, Mexico, 2nd century BC - 3rd century AD

from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

[redclaysoil]

plaque with figures, silver, 13th-15th century colima culture (mexico), courtesy of the met

[heavenskiriot]

Chichén Itzá // Yucatán, México

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