![]() ![]() The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Pair of Ear Ornaments with Winged Runners, Gold, turquoise, sodalite, shell, Reportedly found at La Mina, in the Jequetepeque Valley, the frontlet is remarkably similar to an example illustrated on a ceramic vessel from Dos Cabezas. The creature rests on two clawlike feet, depicted in low relief. Made of gold sheet, it was cut into the shape of a supernatural figure with serrated octopus tentacles that terminate in catfish heads. This object would have been affixed to a cylindrical headdress. 300-600, Peru, La Mina, Museo de la Nación, Lima, Octopus Frontlet, Gold, chrysocolla, shells, Moche A.D. As there was no writing tradition in the ancient Andes, the precise meaning of this imagery remains unknown. The mouth masks-a type of ornament worn suspended from the septum of the nose-feature feline creatures with prominent fangs on one example the animal grasps human figures (seen in profile) in its claws. ![]() Part of a group of funerary offerings for a male who died at about sixty years old, were found in a tomb under the principal platform at Kuntur Wasi. Peru-Kuntur Wasi_Tomb A-TM2, San Pablo_Ministerio de Cultura del Perú. Image © Kuntur Wasi Museum. Mouth Mask with Feline Creature and Human Figures,G old, Cupisnique-Chavín-800-550 B.C. Mouth Mask with Feline Creature and Human Figures In all places, artists and their patrons selected materials that could provoke a strong response-perceptually, sensually, andĬonceptually-and transport the wearer and beholder beyond the realm of the mundane. Jade, rather than gold, was most esteemed by the Olmecs and the Maya, while the Incas and the Aztecs prized feathers and tapestry. First exploited in the Andes around 2000 B.C., gold was closely associated with the supernatural realm, and over the course of several thousand years the practice of making prestige objects in gold for rulers and deities gradually moved northward, into Central America and Mexico.īut in many areas other materials were more highly valued. In the ancient Americas, gold, silver, and copper were used primarily to create regalia and ritual objects-metals were only secondarily used to create weapons and tools. Of ancient American art and culture, showcasing more than 300 objectsĭrawn from more than 50 museums in 12 countries The exhibition present a new understanding What we present in this show are not only spectacular artworks, but also rare and enormously important objects that escaped destruction.” And time has taken a heavy toll on featherworks and textiles, which were considered more precious than gold by many indigenous societies. “Countless works of gold and silver were melted down, and delicate native manuscripts were deliberately burned as part of campaigns to stamp out native religions. “Ideas about artistic production in the ancient Americas have traditionally been based on works in ceramic and stone-objects of durable materials,” “But there were also exquisitely worked objects of rare and fragile materials, most of which were destroyed at the time of the Spanish Conquest. Pearson Curator of the Arts of the Ancient Americas The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, 2015 Benefit Fund and Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 2016 Serpent Labret with Articulated Tongue, Gold, Aztec, A.D. This is a rare find and the quantities are limited.Luxury and Legacy in the Ancient Americas From the hand flaked, genuine obsidian blades to the important figures adorning the stabilized malachite handles they are as close as you can get to the true ceremonial knives made for high priests and their rites of human sacrifice. Today each incredible replica is still hand made in their native home of Mexico. Although it may have seen only limited use on the battlefield, its sharp edges would have made it an effective sidearm. The Tecpatl knife was traditionally used for human sacrifice by the Aztecs, but it also was the short-range weapon of the jaguar warriors. ![]() It was the sign of the eighteenth day, the twentieth day of the month of the Aztec calendar and the beginning of one of the twenty trecenas of the tonalpohualli. Both ends could be rounded or pointed, but other designs were made with a blade attached to a handle. I n the Aztec culture, a tecpatl was a flint or obsidian knife with a lanceolate figure and double-edged blade, with elongated ends. Often used in Energy work and Energetic Cord Cutting Ceremonies Obsidian with stabilized malachite handles ![]()
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