Marshall H. Saville

“ The major employment of the mosaic art seems to have been for the adornment of objects or ornaments used ceremonially, such as crowns or head-bands, helmets, masks, shields, scepters, ear-ornaments, nose-ornaments, breast-plates, bracelets, and anklets. The material on which the mosaic incrustation was placed was chiefly wood, but gold, shell, bone, and stone were also used. Small figures of the gods, either in human or in animal form, as well as musical instruments, were thus adorned. There are also indications that pottery vessels were sometimes decorated by embedding turquois in the clay. ”

“ The Indians returned to land and soon departed for Mexico, where they arrived in a day and a night, to give the news of what they had seen to Montezuma, and they brought to him the beads which had been given them by the Spaniards, and spoke to him (Montezuma) as follows: “Our Lord, we are deserving of death; hear what we have seen, and what we have done. Thou hast placed us on guard at the seashore; we have seen some gods on the sea, and went to receive them, and give them various rich mantles; look at these beads that they gave us, saying to us, ‘Is it true that you are Mexicans? ”

“ This myth was one of the several causes that led to the comparatively easy conquest of a numerous and warlike people by the Spaniards. We have translated several chapters of Sahagun’s Historia relating to the first coming of the Christians to the coast of Mexico, which contain a description of some of the gifts sent by Montezuma to Cortés, while he still believed the Spanish conqueror to be the great god Quetzalcoatl. It is really a report transmitted to us from the Aztecs, and is a most fascinating chapter of the history of the conquest of Mexico. ”

“ Apart from the Mexican region where turquois mosaic was most highly developed, excellent examples have been found with other ancient remains of the Pueblos of Arizona and New Mexico, and incrusted objects have also been found with ancient burials on the coast of Peru, indicating a somewhat similar technique though far less skill in application. The materials usually employed in Mexico were turquois, jadeite, malachite, quartz, beryl, garnet, obsidian, marcasite, gold, bits of red and other colored shell, and nacre. ”

“ In the pictorial section of the Florentine manuscript of Sahagun, [35] in the Codex Mendoza, [36] and in the Mappe Tlotzin, [37] are pictures delineating artisans engaged in various crafts, such as weavers, painters, carpenters (wood-carvers) , stone carvers, lapidaries, goldsmiths, and feather-mosaic workers, yet we find no actual representation of turquois-mosaic workers. In the third section of the Codex Mendoza appears a picture of a father teaching his son the secrets of the lapidary’s art. ”

“ We will not enter into a discussion of feather mosaics at this time, but will consider primarily the parallel art of turquois mosaic. Aside from the numerous historical notices contained in the early chronicles and in the inventories of the loot of the Aztecs sent to Europe by Cortés, there is little of this art upon which to base a careful study that has survived. It is one of the most interesting and highly developed arts of ancient America, but it was practised by only a few tribes. ”

“ Hence, notwithstanding the present lack of information respecting the localities where turquois is to be found in situ in central and southern Mexico, we cannot reject the opinion that ultimately ancient workings will be found at more than one site in Mexico. We do not believe it necessary to assume that the source of supply of both the Toltecs and the Aztecs, as well as of other tribes, such as the Tarasco, and the Mixtec and Zapotec, which also made use of this material, was the far-distant region of New Mexico. ”

“ Compare the sun shield or sun basket of the Pueblo Indians, and the various sun shields on Mayan monuments. Now, the sun and turquois seem to be pretty closely connected symbolically—both mean divine. The hieroglyph of the sun is used for the teo, god, in place names, while the prefix xiuh means divine in connection with various objects. Jade, on the other hand, means precious. The sun in Aztec ritual is pretty closely connected with riches and jewels, and the sun disc may easily have been conceived of as a gem-studded object. ”

“ Above a horizontal band just over the bottom of the inner encircling rim is a hieroglyph. It is the well-known glyph for Culhuacan, or Colhuacan, the name of an important town in the valley of Mexico in ancient times. The form of the glyph, a mountain with a curved peak, is derived from the tradition that the Nahuan people originated where there was a mountain with a curved peak, called in the Nahuan language Culhuacan. ”

“ The traditional mosaic-decorated buildings of Tula have disappeared, but the structures of Mitla are still standing in an excellent state of preservation, and moreover are easily accessible to travelers by rail and automobile; therefore they have been visited and admired by more people than perhaps any ruins in ancient America. In the embellishment of the walls a true mosaic [Pg 39] decoration was employed, differing in kind only from the turquois mosaic on small objects. ”

“ It has been demonstrated, by the extended quotations from the old chronicles and codices, that this art was considerably employed in adorning objects of a special nature in connection with the dress of kings, nobles, warriors, and priests, and the paraphernalia of the gods. We have at present no actual examples of many of the objects which we have learned were thus ornamented, consequently whatever conception we may gain by a study of existing specimens will give us an inadequate idea of the art. ”

“ Unfortunately the greater part of the mosaic has fallen out, but the figures in most cases may be traced by the impressions in the gum matrix. The designs consist of two tonatiuh, or sun discs, placed one above the other. In the upper tonatiuh is a human figure. There are many examples of this motive in Mexican sculptures and codices. Across the center of the shield, between the two sun discs, is a procession of human figures, four each on the right and the left, all facing the center. Between them is a human figure, head-downward, in the act of falling or plunging from the upper sun disc. ”

“ After the complete rout of the rebellious Indians, it was related by Tezozomoc that “the kind of arms carried by the coast people was very rich, so much so that the undisciplined soldiers began to strip the bodies of the dead of the very rich feather-work pieces called quetzalmanalli, and from their military ornaments remove a round emerald like a mirror which sparkled in its perfection, called xiuhtezcatl. ”

“ After the arrival of the Spaniards on the coast of Vera Cruz, the Indians were not long in ignorance of the consuming thirst of the conquerors for gold. In order to placate the formidable strangers [Pg 9] with childlike confidence that by giving them their wish the invasion of his dominions would be averted, Montezuma sent rich presents to Cortés through Tendile (Teuhtlile) , governor of Cuetlaxtla (the modern Cotastla) , which was then subject to the Aztecs. ”

“ Mosaic objects, and especially the raw material for their manufacture, formed a part of the annual tribute paid by some of the coast provinces of ancient Mexico to the Aztec kings of Tenochtitlan. We have the pictorial representation of some of the objects of such tribute in an important native book or codex, painted in colors on maguey fiber paper, known as the Tribute Roll of Montezuma. ”

“ As we have already written, the few traces of this mosaic art found heretofore in excavations have been of a fragmentary character. No specimens of wood covered with mosaic have been found previously in Mexico, with the exception of the [Pg 87] small rim of wood excavated by Gamio in Zacatecas, and the four pieces from Chichen Itza. In the tropical and temperate zones, where the most important ancient sites are situated, artifacts of wood of any sort have rarely been unearthed. ”

“ We have described in detail the meaning of the hieroglyph formed by the mosaic-work, and shown that the brooch-like jewel was the insignia of one of the four principal [Pg 52] chiefs of the Aztecan army, who governed one of the four wards, or calpullis, into which Tenochtitlan, the capital of Montezuma, was divided. As a matter of fact, the jewel was found in a grave in Yanhuitlan, in the Mixteca region of Oaxaca. ”

“ They had made notable strides toward civilization in certain of the minor fine arts. Ignorant of glass and of glazed pottery, they nevertheless developed the ceramic art to a high degree of excellence. Their inventive genius and technical skill were manifest in their goldsmith’s art. [1]
Without the knowledge of iron, in the working of hard precious and semi-precious stones into idols and personal ornaments, their craftsmanship was equal to that of the best lapidaries of Europe at the beginning of the sixteenth century. ”

“ The report is so interesting that we quote what Peter Martyr writes about some of the objects of stone mosaic-work which Rivera displayed. [21]
We have been particularly delighted with two mirrors of exceptional beauty: the first was bordered with a circle of gold, one palm in circumference, and set in green wood; the other was similar. Ribera states that there is stone found in these countries, which makes excellent mirrors when polished; and we admit that none of our mirrors more faithfully reflect the human face. ”

“ In the Codex Selden is found an analogous picture, the band of the sky, with a central tonatiuh, and a descending human figure attached, below which are two figures. This scene has been interpreted by Beyer [100] as representing the solar god accepting human sacrifice. In our shield, the feature which follows in Codex Selden, depicting this sacrifice, is absent.
In our shield, facing the plunging figure, are two human figures, one on each side, holding something like a staff in each hand, similar to those held in the hands of the goddess. ”

“ The stone that they call round turquois is not very hard, so they have no need of emery to scrape, facet, smooth, or polish, for they apply to it the bamboo, then it receives its radiant luster and brilliancy. ”

“ Lothrop, the oliva shell shows signs of wear, and was probably the instrument used for rasping the [Pg 85] bone, as the bone is sound and produces a rather musical tone when scraped with the shell, as if the bone were of china.
Notched human bones are not uncommon in ancient Mexico, and some have been found elaborately engraved. In the course of excavations made in 1900 in the street back of the Cathedral in the City of Mexico, were uncovered many small pottery models of musical instruments which had been placed there undoubtedly when the foundations of the great Aztecan teocalli were laid. ”

“ Surrounding the skeleton were seventeen greenstone idols in the form of human figures; more than four hundred beads of greenstone and jadeite of varying sizes; thirty-five shells of various kinds, perforated for suspension; bits of mother-of-pearl, obsidian, and hematite, which evidently were fragments of disintegrated mosaic objects; but the most interesting objects recovered were a pair of small discs of pottery, upon the flat upper surfaces of which were cemented small pieces of very thin, highly-polished hematite, placed in mosaic. ”