Aztec funeral masks. Funeral masks

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Ancient America

"Mayan Culture" - A sample of hieroglyphics of the ancient Mayans. The Mayans developed the most advanced writing system in all of pre-Columbian America. Stargazing. Mayan dates and numbers were deciphered in the 1800s. Ruins of the city of Uxmal. Pyramid of the "Wizard" in Uxmal. Architecture. Ancient observatory. The territory occupied by the Mayan civilization. “Aztec culture” - Tenochtitlan became the capital of the Aztec empire. Aztec Pantheon. Sculpture of a snake near the foot of the temple. Gods of death and the underworld. Statue of Xiuhtecuhtli. Golden bells. Temple ritual center. According to myths, the universe was divided horizontally. Since ancient times, the sun has been symbolized by the ancient Mexican peoples as an eagle.. "Indian Architecture" - Peoples Ancient America

The oldest inhabitants The Americans lived in caves and hunted wild animals. The Mayans were excellent stone carvers. In Central America, agriculture became the main occupation. The climate here is hot. The Mayans did not know metals. It was often necessary to move around the city by water.“The Art of Pre-Columbian America” - Supreme Inca Ruler. PYRAMID OF KUKULKAN. Ceramics. Vessel. Art culture Mayan. Inca culture. Monte Alban.

“Pre-Columbian culture” - PYRAMID OF KUKULKAN. Topic: Art of Pre-Columbian America. Mayan city. Relief on the Gate of the Sun in Tiahuanaco. Jewelry decoration. Head. 1000-800 BC Mexico. Tenochtitlan. 3. Aztec art. Among the warlike newcomers were the Aztecs (Aztecs). Golden mask Inca period. 2. Artistic culture of the classical period (profile).

"Olmec Culture" - Olmecs. The uniqueness of the Olmec culture. Thick lips. Figurine from Tuxtla. Protruding fangs. Stone monument of the Olmec culture. San Lorenzo. Remains of Olmec statehood. The rise of the Olmec culture. Ancient people Olmec. National traditions Olmec. Olmec stone axe. Head figure.

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Aztec artifacts found more than 100 years ago have been declassified.
The Aztecs, whose mythical ancestral home is Aztlan, wandered the world for decades in search of a place to settle that would correspond to their beliefs and predictions. One day they found the right area and founded the city of Tenochtitlan.
First, the Aztecs paid tribute to Culuacan, then to the state of Azcapotzalco. However, then in 1429 they managed to destroy their oppressors and gain independence. The Aztecs could be proud of themselves, because in less than 200 years they managed to go from a small nomadic tribe to an entire formidable empire that controlled a significant part of Central America.

Together with the city-states of Tlacopan and Texcoco, the Triple Alliance was formed, which only contributed to the growth of Aztec influence in the region. Soon Tlacopan became a vassal of the Aztec Empire, and Texcoco could not compete in power with the Aztecs and turned from an ally into an envious enemy.

The Aztec Empire was one of the most developed states on the continent until it was destroyed on August 13, 1521 by Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés.

Secret artifacts of the Aztec civilization were discovered in Jalisco (Mexico) more than a hundred years ago. However, they decided to declassify them only now. Perhaps these items were used when communicating with other civilizations, as, for example, the Mayans did.

There are many objects in the form of a mask-helmet with elongated facial features and big eyes. Most of them were handcrafted from gold and copper. Some artifacts are made of stone. But what’s surprising is that there are figures that look like comets and spaceships.

Looking at the artifacts and figurines of the Aztec civilization, one may doubt whether this really belongs to the ancient Indian culture. When researching, one must carefully separate the truth from the huge number of myths and assumptions that make ancient civilizations even more mysterious.

These artifacts were made using methods very close to modern ones in terms of the quality of material processing. What would you think if such a clever thing fell into your hands?

It's strange that all these items seem to model modern spaceship or a flying saucer. Some figures look like creatures with wings that supposedly flew from another world. These artifacts look extremely interesting.

It is difficult to understand the value of the finds, but there are about 400 similar items. It is in Mexico that people most often see UFOs. Many assume that such activity of representatives of extraterrestrial civilizations is connected precisely with the heritage of the Aztecs.

The shape of the artifacts is also very impressive. Maybe they are confirmation that creatures unknown to current science already lived side by side with people. Perhaps they were not even aliens, but representatives of some other civilization.

...They are found in Egyptian pyramids, in the shaft tombs of Mycenae, in stepped tombs, in the mounds of the Black Sea region and the Yenisei. Faces made of gold and semi-precious jade stone, terracotta and plaster, wax and clay, wood and linen... These are funeral masks. They can tell historians, anthropologists, and art historians who study the past a lot.

The cult of the dead and the associated cult of skulls, widespread in different time and at different nations world, gave rise to the custom of making portrait masks of the dead and placing them in graves. According to the ideas of the ancients, such masks were supposed to help souls identify their owners.

Using masks, anthropologists can recreate the appearance of representatives of long-vanished tribes and peoples. After all, funeral masks were made from casts of the faces of real people. Many museums around the world have already collected original “ portrait galleries» - collections of funeral masks.

Masks are great works of art. They testify not only to the sculptural skill of ancient sculptors. These are sometimes real masterpieces of jewelry art. The masters of the Incas, Aztecs, and Chibcha knew how to decorate gold masks with skillfully soldered fine gold spider web wire. Even the jewelers of our day are unable to replicate it. In West Africa, bronze and gold masks are known, made using the " lost form» - castings using a wax model. This casting technique reached its peak in the 16th and XVII centuries. Benin bronze aroused the admiration of even the famous Benvenuto Cellini.

Frozen faces made of gold and bronze, jade and terracotta, plaster and wax reveal to scientists some pages of human history.

Green jade mask attributed to 7th century, belonged to the supreme leader of the Mayans. The ancient sculptor made it from pieces of sacred stone, sticking them on a plaster base. Anthropologists believe that the owner of the mask was a foreigner by origin: his anthropological type is somewhat different from the Mayans. The mask was found in a pyramid near Palenque (Yucatan Peninsula).

Monte Alban (Mexico). Golden mask of the Aztec god of spring Xipe. The symbol of God was clothing made from the skin of a slave who was sacrificed; it meant the vegetation cover in which the earth is clothed every spring...

This mask was found by archaeologists on the territory of our country: in the Uybatsky Chaatas burial ground (80 kilometers from Abakan). The mask is of considerable age: it is the same age as our era, and maybe even older. The coloring of the mask conveys the tattoo that was in fashion among the Tashtyk people, residents of the Yenisei regions.

30 years ago, on the site of the Aztec city-state of Tenochtitlan (territory modern city Mexico City) archaeologists have discovered eight masks made from human skulls. The masks were found in a burial near the ruins of the Temple of Templo Mayor, built in honor of the god Huitzilopochtli (god of the sun and war) and the god Tlaloc (god of rain and fertility).

Today, American scientists from the University of Montana have come to the conclusion: the skulls belonged to captured opponents of the Aztecs or noble and wealthy representatives of Aztec society, killed for disagreeing with the official authorities. With the results of their research it is possible familiarize in the prestigious journal Current Anthropology.

The skulls from which the masks were made had the backs removed, they were painted, stones were inserted into the empty eye sockets, and stone knives were inserted into the noses. Some masks were decorated seashells and pieces of copper. “In our opinion, these unusual masks were either worn on the face or used as a headdress,” comment the study authors.

“These are truly amazing finds: previously only masks made from crocodile skulls were discovered in Mexico City.”

During the work, scientists examined the artifacts using isotope analysis and atomic absorption analysis of the chemical composition of bone tissue (using these methods, you can find out, for example, the health status of the people to whom the remains belong, as well as their age). As a result, the researchers learned: the skulls from which the masks were made belonged to men 30-45 years old. During their lifetime, the men did not have any health problems - in particular, they had good and strong teeth without any hint of caries. “The people whose skulls were used to make the masks were healthier than many others at the time,” said Cory Ragsdale, lead author of the study. “In addition, we found out that they all came from different regions.”

Scientists have determined that the skulls belonged to men who lived during the reign of Emperor Axayacatl. Axayacatl (whose name translates as “mask of water”) led the Aztecs from 1469-1481, had, according to different estimates, from 150 to 450 children and was famous for his cruel treatment of anyone who did not agree with his political decisions.

According to scientists, the skulls could belong to the enemies of Axayacatl, captured in one of the battles, or noble representatives of the Aztecs who disagreed with the official authorities. “Obviously, the unfortunate people were sacrificed,” the Americans comment. — Human sacrifice was a very common practice among the Aztecs. Historians debate how many people died as a result of these sacrifices.

Corey Ragsdale/Forbes.com

Now it is believed that at least 20 thousand (sacrifices were made 18 times a year - on each of the 18 sacred holidays).

Most often, prisoners of war and people of low status were killed. However, the fact that masks were made from the skulls of eight of the victims suggests that these victims were somehow different from all the others. Most likely, those killed had a high status - and therefore a special fate awaited them after death. Interestingly, next to the masks were found the usual skulls of 30 men and women, the skulls of crocodiles, as well as various figurines. These men and women were most likely also sacrificed, but due to the low social status they didn’t turn their skulls into masks.”

Scientists also do not exclude that the skull-masks could belong to participants in the flower wars - a series of ritual battles that were fought by the Aztec city-states to capture prisoners who were sacrificed to the gods.

“The Aztecs believed that human sacrifices were needed to prevent any “catastrophes” from happening, for example, so that the Sun would not stop shining,” the scientists explain.

Researchers say that in the future they are going to create a 3D model of amazing masks and post them on the Internet so that every user can admire the “art” of the Aztecs.

The capital of Mexico has a wonderful museum with the richest collection of artifacts related to American Indian culture. Even for someone with absolutely no interest in history or anthropology, it will be an unforgettable experience. Aztec Hall. Right at the entrance is a figure of a jaguar with a sacrificial bowl. The hearts of those sacrificed were placed here.
The Aztecs have always been considered the most brutal culture among all Indians. IN Lately However, they found that other cultures were not far behind them in this regard.
Sacrificial altar.
The Aztecs are the latest Native American culture in the Americas. Their heyday occurred in the years shortly before the Spanish conquest of America. The Aztecs had a developed writing system.
Scrolls have been preserved that describe the history of the Aztecs in pictograms and hieroglyphs.
The Spaniards, fearing witchcraft, or considering them heretical, burned all the Aztec writings that fell into their hands. Entire libraries containing thousands of scrolls were destroyed.
Now this is called one of the most terrible crimes of the conquistadors. They not only killed most of the population, but also destroyed the very culture of the Indians.
However, the Aztec culture cannot be called harmless. Every day at sunset in all the Aztec temples, human sacrifices were made to the gods so that they would allow the sun to rise the next day. Light armor made from tanned human skin, removed in its entirety. Ritual images of gods and mythical creatures knows no limits of imagination!
This snake head is more than a meter tall. Very similar to the rattlesnake that is found in this area.
Aztec pyramid in section. The model shows that the pyramids were built in “layers”. When the city grew and required a more solid pyramid, another layer was built on the existing one.
This is what Mexico looked like before the arrival of the Spaniards. The city was located on artificial artificial islands in the middle big lake. It was connected to the shore by embankment dams-roads. The history of the city is interesting. The tribes, the ancestors of the Aztecs, believed in prediction. They believed that they would create a great empire in the place where a sign would be shown to them - an eagle sitting on a cactus and eating a snake. One day they saw such a sign. But the eagle on a cactus was sitting on a small stone in the middle of a mountain lake. Without doubting the prediction, the Aztecs decided to build a city on the lake.
And in fact, their empire, centered in Mexico, became the greatest on the continent. The Aztecs waged constant wars, both to conquer lands and to capture prisoners to be sacrificed to the gods. To this day, the coat of arms of Mexico depicts an eagle sitting on a cactus with a snake in its claws.
The Aztecs did not know how to process iron. They used obsidian for piercing and cutting tools. Obsidian knives were extremely sharp and durable, but fragile. In addition, obsidian has antiseptic properties, which allowed Aztec surgeons to carry out quite complex operations and prevent infection.
Reconstruction of the Aztec market. Even in the market one can see order and discipline. The Aztecs were a maniacally ordered and disciplined culture. For any crime there was one punishment - death.
Book of expenses and income. Lists of goods received and exchanged.
This is what the Aztec kitchen hut looked like. Statues of priests, in traditional ritual clothes. Statue of the goddess Coatlicue - mother of the sun god. Aztec calendar. Until recently, it was considered the largest find representing Aztec science and writing. More recently, while clearing up a collapse after an earthquake, a slab was found covered with Aztec writing, which has not yet been presented to the public. This is how the calendar was painted. Let’s not raise the topic of 2012 - there’s already enough of this goodness throughout the entire network!
Stylized animal figures. Unfortunately, no matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t find anything like that among the souvenirs.
Obsidian processing was extremely developed among the Aztecs. Nowadays such things can only be made using diamond cutters. The secret of processing obsidian with stone tools has been lost. The fantasy of ancient artists can make, it seems to me, any modern surrealist blush. Musical instruments. Many are made from animal and human bones.
Aztec god of art. The ornaments on his clothes depict a cactus from which peyote, a hallucinogenic drug, is extracted. Considering this, many sculptures become clearer :) And this is from the Olmec hall. The Olmecs are one of the oldest cultures in Latin America. It was they who left giant stone heads with characteristic features faces. Some of them still remain in the jungle, but the best preserved ones have been moved to the museum. No one knows what these heads represent, why they were installed and to whom they were dedicated. Apart from the giant heads, there are not many cultural relics left from the Olmecs. But they still cause a lot of scientific controversy, including their similarity to Polynesian images and Easter Island idols.
Also mysterious are these images of laughing women. Some scientists believe that they are in a religious or drug trance, but these are only hypotheses.
Looking at some of the sculptures, one is reminded of popular theories about the connection between the culture of South American Indians and aliens. Mayan Hall:) Mayan images are characterized by certain facial features and head shape. Facades of Mayan temples. They were cut down by "black archaeologists" and exported to the USA for private collectors. Subsequently returned by police to Mexican authorities.
A whole small temple was assembled from the “confiscated goods” in the courtyard of the museum! :) The Mayan culture is a little similar to the Aztec, or rather the opposite, since it is more ancient. Ritual obsidian knife. Surprisingly fine workmanship for such a fragile stone. Mayan writing. It was deciphered quite recently, and, interestingly, by Soviet scientists without leaving the USSR. After the collapse of the Union, he immigrated to Mexico and spent the rest of his life there. Like some African tribes, the Mayans distorted the shape of their children’s skulls using special devices. Hence the characteristic shape of the heads in all Mayan images. Mayan books. Having deciphered them, scientists learned that, contrary to earlier assumptions, the Mayans were not peaceful tribes, but waged constant war with their neighbors and among themselves. Reconstruction of Mayan burials. In earlier burials, the Mayans buried their dead lying upright, or in a fetal position. Later burials are “sedentary”.
The most famous burial one of the Mayan kings. Because of the green mask and sarcophagus, with images of a “chariot” rising into the sky, a theory was put forward about the alien origin of the Mayan “gods”. Scientists, however, do not support them. It is believed that these are metaphorical images of the world of the living and the dead. One of the images of floating people. And the bas-relief of the “heavenly ruler” in the courtyard of the museum.