PC2667 - UNUSUAL PRE-COLUMBIAN AZTEC LARGE SUN APPLIQUE MADE OF SHELL

Product Description

ID

Weapon / Tool

FOUND

Mexico

AGE

Post Classic Period:  900 A.D. - 1521 A.D.

SIZE

2.25" long

CONDITION

COMPLETE AND PERFECT WITH NO
REPAIR OR RESTORATION.  RARE
WITH NATURAL LUSTER FROM THE
SHELL'S NACRE ON THE DISPLAY 
SIDE! 

NOTE

SUPER RARE EXAMPLE.  FROM THE 
COLLECTION OF AN ARCHAEOLOGIST
WHO GREW UP IN MEXICO IN THE 
1950'S AND 1960'S BEFORE EMIGRATING
TO THE U.S..

INCLUDES DISPLAY BOX - Actual Item - One Only

Comes with a certificate of
authenticity / information sheet

This is an EXTREMELY RARE complete SUN applique carved from shell, from the Aztec Culture.  It is in amazing preservation and perfect as originally made with no damage or missing portions.  The center has been drilled to be sewn onto clothing.  Because of the age and the fact it is made of organic material which rarely survives time, ancient objects such as this, are VERY scarce and seldom seen.  This applique would have been carved from a very large conch shell, using a portion of the shell near the main opening where a relatively flat area could have been used for the carving.  There is a slight curve to the shape.  One side is dull which would have been the inner carved part of the shell but the Aztec maker used the interior of the shell for the display side and this still retains the nacre and natural luster of the shell!

Because of its shape, this rare artifact could actually be safely worn and utilized in a modern custom jewelry project as a main focal object.  The original drilled center hole could be used for attachment or gold could be mounted around the perimeter.  Mounting this piece in pure or high karat gold would make an INCREDIBLE custom jewelry piece!

From the former collection of an archaeologist that grew up in Mexico in the 1950's and 1960's before emigrating to the United States.  A valuable and RARE display / educational collection.  NO REPAIR, RESTORATION OR MODERN MODIFICATION.  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to complete a collection.

While many ancient civilizations remain a mystery, little can be left to conjecture when it comes to the details of the Aztec way of life. An extensive and detailed collection of written and pictorial records exist for us today called CODICES (CODEX if singular) were produced before Spanish contact by the native tribes themselves, and afterwards during the Colonial period. These codices were created by the Aztecs in pictorial form, as well as by other indigenous tribal sources, all of which had no written language. Colonial era codices exist in greater number with roughly 500 separate codices known, showing extensive pictograms as well as being written in Spanish, Latin and in the original Nahuatl language.

The origin of the Aztec (Azteca) Empire is legendary. Aztec codices record that they began their wandering journey in 1100 A.D. emerging from their former homeland called Aztlan or "place of the herons", an island in a lake where men went out to fish from boats. The exact location of this region is not known but other than it was northwest of present-day Mexico City, the former center of the Aztec empire, but how far, it is a mystery.

The Aztecas believed they were guided by a blood-thirsty deity they called Huitzilopochtli who communicated to them through four priest-chieftains called teomama. Their god called upon them for his insatiable thirst for human blood and sacrifice. As they migrated south, every indigenous Indian tribe they encountered along the way abhorred the Azteca, as they were known, as they were reviled and scorned for their violent and barbaric ways. During their migration, Huitzilopochtli gave a message to his people that their new identity would no longer be known as Azteca but as Mexica. In around 1325 A.D., as they were fleeing an altercation with the Culhuacans, they were driven to a marsh. Their god Huitzilopochtli consoled them that evening and said he would end their wandering and told them to look for a sign that he will give them that will signify their new homeland which will be "the place of the cactus and the eagle I now name Tenochtitlan". They next day they witnessed an eagle resting on a prickly pear cactus which they interpreted to be the sign they were hoping for.

This marsh, Lake Texcoco, would later become a vast canal-laced highly advanced, super city of stone pyramids and temples known as Tenochtitlan. With a population that grew to an estimated 200,000 people (three times the largest city of Spain at the time!) this became the center of the most powerful and militaristic empire of Mesoamerica - home of the Aztecs. Today, we classify their reign as occupying the Late Post Classic Period from 1250 - 1521 A.D.

The success and rise of the Aztec empire was largely attributed to their dominance through intimidation of their surrounding neighbors from whom they extracted resources from. The effect of their extreme militarism and brutality on their enemies brought a large region of peoples into submission. The highly advanced and complex Aztec social structure, as well as legal system, kept their growth intact and the society orderly. They formed an alliance with the Texcoco and Tlacopan tribes and in 1428 A.D., they defeated the Tepaneca. This triple alliance established a great empire that was predominantly ruled from Tenochtitlan. At its peak, this empire included a large, diverse group of people and spanned an area from the entire Central Mexico region south, into northern Guatemala.

References:

- Fiedel, Stuart J., Prehistory of the Americas, 1992 - Freeman and Company, Early Man in America, 1973 

- Hirth Kenneth, Obsidian Craft Production in Ancient Central Mexico, 2006 

- Muser, Curt, Facts and Artifacts of Ancient Middle America, 1978 

- Phillips, Charles, The Complete Illustrated History of the Aztec and Maya, 2008 

- Pohl, John M.D., Aztec, Mixtec and Zapotec Armies. Oxford: 1991 

- Schmal, John P., The History of the Indigenous Sinaloa. 2004 - Stuart, Gene, The Mighty Axtecs, 1981