The Effigy Mask Of Coyolxauhqui

Carrasco, David and Scot Sessions. Daily Life of the Aztecs: People of the Sun and Earth. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1998.

Grupo Mondongo’s medium choice is quite new and their collage is quite extraordinary, its basically a sculpture of small things that most people have likely seen, put together to make it look like a skull in a size of about 5 foot by 4 foot. The artist probably chose to make it a skull because Calavera is a sugar skull that is eaten on days leading up to ‘The Day of the Dead’ in most Latin American countries. The title of the artwork is obviously shown in the sculpture, it shows a skull and has a picture of a skull. The references to these sculptures has a lot of different historical paintings such as, “The Last Supper”, “Lady with an Ermine”, “The Great waves of Kanagawa” and “Michael Jackson and Bubbles.” There are also famous movies such as “King Kong,” “Star Wars,” and “The Terminator.”

The cultural artifact that I propose to study is a bust of Queen Nefertiti, who was the Royal Wife of the Pharaoh Akhenaten. The bust is said to be painted with stucco-coated limestone, created in 1345 B.C by Thutmose who was a talented sculptor. The bust was discovered in 1912 in Thutmose’s workshop by Ludwig Borchardt and his archaeological team. The bust had many owners in Germany throughout the years, however, it is currently on display at the Neues Museum in Berlin. The Nefertiti bust is a cultural phenomenon, especially for ancient Egypt as well as Berlin. Germany had the bust for over a century now and it has been their pride and joy. The argument between Egypt and Germany over the bust has been going on for decades. Egypt believes that the bust belongs to them and that it was taken

Representation” by Michael Schreffler argues that “ . . . early modern rhetoric and iconography . . . constructed a distorted view of painting in Aztec Mexico and entangled it in the conventions of colonial historiography” (407). This essay is effective because of its thorough examination of the accounts that explain a painting made by the Aztec’s at San Juan de Ulúa on Easter Sunday of 1519.

Jewelry made from copper, jade, obsidian and gold was also reserved for the Emperor. He had such a variety of clothing and jewelry, it is said that he never wore the same thing twice. There were rules in the Aztec society that told which rank of people could wear which type of clothing. For example, only nobles and the Emperor could wear clothing decorated with feathers, beads and other pretty things. Farmers and other lower-class people could not. If this law was broken, the consequence was death. The Emperor and noble families also had their bodies pierced so they could wear more jewelry. Statues and brightly colored paintings would adorn their walls and set them apart from the lower class and maintain their high-class status. Different materials are used to make art such as coral,

The mask is part of the ceremony known as "the Dance of the Goats” or La Danza de los Chivos. The mask on masksoftheworld.com is from Chilpancingo, State of Guerrero, Mexico. However, the traditional Dance of the Goats began in Zitlala, State of Guerrero, Mexico. The villagers created the dance after the Mexican Revolution in 1910. After the war, an epidemic took place

The Aztecs had no iron or bronze with which to make their tools or weapons. Therefore, the Aztec’s had to develop a system for creating effective tools and weapons. For this reason, many Aztec tools were made with rocks such as obsidian and chert even made drills, which were made of reed or bone.

Although, no credible information regarding burials has been discovered, Headrick claims the highest-ranking ancestors underwent mortuary bundles, a treatment in which their remains are wrapped in assemblages (chapter 3). Mortuary bundles have not been found at Teotihuacan, thus, Headricks supports her claims by presenting information regarding mortuary bundles found in the Classical Maya and the Mixtec. Assimilating information about the treatment in those cultures and the discovery of the three stone masks, Headrick proposes that stone masks were likely tied to mortuary bundles as they are largely depicted in the city’s artistic record (chapter 3). Moreover, Headrick further supports her claim by comparing an archeological find of a ceramic bust with a mask to a similar one elsewhere in Mesoamerica (chapter 3). Headrick’s argument regarding mortuary bundles is convincing and the evidence to support her claim is

Eduard was responsible for finding the cultures and written work; translating everything that was found from pictures, writing, and stories. Cecilia was responsible for speaking to the locals in the neighboring area. With this, she began finding different artifacts such as the Aztec warrior mask. This mask presented strange writing on the mask and is now in present day Berlin. Another archeological artifact that was found was that "Pierda del sol" or sun stone in 1790. This was used as a calendar and weighed roughly 24

The figures mouth is open , with some breath coming out. Right next to his mouth there is a hole in the shell. On the other side of the shell, there is a glyph with the name of the figure who was a Mayan King. The material used to create the figure , the animal headdress and the glyph is cinnabar .Cinnabar is a mercuric sulfide mineral that produces a red color. Cinnabar, alongside jadeite and obsidian , were used for burials and

As an archeologist, solving the puzzle about our past generations isn’t easy to analyze without written forms of communication. In a perfect world, every important aspect of each and every culture before us would be well documented in written texts. We can however, make inferences and analyze the artifacts and other forms of communication that are excavated from various sties around the globe. There are many different forms of important artifacts from the mesoamerican culture that shaped state authority and control. Mesoamerica is a culture and region in Mexico/northern South America, that existed from 3500 BCE to 1697 AD. Two important cultures within mesoamerica are the Aztec and Maya. More specifically, three examples of these important artifacts are the Templo Mayor, the Maya stelae and the ritual of bloodletting. These are great examples because each presents a different type of artifact and contributes to different aspects of state authority.

Luiseno Native artist James Luna’s performance of, The Artifact Piece (1987) confronts anthropological museums in their post-colonial precepts of the Indian “other”. In the performance of The Artifact Piece, Luna shares with the viewer that he himself is a living human artifact. Bringing into question why institutions as such continue to perpetuate and objectify Native Indigenous people as extinct artifacts, compared to dinosaur bones. His performance clearly created a crack into Eurocentric ideologies of early American Indians as separate and distant, to that of present day Native American Indians. In La Nostalgia: The Artifact, another performance by Luna. He explains “They have our stuff.” and “It’s all about the past, as if we don’t live in the present. Until they saw me…”.” In this performance he tells the viewer’s “Take a picture with a real Indian.” Sometimes Luna is in Native dress and sometimes he is in contemporary clothing. This then gives the audience a visual evidence that he is a living Indian of this space and time. As Jean Fisher put it in a 1992 Art Journal article, Luna’s work did not simply threaten to return a controlling gaze: rather, she wrote, the presence “of the undead Indian of colonialism . . . and the possibility that he may indeed be watching and listening disarms the voyeuristic gaze and

The Egyptian Mummy Mask from the early Roman Period is unique and beautiful in every way possible. This mask that is on display in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston is about 3 feet tall to about 2 feet wide. This certain piece of magnificent art is extremely detailed with intricate designs covering it all around. The Museum of Fine Arts makes it easy to pay attention to, because of its detail and how the mask is displayed. The Mummy Mask has it’s own small alter with a spot light shining down on it creating dramatic shadows in a very dim room. The decorations include inlaid glass eyes, a gold leaf and is hand-painted and gilded glass. This mask is not paper maché like the masks that were made in this era; this Mummy Mask had been created out of cartonnage . The Egyptians decorated this masterpiece with bold vertical and horizontal lines representing rows of beads to go along with the story it tells. The Egyptian Mummy Mask from the first half of the first century A.D illustrates a gaze of innocence and acceptance while looking into the bright future of whom the mask was made for. Perfectly painted images covering the mask tell a story of the traditional funerary practices and the after life Egyptians believed in. Egyptians would create these pieces to fit over the heads of the lost lives wrapped inside the mummy. The mask represents the deceased transformed into a God . Although the face of the mask is idealized and emotionless, the decorations say and express more than a

As time went on, Egyptian masks evolved and were made of more complex materials. The first masks were created with wood and two pegs. The next masks were made up of cartonnage, a material made up of linen and papyrus. Although these masks were used for lower class people. Materials such as gold or bronze were used for royal masks. They also used paint and jewels to make the facial features and accessories. Gold and bronze items were constructed using the person's face. First, they would take a plaster mold of their face. Second, the plaster mold used as the base for the gold coating poured over it. Lastly, the mask was painted to resemble the person's face and specific details were added. Thick eyebrows, over exaggerated eyes, and royal beards

Masks have many different functions. Masks were made out of lightweight materials such as leather or wood. The masks were painted and made to look as close to the character as possible. They were painted with exaggerated facial features. Masks contained a megaphone like device that mad the actor’s voice louder to the audience in the back of the large theatre.