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By Carmen Aguilera |
Jan 1, 2008
The Spaniards arrived on the coast of present-day Veracruz in the Mexica year 1 Reed, or 1519
ce, the year that the god Quetzalcoatl had promised to return after leaving his beloved Toltec city of Tula. Thinking that Fernando Cortés was the god Quetzalcoatl (the “feathered serpent”), the Mexica emperor Motecuhzoma sent people to welcome him, and the envoys dressed Cortés in this god's special costume. They placed before Cortés a turquoise mask with intertwined serpents (coatl), and on his head placed a quetzal-feather headdress; the two spelled the deity's name. On his lower back they fixed a mirror with bands of turquoise, and they covered him with a beautiful net mantle, studded with bright pieces of turquoise. By doing this, the Mexica were emulating their admired predecessors, the Toltec, and also dressing the Spaniard as a Mexica lord, with turquoise, the most beautiful and valuable of all gemstones.Turquoise (Nahuatl, xíhuitl) is a blue-to-green stone found mostly in veins in desert regions. It is a phosphate of aluminum with small quantities of copper and iron that formed by the distillation of water in rock cleavages; it is often seen on the earth's surface as outcrops. Ancient Mesoamericans believed that precious stones were to be found early in the morning in places where a thin column of mist rose; this idea was probably prompted by the collected dew on turquoise outcrops, which the morning sun evaporated. Turquoise deposits do not go very deep, which makes their extraction fairly easy—although the ancient miners worked painstakingly in hot, ill-ventilated shafts.The discovery of turquoise in Mesoamerica dates from the Preclassic period (1500
bce -- 200
ce). It was used extensively in the Classic period (200 -- 900
ce), but its maximum use was in the Early Postclassic (900 -- 1168
ce) during the Toltec hegemony, and then in the Late Postclassic (1168 -- 1521
ce) during the Mexica expansion. During the last period, turquoise superseded jade as the most valuable stone. Sixteenth-century sources speak of its value, splendor, and the many objects in which it was used.Under Classic Teotihuacan, the Chalchihuites culture of the western region of Zacatecas was the center of turquoise working and distribution. Altavista was the largest ceremonial center of the culture. There, archaeologists discovered a workshop with the various stages of the turquoise-work process: chunks, beveled tesserae for mosaics, finished objects, and debris. It is believed that beveling and other turquoise-working techniques were developed at this place. After the fall of Teotihuacan, the turquoise-production center was shifted to Chaco Canyon in present-day New Mexico. Soon the Chaco people were not only trading turquoise but also manufacturing objects with Mesoamerican techniques probably learned at Altavista.In the Postclassic period, turquoise reached Mesoamerica mostly from Chaco Canyon, some 1600 kilometers (1,000 miles) away. During this period, turquoise was more a product of trade, use, and power in the Oaxaca area and in the highland than in the Maya region. From the Maya region only a few examples exist, although in the Yucatan Peninsula there are representations on the mosaic walls of the ballcourt at Chichén Itzá (actually of Toltec origin) of warriors who are attired in pieced of turquoise. In fact, Tula—the Toltec capital in Central Mexico—was the capital of turquoise, and Quetzalcoatl, its patron god, was the mythic discoverer, merchant, and owner of the gemstone sources. He even owned a house lined with turquoise, according to legend.Once the lapidaries had chunks of rock containing turquoise, they carefully separated the material from the matrix, polished the valuable pieces, finished them with a fine sand mixed with bat dung, and burnished them with a bamboo tube. To glue the tesserae onto a wooden base, they used a mixture of charcoal and chia-seed oil applied to the backs. They produced cylindrical and tubular beads, cabochons, and beveled tesserae. There still exist many pre-Hispanic objects ornamented with turquoise mosaic or with beads: masks, round flat objects, shields, helmets, lip plugs, animals from whose jaws emerge human heads, necklaces, and other pieces set with one or several bits of turquoise. The codices represent many more types of turquoise objects than those known today. These sources give an approximate idea of the most significant items, but not of the immense quantity produced and used by Mesoamericans. Many are now in museums or private collections, and the missing forms may have gone down in shipwrecks when the native treasures were shipped to Spain.Masks were very important objects because they identified the images of the gods or priests. Apart from Quetzalcoatl, Tlaloc, and his wife Chalchiuhtlicue, Xiuhtecuhtli, Tezcatlipoca, Camaxtli, and Cinteotl wore turquoise masks. The royal diadem (xíuhuitzolli) was the symbol of Toltec and later Mexica supremacy and lordship. It was a triangular headdress covered with turquoise. The most expensive article of the accesion attire, the xíuhayatl or xíuhtilmatli was a hemp-net mantle tied at the shoulder with a fine turquoise bead threaded on each knot. The xíuhtlalpilli was a similarly made garment tied at the waist, worn by the deities Huitzilopochtli, Yacatecuhtli, and Paynal. The lord's accession attire also included noserods and noseplugs, earplugs, necklaces, pectorals, armbands, wristbands, anklets, and even the ends of loincloths enriched with bands of turquoise. All this regalia was of Toltec origin. Other objects made with turquoise were disks, mirrors, shields, sacrificial knives, staffs, atlatls (spear-throwers), swords, scepters, and the tzotzopaztli (weaving stick) particular to Cihuacoatl, sometimes used as a weapon. Objects bearing turquoise were very expensive and could be worn only by gods, nobles, and priests.Its blue-to-green color led the Mesoamericans to associate it with Tláloc, god of rain, and his wife. For its brightness, it was related to the god of fire, Xiuhtecuhtli, lord of turquoise, of the year, and of green, tender herbs (because xíhuitl has those three meanings) and to solar gods like Xochipilli, Huitzilopochtli, and his vicar, Paynal. Turquoise symbolized water and fire, and thus life and also eternity, since it embodied the cyclical concept of time. Xiuhtecuhtli, the “Turquoise Lord” and the annually renewed vegetation, was the god who initiated the year. The glyph for “year” in the Colonial period had turquoise in it. Turquoise then expressed power and lordship—also wisdom, what is right and good—all the noble qualities associated with the legendary Toltec people.
[See also Lapidary; Masks.]
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