Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1984 - 22

monial dresses, headgear and
jewelry of the elite. Wooden objects
such as ritual spears were covered
in gold. Although a great deal of
jewelry and gold was lavished on
the gods, at least as much wealth
was devoted to manifestations of
social distinctions. Moreover, for
many religious ceremonies, especially the agricultural rituals of the
peasants, supplicating the gods
for rain or fruitful crops, the priests
and performers were dressed in
inexpensive paper garments. The
Codex Borbonicus depicts a harvest ritual in which the priest wearing the skin of a sacrificial victim
and his attendants are adorned
with headdresses of colorful paper
streamers. In contrast, for military rites the aristocracy wore their
costliest feather suits and carried
precious insignia.
Unlike other parts of Mesoamerica, in Central Mexico there is
no evidence for richly stocked
royal burials. Recent excavations in
Mexico City of the Ttemplo Mayor,
however, indicate that enormous
quantities of art works were buried as offerings under the stairways
and platforms. These included
numerous greenstone masks and
figures imported from the west,
now known as the Province of
Guerrero, and heirloom pieces such
as Olmec and Teotihuacan masks.
One of the most lavish offerings is
the relief carving of a goddess on
a piece of greenstone measuring
almost a meter and a half long.
During the nineteenth century, a
relief called the Dedication Stone
and the head of the goddess
Coyolxauhqui, both nearly a meter
long, were discovered near the
grounds of the Tfemplo Mayor, but
we do not know if these originally
were buried or stood above ground.
To evaluate such large objects
we must look at them through
Aztec eyes and understand their
inestimable value. It is as though,
in our terms, they were made of
solid gold. In the recently popular
movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, the
archaeologist hero discovers an
Aztec statue in a temple hidden in
the jungles of South America (instead of Mesoamerica!). Since the
film was made for an American
audience, the statue appears to be
solid gold- the original in the
Dumbarton Oaks Collection in
Washington, D.C. is naturally of
greenstone.
22

ARCHAEOLOGY

was the economic usefulA^hat
ness of taking so much treasure
out of circulation by burying it in
the ground? Such lavish burials
and offerings are not characteristic
of either tribal peoples or of modern
industrial states. In pre-industrial
states most of the surplus wealth was
accumulated in the form of art
works. The population was left with
a very simple standard of living.
Colossal sculptures were erected by all
the major empires of the Valleyof
Mexico. This 4.6-meter-high figure of a
warrior is one of four from Tula, which
may have supported the roof of a temple
on top of a major pyramid.
^

The pre-industrial state, in fact, was
organized to produce great quantities of fine art for the aristocracy.
Art represented the gross national
product, the major items in which
economic productivity could
be measured.
Just like the ancients, we measure the level of a state by its accumulation of objects. But unlike
Preour cars and refrigerators,
columbian jade carvings and gold
necklaces did not wear out. Moreover, since in pre-industrial times
the use of these special goods
was restricted to the elite, there
was no possibility of expanded
markets for these objects. As

Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1984

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1984