Archive of Artifacts

Effigy Vessel

Jama Coaque

300 BCE-600 CE

The Jama-Coaque culture of Ecuador’s northern coast is known for complex moldmade and hand-modeled ceramic sculptures that depict people and animals. Felines are the most frequently represented animal, indicating their importance as symbols of power. On this modeled effigy vessel, the large jar on the jaguar’s back suggests that the object was ceremonial, perhaps used for ritual offerings. The style of the round, bulging eyes and nose indicates that the jaguar represents a supernatural being.

Pendant in the Form of a Spider

Chiriquí

1000-1500

In Costa Rica gold animal pendants were often worn by and buried with elite members of Chiriquí society. The eagle’s broad tail and outstretched wings may symbolize the animal’s ability to soar high into the sky and enter the supernatural realm. The spider’s legs end in human hands, which hold a double-headed snake. The abdomen, adorned with a bird and two crocodilian heads, is a bell that would have made a tinkling sound as the wearer moved. Depictions of predatory animals would have inspired awe and respect and provided the wearer with power and protection.

Double Pendant in the Form of a Mythical Saurian with Tusks

Coclé

800-1200

Emblems of caiman and caiman-like creatures were often symbolic of the land floating in the primordial sea, thus evoking the original world creation and the ongoing ties between the mythic past and the heroic present.

Frog Bottle

Moche

4th–7th century

Pair of Earflares

Olmec

10th–4th century BCE

Obsidian Mirror

Aztec

1200-1521 CE (mirror) 16th century (frame)

Obsidian, a volcanic glass, was used to make cutting tools as well as delicate ornaments. It was valued for its reflective qualities and employed in the form of mirrors for divining. Such mirrors were associated with powerful rulers and divinities: the name of a major Aztec god, Tezcatlipoca, means "smoking mirror." The gilded wood frame of this example likely dates to the colonial period and is carved with alternating flower and step-fret symbols.

Turkey Vessel

Veracruz

7th–10th century

In ancient Veracruz and elsewhere in Mesoamerica, turkeys were not just nutritionally important resource animals—they were also esteemed by high-ranking people for ceremonial use. For example, scholars have interpreted images in the Dresden Codex, the oldest of the few Maya manuscripts that still exist, as depicting priests offering sacrificial turkeys to deities to ensure agricultural fertility. Archaeologists have also uncovered turkey bones throughout ancient Mesoamerica in ancient high-status burials and caches as well as in domestic contexts of both elites and commoners. Even today, turkeys are widely raised in backyards in rural Mexico, their esteem maintained in some areas through ritual activities and gift exchanges that echo practices of the past.