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52 22 MA FA 57PJ 44
Human face with rectangular headdress (fragment of a ceremonial brazier)
Collection
Culture
Ancient Mexico.
Pre-Columbian Art Galleries
Mexica
Style
-
Region
Central Veracruz
Year
900-1521 A.D.
Period
Post-Classic
Technique
Modeled and molded clay
with traces of stucco and
red coloring
Measures
26.4 x 17.1 x 16.4 cm
Location
Gallery 7. Death
Artists
-
Researchers
Arturo Pascual Soto
Description
Alvarado went to some small towns, people from another town that was known as Cotastan [Cotaxtla], which was the language of Culua
[náhuatl] … the language of the partiality of Mejico and of Montezuma, … and when Alvarado arrived at the towns, they were all deserted
that same day, and he found men and boys slaughtered in some temples and blood on the walls and altars of their idols and hearts
presented to their idols.
(Bernal Díaz del Castillo, True History of the Conquest of New Spain)
Starting with the year 900 of our era it seems that warlike activity was reinforced throughout the Gulf of Mexico, perhaps generated by a
series of events in which the role played by the Totonac group is uncertain. At any rate, in the Early Post-Classic Period (ca. 900-1200 A.D.)
a sort of aristocracy was emerging, supported specifically in the war that would lead to a series of cultural changes that manifest themselves
archaeologically in the visual art and architectural production of central and southern Veracruz. Everything indicates that these are cultural
adjustments promoted from outside the territory, and that are gradually reflected in the political behavior of all the ancient cities of the region.
First of all the groups with Mixtec cultural affiliation were the ones that introduced changes in the cultural expression of the Papaloapan River
basin; then the Totonac –who originally settled in the Sierra Norte of Puebla– spread in the early Post-Classic Period to reach places like
Cotaxtla, Quauhtochco, Quiahuiztlan and Cempoala, in addition to the region of Misantla and the Mountains of Papantla where they still
remain to this day. During the government of Moctezuma Ilhuicamina the Mexica military expansion on the Gulf Coast began; in 1469, at the
time of the death of Tlatoani, they dominated all the central coast of Veracruz, from Quiahuiztlan to the Huitzilapan river.
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52 22 MA FA 57PJ 44
Between 1502 and 1520 they established a military garrison on the Nautla river. By then, they would also be in Cotaxtla, Quauhtochco and
Acatlán, to the north of the city of Xalapa. The purpose of their establishment was to oversee the timely payment of taxes and control the
revolts of the Totonac and Popoloca peoples, as occurred in Cotaxtla and Ahuilizapan (Orizaba) in the time of Ahuitzotl (1481-1502). As the
Mexica armies spread and their business interests were secured, several of the traits of their culture penetrated the coast of Veracruz.
Their ceramics appear in Quiahuiztlan, in Oceloapan –on the banks of the river Huitzilapan– and buildings with circular floor plans were
constructed in Cempoala, whose history is found in the central Mexican highlands. The "Fortin" (little fort) of Quauhtochco is a great example
of the nahuatlization process –if we enforce the term here– of local architecture in the Late Post-Classic Period. When Cortes finally landed
on the beaches of Veracruz and marched on Cempoala, Villaviciosa, as the Spanish referred to it, it had experienced so many changes that
its transformation could not be more profound.
Upon entering Villaviciosa, whose quarters were so whitewashed that …it seemed to one of those on horseback that the white was like
gleaming silver (Bernal Díaz del Castillo), he listened to their "leading figures" speak the language of the Totonac, but the city was at that
time the base of several sets of neatly arranged buildings that made theirs the purest architectural style of ancient Tenochtitlan. Although
other languages were spoken, different from the Nahuatl language, that universe portrayed the cultural style of central Mexico. Ceramics
had also changed and with it the clay figures.
This piece is a silent witness to the time of contact. From what was once a full-length figure, only the head and headdress that adorn it
remain today. The face was made with a mold, while the rectangular headdress is the product of careful pastillage work. There is a bar like
ornament under the nose that makes the individual represented a character of high social status. Its style sits perfectly well with the pottery
of the Mexican central highlands. It was originally covered by a thin lime based plaster and painted with bright colors, but today only a few
traces of them remain, particularly on the mouth that looks strikingly red.
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