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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2016 6:45:53 GMT
This thread created by kerouac2The National Museum of Anthropology is one of the absolute jewels of the country. While the principal cultural icon of most countries is an art museum, the incredible wealth of pre-Columbian artifacts in this museum is overwhelming. And as you will see, it is indeed an "art" museum anyway because the statues on display totally outclass just about everything that was created in Europe or Asia in the Middle Ages. This is probably the main thing that infuriated the Spanish conquistadors when they arrived en masse in the 16th century and destroyed as much as they could, except for the gold of course. Believe me, there is plenty left because every state in Mexico has museums devoted to these treasures.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2016 6:54:02 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 6, 2016 15:30:18 GMT
I am excited to participate in this thread showcasing one of my absolute favorite places, from the architecture housing the collection to the rich artifacts within. [The museum] was built by the Mexican architect, Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, over a period of 19 months. ... [It] covers an area of 79,700 square meters, 35,700 of which are in the open air! (the central patio, the entrance square, and several other patios). The show rooms surround the central patio. Each room is dedicated to a particular culture, beginning with the origins of man and encompassing the Toltecs, the Teotihuacans, the Mayas, and in particular, the Aztecs. sourceFor further reading, the Wikipedia entry is illuminating. As Kerouac pointed out in the OP, the water feature in the main patio is a reference to Lake Texcoco, which "was a natural lake within the Anáhuac or Valley of Mexico, ... most well known as where the Aztecs built the city of Tenochtitlan, located on an island within the lake. After the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, efforts to control flooding by the Spanish led to most of the lake being drained. The entire lake basin is now almost completely occupied by Mexico City, the capital of the present-day nation of Mexico." source
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 6, 2016 15:52:30 GMT
Even though Octavio Paz objected to the "exhaltation" of the Aztec culture at this museum, it's a dazzlingly beautiful collection and the perfect place to begin. Indeed, the museum is so large and so full, that those who tire easily might choose to only visit this section. We are greeted by a cuauhxicalli, a Nahuatl (language of the Aztecs) word meaning "eagle gourd bowl". It was used to hold human hearts taken in sacrificial ceremonies. This one is in the form of a jaguar ~
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 6, 2016 16:15:46 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2016 16:20:08 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 6, 2016 18:04:31 GMT
The statue of Coatlicue is easily one of the most impressive and certainly most "alien" pieces in the museum. She stands 2.7 meters/8.9 feet tall, is a meter and a half wide and is sculpted from andesite, a volcanic stone. sourceCoatlicue was regarded as the earth-mother goddess. She was the patron of childbirth, and was associated with warfare, governance and agriculture, and considered the female aspect of the primordial god Ometeotl. The statue depicts the goddess with her severed head replaced by two coral snakes, representing flowing blood. She wears a necklace of severed human hands and hearts with a large skull pendant. She also wears her typical skirt of entwined snakes whilst her hands and feet have the large claws which she uses to rip up human corpses before she eats them. ... At her back her hair hangs down in 13 tresses symbolic of the 13 months and 13 heavens of Aztec religion. Interestingly, the base of the statue is carved with an earth monster, even though it would never be seen. sourceXochipilli [ʃu˕ːt͡ʃiˈpiɬːi] was the god of art, games, beauty, dance, flowers, and song in Aztec mythology. It has been suggested that this statue represents Xochipilli in entheogenic ecstacy. source
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 6, 2016 20:13:05 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2016 20:30:19 GMT
The statue of Coatlicue is easily one of the most impressive and certainly most "alien" pieces in the museum. She stands 2.7 meters/8.9 feet tall, is a meter and a half wide and is sculpted from andesite, a volcanic stone. sourceCoatlicue was regarded as the earth-mother goddess. She was the patron of childbirth, and was associated with warfare, governance and agriculture, and considered the female aspect of the primordial god Ometeotl. The statue depicts the goddess with her severed head replaced by two coral snakes, representing flowing blood. She wears a necklace of severed human hands and hearts with a large skull pendant. She also wears her typical skirt of entwined snakes whilst her hands and feet have the large claws which she uses to rip up human corpses before she eats them. ... At her back her hair hangs down in 13 tresses symbolic of the 13 months and 13 heavens of Aztec religion. Interestingly, the base of the statue is carved with an earth monster, even though it would never be seen. sourceI did not know the back story on that nasty goddess. Now I'm kind of sorry that I do.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 7, 2016 6:24:49 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 7, 2016 20:16:07 GMT
I'm enjoying your pictures, Kerouac, and also enjoying the fact that we got photos of different things -- it really shows how very big and varied the collection is. So far, we are still in the first section, with more to show. In reference to the comment about Coatlicue and her fearsome aspect -- here's a quick look at the more important Aztec gods. And moving right along, I'm going to wrap up my coverage of the Toltec/Aztec section with this post ~
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Post by Deleted on Dec 8, 2016 6:33:11 GMT
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Post by tod2 on Dec 8, 2016 17:14:34 GMT
Quite overwhelming - Very strange objects, meanings of said objects and absolutely fascinating. It is a marvellous place and I'm sure if it was not on your bucket list, is ticked off with some pleasure.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 8, 2016 17:39:44 GMT
We had a connoisseur with us to tell us that it was a must. And it was!
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Post by fumobici on Dec 8, 2016 20:01:34 GMT
What an incredible collection of wonders. The workmanship and obvious effort that was invested in those objects is staggering. And many are soooo strange, almost barely appearing to even be the work of humans. The museum itself looks very, very impressive as well, befitting the collection it houses.
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 8, 2016 20:51:36 GMT
Fumobici, that is so exactly how I see these works -- as beautiful and impressive, but some are truly almost alien. And yes, the museum complex is a marvel. Moving on, we go out into the main patio to enter another section of the museum ~
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 9, 2016 5:28:35 GMT
Admiring the fountain's base while staying nice and dry on the other side of the window ~
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Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2016 5:50:14 GMT
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Post by mossie on Dec 9, 2016 16:15:28 GMT
Most definitely the weird and wonderful.
Are you quite sure that humans fabricated all these things, there are stories of extra terrestrial visitors in several civilisations.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2016 16:24:53 GMT
I do wonder that myself. Or did science fiction writers get their inspiration from some of these artifacts and imbue us over the years that aliens look like this? But when you see the joyful toy objects with the little dogs and cats and children, it is eminently obvious that they were human. I was intrigued by some of the differences of emphasis in different regions -- for example the obsession with the belly button in one culture. None of the other cultures seemed to be particularly impressed by navels, but this one seemed to make it stand out as the most important detail.
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 10, 2016 2:23:50 GMT
This is great -- Kerouac got some stuff I completely missed! I agree about the joyfulness of some of the depictions and also love how faithfully rendered faces are. What I find most intriguing, though, are the representations of the gods. We are used to art that shows gods and goddesses as beautiful humans. Even the old terrifying gods are made to look recognizably human (Goya's 'Saturn devouring his children'). These Mexican gods, however, are concrete images of multiple abstract ideas that for me, at least, are impenetrable. But what leaps of the imagination, what art!
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 10, 2016 2:58:01 GMT
Figures from the Remojadas culture of Veracruz ~ an Olmec head ~ erroneously known as The Wrestler ~ Goodbye endlessly fascinating museum -- can't wait till next time! We cross over to Chapultepec Park. As in all places in Mexico where people congregate, you can't go hungry ~ We opted for a healthful snack ~ That's it for me & my store of pictures ~
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2016 5:16:34 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 10, 2016 5:21:11 GMT
Too embarrassing ~ Kerouac did a better job of covering the Oaxaca section than I did. All of his pictures in reply #22 are of Oaxacan artifacts. The odd bas-reliefs in 22's first picture are from Monte Alban -- the same place as the brightly colored tomb in my #16.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2016 5:21:57 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2016 5:29:34 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 3, 2020 21:05:16 GMT
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