The Miniaturization of Lithic Artifacts within the Offerings at the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Ceremonial Lithics of Mesoamerica: New Understandings of Technology, Distribution, and Symbolism of Eccentrics and Ritual Caches in the Maya World and Beyond" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The offerings at the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan contain several lithic artifacts that were miniature versions of ornaments, weapons and attire, which were used to produce religious images. For the Mexicas, the act of placing small objects in offerings as gifts was loaded with symbolism. These miniaturized artifacts were deposited to create a microcosm within the reduced space that was the offering. Miniature objects would have held the same symbolic qualities as the normal-size objects they represented. In the present paper, we will study miniaturized lithic artifacts from offerings around the sculpture of the earth goddess Tlaltecuhtli, located in front of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan. We propose that these miniaturized artifacts were models used by the Mexicas to represent deities, as well as dead-warriors traveling through the underworld.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Ceremonial Lithics of Mesoamerica: New Understandings of Technology, Distribution, and Symbolism of Eccentrics and Ritual Caches in the Maya World and Beyond   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24049