The ArtTrak blog has been created as a discussion forum for the website www.arttrak.com. Periodically ArtTrak also sends out Newsletters to their subscribers and this information after publication is also added to the blog. While much of the blog is devoted to African, Pre-Columbian, Oceanic, American Indian, and Folk Art, we are also very involved with appraisal and authentication issues. Your comments are welcome.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Pre-Columbian Photo of the Month - March 2011
Pre-Columbian Jaguar mask head fragment Veracruz
East Mexico
Ht. 9 1/2"
AD 300 - 900
ex Zollman Collection
The amazing artifact above represents the pre-Columbian Rain God Tlaloc, identified by his feline attributes and trademark "goggled eyes". Mexican art historian, Miguel Covarrubias, demonstrated that rain gods like the Mexican god Tlaloc were all derived from the Olmec were-jaguar associated with sacrifice and the underworld (Miller and Taube, 1993:185). My studies have led me to conclude that all variants of the Toltec/Aztec gods Quetzalcoatl and Tlaloc, and their Classic Maya counterparts, Kukulcan, K´awil and Chac, though they may have different names and be associated with somewhat different attributes in different culture areas, are linked to the planet Venus through divine rulership, lineage and descent. In Mesoamerica they are also linked with warfare. Maya inscriptions tell us that the movement of the planet Venus and its position in the sky was a determining factor for waging a special kind of warfare known as Tlaloc warfare or Venus "Star Wars." These wars, waged against neighboring city-states for the express purpose of taking captives for sacrifice to the gods, thus constituted a form of divinely-sanctioned "holy" war. For more on the Mexican god Tlaloc read "Breaking the Mushroom Code" by Carl de Borhegyi at mushroomstone.com
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The amazing artifact above represents the pre-Columbian Rain God Tlaloc, identified by his feline attributes and trademark "goggled eyes".
Mexican art historian, Miguel Covarrubias, demonstrated that rain gods like the Mexican god Tlaloc were all derived from the Olmec were-jaguar associated with sacrifice and the underworld (Miller and Taube, 1993:185).
My studies have led me to conclude that all variants of the Toltec/Aztec gods Quetzalcoatl and Tlaloc, and their Classic Maya counterparts, Kukulcan, K´awil and Chac, though they may have different names and be associated with somewhat different attributes in different culture areas, are linked to the planet Venus through divine rulership, lineage and descent. In Mesoamerica they are also linked with warfare. Maya inscriptions tell us that the movement of the planet Venus and its position in the sky was a determining factor for waging a special kind of warfare known as Tlaloc warfare or Venus "Star Wars." These wars, waged against neighboring city-states for the express purpose of taking captives for sacrifice to the gods, thus constituted a form of divinely-sanctioned "holy" war.
For more on the Mexican god Tlaloc read "Breaking the Mushroom Code" by Carl de Borhegyi at mushroomstone.com
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