Material
Introduction
Gold was a sacred and powerful material in the Aztec culture, and was believed to be the excrement of the gods. Gold is used in various objects related to war, sacrifice, personal adornments for nobility. It was also a large part of tribute goods which were recorded in the codices. The Codex Mendoza and the Florentine Codex discuss the importance of gold and gold working in Aztec society. Through seeing gold objects, analyzing how gold is mentioned in the codices and understanding the relationship between excrement and gold, one can begin to understand the importance gold had in Aztec society.
Examples of Gold Objects
Ceremonial, sacrificial, personal jewelry and war objects made with gold show that the material was used in the upper classes of Aztec society. This pectoral (fig. 1) would be worn by Quetzalcoatl during a ceremonial impersonation ceremony. Quetzalcoatl was known as the feather serpent and is the creator of human life. Also, gold was used for personal adornment of high ranking officials, nobles and worthy warriors. This gold cast bell (fig. 2) from the 15th-16th century would have been strung as a necklace or on clothing and produced noise. This warrior figurine (fig. 3) is made of cast gold from c. 1350-1519. He holds a serpent-headed spear thrower in his right hand and a shield and darts in his left hand. He has cotton balls in his hair, marking him as a sacrificial victim, and nose and ear ornaments. According to the Cleveland Museum of Art, “The figurine itself likely represents an enemy warrior captured for sacrifice" (1). This is seen through the cotton balls in the hair and the carved out chest cavity which may have held the sacrificial victim's various body parts used as an offering to deities (fig. 4). Another object with gold is the Feather Gold Coyote Shield from 1350-1521 in fig. 5. This shield was used in war and features a coyote like figure with gold teeth and claws and a body outlined in gold. On the battlefield, this gold would glow in light and be a symbol of the power and tonalli of the warrior holding it. Throughout Aztec culture, gold was used in object for sacred religious practices such as impersonation ceremonies or sacrifice. It was also used in times of war as adornments for battle weapons. Finally, gold was used in the personal adornments of high nobles and emperors in jewelry.
Gold as "Holy Shit"
Cecelia Klein refers to gold as “yellow sacred excrement,” coztic teocuitlatl in Nahuatl, in her argument about the powerful and contradictory connotations of excrement, which manifests in the materiality of gold (2).
Gold, as the excrement of the gods, evokes negative connotations in relation to death and social transgressions, such as female adultery, abortion, and sodomy, and is perceived as having the power to disrupt health and harmony. The Aztec called carnal vices tlaello or tlazolli “meaning filth, garbage, refuse, or ordure, with, in the words of Alfredo Lopez Austin, “a strong excremental sense” (2). Acts of drunkenness and promiscuity are related to excrement and gold in that they have the power to create physical and moral disharmony within a person. Also, excrement is associated with death and immaturity, which becomes apparent through the understanding of the Aztec story, where Aztec enemies threw excrement as a way to weaken and kill the Aztec warriors (2). Sahagun also associates death with excrement in his description of the Underworld, or the bowels of the Earth, saying that “the place will be made of excrement” (2). The associations that follow excrement are also associations of gold, as gold is the excrement of the gods, thus gold is metonymic of the power to decline health and create disharmony.
Gold has the power to disrupt health and harmony, and it conversely has the power to restore wellness and harmony. Gold is metonymic for power, thus gold was a precious metal for the elites and served a variety of purposes, including medicinal and economic purposes to standardize currencies in the market (2). As the “excrement of the sun,” or tonatiuh icuitl, gold dust was eaten as a means to cure sexual diseases, a concept which is related to Nanauatzin, “Our Dear Pustules,” a god who burned his scabs and himself in order to rise as the sun (2).Tlazolteotl, the “Goddess of Filth,” also goes by Tlaelquani, “Eater of Ordure,” who is associated with the fertility of the earth and the revitalization of the soil (2). Klein highlights that “[t]he body wastes of ‘filth’ associate with Tlazolteotl thus represented not just transgressions of the Aztec sexual code, but also the means for offsetting them, for transforming or converting them into something healthy and fertile” (2). For example, Plate Ten of the Codex Borgia, shown on the upper left of this page, depicts a semi-naked man defecating and then eating his excrement in order to offset his fate, “restoring both moral and physical equilibrium” (2). Eating excrement was penitence for breaking the law or Aztec social norms, thus gold is associated with the power to restore harmony.
Methods of Production: Lost Wax and Metalworking
The lost-wax gold casting technique used by the Aztec was a multi-step process, in which the artisan or artisans would use various materials, such as clay, charcoal, beeswax, and copal incense (3). In order to understand the technique better, Raul Ybarra carried out a series of casting experiments, specifically focusing on bells and jewelry, based on the information provided in the Florentine Codex. The process of lost wax casting used by the Aztecs began with the mixing of beeswax and copal incense, which was then followed by the forming of a clay and charcoal core, a step that would allow an object, such as a bell, to be hollow (3). After, the design in the wax would be finished and a clay mold would be made, equipped with casting channels. Once the clay mold had dried, the Aztecs would have then melted the wax and poured in the metal that they were working with (3).
Prior to the popular lost wax technique of producing small bells, the method of hammering is the primary method for producing metalworks. This method is especially popular in areas with predominant copper-based technology (4). The method is to first take a piece of gold and hammer it into thin foils. Then, take the gold foil and hammer it on a mold from the back. After the hammering process is complete, the image/figure will appear on the front side of the gold foil. It is an intricate and refined process of gold production yet it is beneficial for creating multiple pieces of the same image since it is hammered out of a mold.
Codices
Additionally, the importance of gold and its production process were explained in codices, including the Florentine Codex and Codex Mendoza. According to Sahagun, gold, copper, and lead have similar characteristics which “can be excavated, can be washed, can be cast” (5). Sahagun proposes a similar idea as Klein; that gold is associated with urine. Sahagun writes, “When its mother appears, when she rains her water, her urine stains deeply. Where it is yellow on the surface, where it is discolored as if glistening green, she stains deeply so that it appears. But especially is its mother within the earth or the mountain, where the gold lies, where it is” (5). Similarly, Klein introduces the idea that gold is the excrement of gods. Sahagun refers to the earth and the mountain as the mother in the similar fashion. However, contrary to Klein, Sahagun suggests that people identify gold as “the excrement of the sun” (5) because of the common properties between gold and the sun. Both the gold and the sun have qualities of yellow, shining, bright, and resistance to heat. Moreover, Sahagun suggests that these people view the sun as the god, they would use the phrase “the god has entered, has set” (5) to indicate the movement of the sun. Therefore, gold as the excrement of sun (the god) has taken the name from the sun. Besides, Sahagun describes that the Mexica people did not mine the gold nor the silver before the conquest, they simply took the sand and find the gold in the size of grains of maize and joined the pieces together through melting to produce jewelries.
Sahagun points out the importance of gold in Aztec culture, saying that gold is “the perfection, the leader of all” (5) and that it is meant to be protected with meticulous care because gold has the power to deceive, excite and entice people. Additionally, Sahagun lays out the process of preparing gold to further enhance the beautifully shining qualities of gold and the sophisticated jewelry making process.
Sahagun discusses the production process of gold by explaining the two classes of gold workers. He writes, “some were called smiths. These had no office but to beat gold, to thin it out; to flatten it with a stone. Where it was required, it was polished, it was thinned. And some were called finishers. These were named the real master craftsmen” (5). The producers of gold were distinguished by Sahagun as in two separate classes of finishers and smiths. However Sahagun stresses in the Florentine Codex that the finishers who made gold thin and luminous were very important
The Codex Mendoza folio pictured on the upper left depicts the honorable and disgraceful careers of young men in Aztec society. One of the respectable careers includes a “metalworker blowing to the raise the temperature in his brazier for melting gold” (University of Oxford) as seen in the image above. In other sections of the Codex Mendoza, the tributes from various provinces to Tenochtitlan are recorded. Many of the tributes include bowls of fine gold dust, labrets made of gold or featuring gold, necklaces of gold bells and beads. This was a prized material in Tenochtitlan which was sought after and produced for the elite classes in Aztec society. Gold is regarded as an important material produced by highly regarded workers in Aztec society, seen in various codices such as, the Codex Mendoza and the Florentine Codex.
1. "Figure of a Warrior", Cleveland Museum of Art.
2. Klein, Cecelia. Teocuitlatl, Divine Excrement.
3. Ybarra, Raul. “The Ancient Secret of Pre-Hispanic Jewelry.”
4. King, Heidi. "Gold in Ancient America."
5. Sahagun, Bernadino de. Florentine Codex.