5. Gold lip-pendant from Tehuantepec

(Scale: 1–5, ⅔rds)

Copper was used occasionally for axe- and adze-blades, and constituted an article of tribute. Analysis has shown that it was hammered out, and the edge hardened by this means alone. Some of the blades contain a percentage of tin, but the presence of the latter metal may be regarded as purely accidental. The forms are usually similar to those of the stone implements, and they were hafted by lashing, with wedges, to a handle, as shown in Fig. [27, a]; p. 148. “Eared” varieties however occur, though they are rare, and a peculiar T-shaped type is found in some quantity, extending into Oaxaca and Guatemala. Most of the last-named are so thin that it is difficult to see what useful purpose they could have served, and it is probable that they constituted a form of currency, though the suggestion has been made that they were used as knives for cutting feathers in the preparation of feather mosaic. Bells of copper are common throughout the whole of Mexico, some in a peculiar technique which look as if they were made of soldered wire, and animal forms in the same style have been found in Tarascan territory. Close examination would seem to show that these are really cast by the cire perdue process, as described below. Great difficulties however attend the casting of copper, and it is possible that such articles contain a percentage of tin. Analyses however are lacking, and it seems certain that the presence of tin must be regarded as accidental, for though deposits of tin were found in Guerrero by Cortés, yet the inhabitants had never deliberately mixed it with copper until shown how to do so by the Spaniards. Of the mining of copper, little is known, but ancient workings have been discovered at Cerro del Aguilar in Guerrero. Abundant traces of fire are to be seen, and no less than 140 stone wedges have been collected there. Probably the process consisted in heating the blocks of ore, and driving the wedges into the resultant cracks so as to split them up into more manageable fragments. The Zapotec country was famed in old times for its copper.

FIG. 23.—Mexican artisans.

(Mendoza MS., Oxford)

In the working of gold the Mexicans exhibited particular skill, and though great quantities of the wrought metal were found by the conquerors, yet a very small percentage of the enormous amount exported since the conquest has found its way into museums. The greatest treasure discovered at one time by Cortés was that amassed by Axayacatl, father of Montecuzoma. Of this Diaz writes: “Cortés and some of the captains went in first (into the treasury), and they saw such a number of jewels and slabs and plates of gold and chalchihuites and other great riches that they were quite carried away, and did not know what to say about such wealth.... When I saw it I marvelled, and, as at that time I was a youth, and had never seen such riches as those in my life before, I took it for certain that there could not be another such store of wealth in the whole world.” This treasure was subsequently found to be of the value approximately of one and a half million sterling. Another of the conquerors relates the finding of 480 oz. of gold in one grave. But the accounts of the workmanship of the various articles surpass even their number. We read of “a very rich necklace of golden crabs, a marvellous piece of work”; of “two birds made of thread and feather-work, having the quills of their wings and tails, their feet, eyes and the ends of their beaks, of gold, standing upon two reeds covered with gold, which are raised on balls of feather-work and gold embroidery, one white and the other yellow, with seven tassels of feather-work hanging from each of them”; and of a fish with alternate scales of gold and silver. Unhappily no such works of art as the two latter have survived. Grijalva describes the getting of gold by picking out the grains from river-sand; the collector storing them in his mouth and later melting them down on the spot in a pottery vessel, blowing up the fire by means of tubes of reed, as in Fig. [23, b]. Gold was also washed from river-sand in small troughs, the water being poured on from gourds. This method was employed both on the east coast and in the Zapotec region, but regular mining was practised by the Zapotec and Chinantec, and gold formed a very important article of tribute, both in dust and plates. The goldsmiths of Azcapotzalco were the most famed in the valley; and gold-workers in general were divided into two classes, beaters and casters. In beating, stone hammers were used for the most part, and the workmen were very skilful at overlaying with gold-foil (the spear-thrower shown on Pl. [XVII, 1], has been ornamented in this way). Wooden beads overlaid with gold have been found in the Totonac country. Casting was carried out as follows: pounded charcoal was mixed with fine clay, and kneaded out into thin discs, on which the details of the desired ornament were engraved with a copper tool. Wax was then prepared by boiling, mixed with copal to give it firmness, and, after clarifying by means of a filter, was rolled out on a polished stone and applied in small strips to the details of the design. Pounded charcoal in solution was added as a covering, and, over all, a coating of clay, also mixed with charcoal. A rod of wax, coated with clay, was added, to form a connection with the wax model within. The whole was baked, the wax run out and the molten gold poured in. Finally the mould was broken, and the casting rubbed with earth mixed with salt, to give it a good colour, and then polished. Objects so prepared often have the appearance of soldered wire, but, in such specimens as the ring shown in Fig. [24], the reverse side plainly shows that the greater portion has been cast solid. In the case of the gold ear- or lip-ornament from Tehuantepec (Pl. [XI, 5]), some of the details appear to have been soldered on after casting. We are told that the designs applied to beaten gold by engraving were usually traced for the goldsmiths by the feather-workers.

Fig. 24. Gold finger-ring (scale ²⁄₁).