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PROPERTY FROM PRIVATE COLLECTORS
RARE AZTEC STONE FROG
CA. A.D. 1200 - 1521
Details
RARE AZTEC STONE FROG
ca. A.D. 1200 - 1521
the crouching amphibian with legs bent closely to the sides, carefully demarcated webbed feet, the large head with slightly sunken forehead, circular eyes to the sides and thin lips drawn to the sides, the reverse incised with the calendrical symbol of '2-Reed,' Dos Acatl, consisting of a basin with volutes, identified as a sacrificial basin, a fire drill surmounted by reeds with striated bloodletting thorn issuing from the center, seen upside down the glyph represents the stylized head of Tlaloc, the Rain God; in deep green stone.
Length 8 1/4 in. (20.9 cm.)
ca. A.D. 1200 - 1521
the crouching amphibian with legs bent closely to the sides, carefully demarcated webbed feet, the large head with slightly sunken forehead, circular eyes to the sides and thin lips drawn to the sides, the reverse incised with the calendrical symbol of '2-Reed,' Dos Acatl, consisting of a basin with volutes, identified as a sacrificial basin, a fire drill surmounted by reeds with striated bloodletting thorn issuing from the center, seen upside down the glyph represents the stylized head of Tlaloc, the Rain God; in deep green stone.
Length 8 1/4 in. (20.9 cm.)
Provenance
In a private collection and passed by descent for the last 125 years
Further details
The use of the glyph '2-Reed', (fig. 1a), 2 Acatl, is significant since it refers to an Aztec rite called both the Binding-of the-Years and the New Fire Ceremony (fig. 1b). '2-Reed' is also a shorthand reference to one of the supreme Aztec deities, Tezcatlipoca, who was associated with the first creation of fire itself. Among the Aztecs the most celebrated cycle of time, marked by the New Fire, consisted of 52 years. At the end of the period all fires were extinguished in homes, temples and palaces, for fear that the order established by the gods, would collapse.
During the New Fire ceremony, a young captive was sacrificed, 52 reeds were burned. Fire was taken from this bonfire and used to light fires once more in the metropolis and waiting communities, proclaiming the beginning of a new 52-year cycle. The last New Fire ceremony took place in 1507, under the reign of Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin.
Both toads and frogs are associated with rain and fertility. Throughout Mesoamerica, their croaking heralds rainstorms. Among the Maya, frogs are shown as the Rain God Chac's musicians. Their connotation of fertility is strengthened by the fact that frogs and toads lay thousands of eggs and the parallels are drawn between these amphibians and maize, or corn, are many. In the Aztec celebration that heralded the rainy season, the offerings to Cinteotl, Corncob Lord, included a stiffly baked frog painted blue, the color of water and preciousness.
Toads took an additional importance as they seemed to reenact the transforming changes achieved by shamans through mind-altering substances some possibly extracted from frogs. The very life cycle of the toad, from egg to fish to a four-legged carnivorous animal, is a dramatic metamorphosis.
The largest toad in Mesoamerica, Bufo marinus, is equipped with venomous glands located behind and above the eyes. These glands secrete 27 different poisons including a hallucinogen. It has been suggested that the Olmec may have used such psychotropic substances and that the knowledge of the powerful secretions persisted through the Colonial period among Highland Maya peoples as recounted by the seventeenth-century friar, Thomas Gage.
The Aztec cosmology is redolent with the myth of an enormous toadlike monster, named Tlaltecuhtli, Earth Lord, who served as a metaphor for the earth.
During the New Fire ceremony, a young captive was sacrificed, 52 reeds were burned. Fire was taken from this bonfire and used to light fires once more in the metropolis and waiting communities, proclaiming the beginning of a new 52-year cycle. The last New Fire ceremony took place in 1507, under the reign of Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin.
Both toads and frogs are associated with rain and fertility. Throughout Mesoamerica, their croaking heralds rainstorms. Among the Maya, frogs are shown as the Rain God Chac's musicians. Their connotation of fertility is strengthened by the fact that frogs and toads lay thousands of eggs and the parallels are drawn between these amphibians and maize, or corn, are many. In the Aztec celebration that heralded the rainy season, the offerings to Cinteotl, Corncob Lord, included a stiffly baked frog painted blue, the color of water and preciousness.
Toads took an additional importance as they seemed to reenact the transforming changes achieved by shamans through mind-altering substances some possibly extracted from frogs. The very life cycle of the toad, from egg to fish to a four-legged carnivorous animal, is a dramatic metamorphosis.
The largest toad in Mesoamerica, Bufo marinus, is equipped with venomous glands located behind and above the eyes. These glands secrete 27 different poisons including a hallucinogen. It has been suggested that the Olmec may have used such psychotropic substances and that the knowledge of the powerful secretions persisted through the Colonial period among Highland Maya peoples as recounted by the seventeenth-century friar, Thomas Gage.
The Aztec cosmology is redolent with the myth of an enormous toadlike monster, named Tlaltecuhtli, Earth Lord, who served as a metaphor for the earth.