Mixtec Art and Sculpture

By the tenth century Mixtec city-states began to rise in what is today western Oaxaca, and the hallmarks of their civilization include some of ancient Mesoamerica's most intricate and beautiful works of art. Mixtec artisans delicately painted multi-colored or "polychrome" ceramics in varieties of earthy colors and geometric patterns. These two vessels are exemplars of their technique. The cup at left has a small blue hummingbird attached to the rim, to take its own sip. It comes from Zaachila, Oaxaca. At right is a tripod vase with stepped and ringed patterns. The legs are fashioned into jaguar heads.

National Museum of Anthropology and History

The Mixtec had skilled artists in a variety of media. From ancient times to the modern day, many native Mesoamericans have used crystals for scrying divination, energy-raising, and other ritual purposes. While some crystals are used in their raw form, others were carved into smooth miniatures, such as the fantastically worked frog and skull here. (So, yes, Mesoamericans did make crystal skulls, but I unfortunately didn't gain any psychic powers from this one!)

National Museum of Anthropology and History

The renown of Mixtec metallurgy was truly international. Using technologies learnt from South American visitors, the Mixtec prepared lavish works in copper, silver, and especially gold. Many of these pieces were offered in burials, but others were used as exchange goods, and some found their way to Paquimé in Northwest Mexico and the Huasteca region by the Gulf Coast. Mixtec metallurgical traditions would even influence Native North American technologies from Ohio to Florida!
The figure at left is a gold plaque with a bust. The face's sagging mouth and drooping eyelids suggest the human flesh mask of Xipeh Toteuc. Indeed, many such metal plaques represent deities and have been discovered in burials such as Monte Albán Tomb 7, described below. The miniature shield and arrows includes a turquoise mosaic formed around a fret design. It is one of the masterpieces of ancient Mesoamerican metallurgy.

National Museum of Anthropology and History

At their peak Mixtec ceramics were vibrant and imaginative. These two vases are inspired by bird designs. The one at left, while not depicting an actual eagle, uses abstractions of its striped plumes, radiating like the sun as the eagle represented this luminous body. The vase at right is fashioned into a vulture, which often symbolized longevity.

Regional Museum of the Cultures of Oaxaca

Among the finest of Mixtec arts were their spectacular works in geometric patterns, especially in zigzag bands and stepped frets, much like those decorating the Mitla palace façade presented below. Despite the heavy wear on these two vases, their warm color schemes remain quite visible to appreciate. The vase at left shows zigzags and whorls in alternating colors, and the one at right has a fascinating pattern of overlapping zigzag banners. The latter also has legs ending in deer hooves, recalling some of the animal motifs shown above.

Regional Museum of the Cultures of Oaxaca

By the latter centuries of the Postclassic Period, the Mixtec civilization in Oaxaca and the Cholultec in Puebla shared a common artistic tradition that was renowned across Mesoamerica. For many years archaeologists called their shared style the "Mixteca-Puebla" tradition, best known for the brilliant and meticulous bold colors painted upon ceramic wares and illustrated codices. Recent archaeology has called attention to how many other Mesoamerican cultures looked to emulate the great works of this region. Because these designs became so widespread across Mesoamerica's various civilizations, they are now known as the "International Style."
This marvelous vase is a true example of the ceramic quality. It features a sculpted head of Macuilxochitl, a god of festival and games: the white design around the mouth is an icon of this deity.

National Museum of Anthropology and History

The tle-maitl or 'fire hand' was a ... handy way to carry smoking incense and embers during ritual. This long-handled incense burner appeared as early as the ninth century in Cholula, and the later Mixtecs and Aztecs would embellish them more elaborately. These two Mixtec examples feature stepped triangle windows to ventilate the smoking pot, and the burner at left has a handle shaped like an outstretched monkey!

Regional Museum of the Cultures of Oaxaca

Although bone was a popular medium in Mesoamerican civilizations from the Maya to the Aztec, it was the Mixtec who took the sculpture to its highest caliber. Inlaid with precious stones, these two fantastic examples come from Monte Albán Tomb 7. The figure at left is a majestic eagle with an inset eye. The human skull at right is decorated in turquoise mosaic and shell eye rings. Its sliced cap suggests that it may have been used to hold ritual substances prior to burial, and the Monte Albán site museum adds that the face represents the god Tezcatlipoca.

Regional Museum of the Cultures of Oaxaca

Originally a capital for the Zapotec civilization, Monte Albán collapsed by the year 800 and, once abandoned, fell into ruin. The Mixtecs would later use the empty site as a burial place for its rulers, and they filled the tombs with tremendous wealth. Tomb 7 of Monte Albán is one of the richest ever excavated from the ancient world, more than even many in Egypt. The Regional Museum of the Cultures of Oaxaca, in the state's capital, presents an entire gallery of the tomb's highlights, including a true trove of Mixtec jewelry. The two displays featured here showcase exceptional works of jewelry in shell, jade, greenstone, turquoise, gold, and other precious materials that adorned the deceased Mixtec royalty.

Regional Museum of the Cultures of Oaxaca

Carved from a single piece of quartz, this goblet is one of the largest works in this material from ancient Mesoamerica. Tomb 7 contained ritual vessels in a variety of mineral materials such as quartz, gold, and alabaster, but this one was the most striking to me. Much like the crystal frog and skull above, this cup is a vibrant example of Mixtec crystal art. It has been identified as a spindle cup, one of several artifacts in the tomb implying feminine activity.

Regional Museum of the Cultures of Oaxaca

And let's not forget gold.
These are two representatives of Mixtec gold jewelry from Tomb 7. Both of them are replete with dangling bells, which are common among the necklaces on display. On the necklace at left the bells alternate among golden spheres. The necklace at right has rounded pieces shaped like turtle shells from which the bells hang in threes.

Regional Museum of the Cultures of Oaxaca

Here are two more works in gold, in these cases crafted into fantasy creatures. The wand at left has minute patterns in gold filigree and ends in a sneering serpent head that reminds me of Mixtec carvings depicting the earth as a giant reptile. The spider at right is a bit more enigmatic because it is combined with the image of a stylized heart. Given the Mesoamerican symbolism of the spider as a weaver of newborn life, perhaps the heart reinforces this concept.

Regional Museum of the Cultures of Oaxaca

Like the site of Monte Albán, Mitla, in central Oaxaca, was originally a Zapotec capital. As the Mixtec kings and queens were expanding in the early Postclassic, they looked for ways to legitimize their new sovereignty by reaching out to already established civilizations. The Mixtec king Eight Deer (named after his zodiac sign) went to Tula to receive a nose piercing from a Toltec priest, and at Mitla the Mixtec rulers married with Zapotec royalty in order to merge their authority with that of the already recognized Zapotecs'.
Mitla has been constantly occupied by an indigenous presence since the year 1000, making it the longest continuously inhabited community in the New World! The palace is Mitla's most famous monument for its striking display of geometric patterns around its outer façade and inner court.

Mitla