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Aztec Stone Boxes: Myth, Metaphor, and History Item Type text; Electronic Thesis Authors Hulshoff, Amy Catherine Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 08/10/2021 23:13:34 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/621178 AZTEC STONE BOXES: MYTHS, METAPHOR, AND HISTORY by Amy Catherine Hulshoff ____________________________ Copyright © Amy Catherine Hulshoff 2016 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the SCHOOL OF ART In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS WITH A MAJOR IN ART HISTORY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2016 Hulshoff 2 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR The thesis titled Aztec Stone Boxes: Myth, Metaphor, and History prepared by Amy Cat Hulshoff has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for a master’s degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permission, provided that an accurate acknowledgement of the source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: Amy C. Hulshoff APPROVAL BY THESIS DIRECTOR This thesis has been approved on the date shown below: June 11, 2016 Emily Umberger Date Professor Art History Hulshoff 3 Acknowledgements This essay is a culmination of my study and academic practices achieved here at the University of Arizona, and it is not easily done and not done alone. The faculty and staff of this university deserve unending praise for their care and dedication to students like myself, and for passing it on to future students and staff. Not just this essay, but also my ability to research and write have been vastly improved and molded by my professors and my peers. I would like to thank Paul Ivey for all the good reads and constructive conversations, and for all the professional advice. Thank you Julie-Anne Plax for being my second reader, and for being such a constructive professor. You helped me take the first big steps towards becoming a better writer (spelling may be a lost cause). Thank you (saint) Megan Bartel for doing, well, everything to make sure I could stay in the program and make it this far! I don’t know how you can raise your kids and all the grad students at the same time, but you are a saint. Thank you, Marie Teemant, for always making it look like I knew what I was doing, when it was probably you all along. And thank you Kimberly Mast for keeping us glued together when we were all falling apart at the seams. A huge thank you to Larry Deutsch and Bill Parker for their generous funding and confidence in my research by providing me the financial support to study these objects in person in Mexico City. Their support through the Medici Scholar foundation was another big step forward in my scholastic career, as my first professional travel grant. A profound thanks to Emily Umberger for everything she has done and continues to do. It would be impossible to understate how helpful and dedicated she has been to making me a better writer and scholar. I thank her for all of the articles and good reads, and exposure to aspects of my study that I would never have considered without her generous knowledge and experience in the field. Thank you for your encouragement and guidance. Hulshoff 4 To my parents, my sister, and Myron. Hulshoff 5 Table of Contents Title Page………………………………………………………………………………………………………….....1 Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………………………...3 Dedication Page…………………………………………………………………………………………………...4 Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………………………………………5 Thesis Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………………….6 List of Figures………………………………………………………………………………………………………8 Dennis Sandgathe Quote…………………………………………………………………………………….10 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………11 Chapter 1: Introduction to the Aztecs…...………………………………………………………….....14 Who were the Aztecs?……………………………………………………………………………...16 Aztecs in Numbers…………………………………………………………………………………..17 Aztec Religion and Origin Stories……………………………………………………………..17 Gods and Myths……………………….………..…………………………………………………….19 Chapter 2: Boxes in Scholarship…………………………………...……………………………………..22 Chapter 3: The Balance of Myths and Metaphors With History……………………………..27 The Aztec Calendar………………………………………………………………………………….27 Structure of Aztec History………………………………………………………………………..29 Functions of Metaphor and Aztec Story Telling…………………………………………33 Chapter 4: The Hackmack Box, the Islas y Bustamante Box, the Ahuitzotl Box……....37 The Hackmack Box…………………………………………………………………………………..42 The Islas y Bustamante Box……………………………………………………………………...48 The Ahuitzotl Box……………………………………………………………………………………52 Chapter 5: Conclusion……………………….………………………………………………………………..58 What is a box?…………………………………………………………………………………………58 Review……………………………………………………………………………………………………58 Images……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….62 Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..75 Hulshoff 6 Thesis Abstract: This essay is study of Aztec stone boxes from the pre-conquest Aztec empire. My study focuses on the interpretation of carvings on the surfaces, as well as the interiors and lids when applicable. The study includes not only traditionally functional boxes, but also altars (blocks or basins) and offering chambers, as comparative examples. The thesis focuses on three specific stone boxes located in museums in Mexico, Germany, and Great Britain: the Islas y Bustamante Box (Museo Nacional de Anthropología, Mexico), the Hackmack Box (Museum fur Volkerkunde, Hamburg), and the Ahuitzotl Box (British Museum, London, and Museum fur Volkerkunde, Berlin). I am studying the iconographic programs, with a focus on themes of auto- sacrifice and creation, carved on the art objects themselves and their function as story-telling devices, with or without the contents that the box may have contained. In their forms, the objects themselves are metaphors for space, time, Aztec history, and Aztec creation myths. The Hackmack Box depicts the creation god, Quetzalcoatl (feathered serpent), and refers to the creation myth of mankind saved from the underworld and resurrected from the ashes of bones, using Quetzalcoatl’s own blood. The box bears Montezuma’s name glyph and is likely a tribute to his birth, his ascension and success as a ruler, and his piety. The Islas y Bustamante Box depicts the god of caves, Tepeyolotl, and refers to the myth that man ascended from caves, as all of life originated from the mouth of a cave that was also a natural spring. The box itself is a metaphor for this type of cave. The Ahuitzotl Box depicts the god of water Tlaloc, and Hulshoff 7 refers to the myth of the tlaloques (helpers) discovery of “food-mountain”, in other words, the discovery of maize that nourished the Aztec people. It has been linked to the dedication of the aqueduct built under the Aztec ruler Ahuitzotl, and serves as a tribute to this historical event. The cosmic arrangement of the motifs on these boxes reveal the object as a metaphor for space and time itself as they comply with the Aztec’s earthly orientation of the heavens, the earth, an the underworld. Hulshoff 8 List of Figures Figure 1) Ahuitzotl name glyph, detail, ( Codex Mendoza facsimile , 1992: 13). Pg. 35,53,54. Figure 2) Templo Mayor Offerings Box, interior wall, basalt, Museo Nacional de Anthropología, photograph by the author. Pg. 38,49. Figure 3) Offering Chambers from the Templo Mayor, Museo del Templo Mayor, c. 1469-1481, Phase IVb, photograph by the author. Pg. 38,39. Figure 4) Stone Box with Offerings of various lapidary and jade pieces, aerial view, Museo del Templo Mayor, c. 1469-1481, Phase IVb, photograph by the author. Pg. 38,39. Figure 5) Tizapán Box and lid, stone, stucco, and paint, Museo Nacional de Anthropología, photograph by the author. Pg. 39. Figure 5.1) Tizapán Box and Figure, green stone, stucco, and paint, Museo Nacional de Anthropología, photograph by the author. Pg. 39. Figure 6) Warrior Box, basalt, Museo Nacional de Anthropología, photograph by the author. Pg.39. Figure 7) Venus Altar, basalt, Museo Nacional de Anthropología, photograph by the author. Pg.39. Figure 8) The Hackmack Box, Montezuma I Bloodletting side, with lid Quetzalcoatl with dates One Reed and Seven Reed , (Seler, 1992, Vol. 3: 92). Pg.43. Figure 9) The Hackmack Stone Box , Lid, Quetzalcoatl One Reed and Seven Reed , (Solana, 1983: 66). Pg.43. Figure 10) The Hackmack Box , Lid, Quetzalcoatl One Reed and Seven Reed , drawing, (Solana, 1983: 62). Pg.43. Figure 11) Xiuhcóatl Box, basalt, Museo Nacional de Anthropología, photograph by the author. Pg.44. Figure 12) Moctezuma box and lid, basalt, Museo Nacional de Anthropología, photograph by the author. Pg.44. Figure 13) The Hackmack Box , Inside Bottom , 1 cipactli (crocodile), (Solana, 1983: 47). Pg.44,45. Figure 14) The Hackmack Box , Inside Bottom Earth Monster , (Solana, 1983: 47). Pg.45. Figure 15) The Hackmack Box , Front (Montezuma I) and Back (Quetzalcoatl) and both sides (1 rabbit and 4 rabbit), (Solana, 1983: 48). Pg.46. Figure 16) Licenciado Nicoloas Islas y Bustamante , sides 1 and 2 with cacatapayolli (grass ball with agave points), (Seler, 1992,
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