Two Teotihuacan masks

Two Teotihuacan masks, greenstone, Teotihuacan, c. 250-600 CE, height 16 (L) & 14.5 cms. (R)., Linden Museum, Stuttgart.

Teotihuacan was the centre of one of the largest states in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. It was an important place for the Aztecs, because according to their mythology the sun and the moon were created in this magnificent city. Masks of this type were produced on a large scale in Teotihuacan. The Aztecs carried out excavations at Teotihuacan and placed the objects they found in sacrificial chests in order to offer them to their gods.

From Aztecs, eds. Doris Kurella, Martin Berger and Inés de Castro, with INAH, Mexico - catalogue for the exhibition ‘Azteken’, Linden Museum, Stuttgart, Hirmer Publishers, Germany, 2019, p. 284.

Photo by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore.