30 May 2025 / 10 House
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Find out moreDid the Aztecs have any symbolism or knowledge of sharks or swordfish?
ORIGINAL QUESTION received from - and thanks to - José/Mia: Did the Aztecs have any symbolism or knowledge of sharks or swordfish? (Answered by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)
Yes, both played a role in their lives and mythology, for the ancient Maya as well as for the people of Central Mexico. We now know that the English ‘shark’ is derived from the word xook found in several Mayan languages, no doubt introduced by early English sailors in the Caribbean. As Miller & Taube explain ‘Because the bull or cub shark leaves the sea and travels into fresh water, the creature was familiar not only to Mesoamericans who lived along the sea coast but probably also to those who lived well upriver, such as the Maya of Piedras Negras and Yaxchilán or the Olmecs of San Lorenzo.’ In this sense, the creature is unique, and it has been found ‘hundreds of kilometres upriver throughout the Maya area, especially in the mighty Usumacinta’ (Stone & Zender).
Not surprisingly, the all-powerful shark was first associated with the sacred and the divine long ago in Mesoamerica - see the Olmec depiction of a shark, from San Lorenzo Monument 58, dating from the Early Formative Period (pic 2, top). And to the Maya the shark was associated with ‘a longer mythological narrative concerning the origins of maize, wind and rain’ (Stone & Zender). The names of at least two prominent Maya rulers include ‘Shark’: first century founder of Tikal’s dynasty was Yax Ehb Xook (‘First Step Shark’), and eighth century queen of Yaxchilan was Ix K’abal Xook (‘Lady Shark Fin’).
The swordfish - acipactli in Nahuatl - has often been associated with the ancient, hybrid earth monster deity cipactli (Seler), the crucial ‘a’ at the beginning of the word referring to the Nahuatl for water, atl. Depictions of cipactli (which represented the first of the twenty day signs in the ritual calendar) have, in different contexts, included elements from four creatures: head (crocodile), teeth and tongue (snake), pointed bill (swordfish), and tail (shark) - always, though, with spikes protruding from its body (seen clearly, painted grey, in the Mexica depiction of the Cipactli day sign - pic 3).
Both swordfish and shark specimens have been found in ofrendas (offerings) at the great Templo Mayor site: in the case of the former, over 60 specimens have been discovered by archaeologists in the last 40 years (for example, see pic 4). The swordfish deposits may have represented the earthly level of the Nahua cosmos (as opposed to the heavens above and underworld below), given the symbolism of the cipactli. They were found alongside other earthly creatures, just above a layer of aquatic elements such as conch shells, sand, coral and other marine materials, the whole representing the primordial creation of the earth floating on a vast expanse of water.
Sources:-
• Miller, Mary & Taube, Karl (1993): The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya, London, Thames & Hudson
• Robles Cortés, Erika, Sanromán Peyron, Adriana, Barajas Rocha, María, Hernández Ascensio, Karla Valeria, Bolaño Martínez, Nataly & Mendoza Vargas, Uriel (2018): ‘Un pez marino tierra adentro: los peces sierra del Templo Mayor de Tenochtitlán’, Arqueología Mexicana no. 151, May-June, 20-27
• Seler, Eduard (2004): Las imágenes de animales en los manuscritos mexicanos y mayas, Casa Juan Pablos, Mexico City (original in German, 1909-10)
• Stone, Andrea & Zender, Marc (2011): Reading Maya Art, London, Thames & Hudson.
Picture sources:-
• Pic 1: image from the Florentine Codex (original in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence) scanned from our own copy of the Club Internacional del Libro 3-volume facsimile edition, Madrid, 1994
• Pic 2: (top) image scanned from Miller & Taube (cf); (bottom) photo from the Justin Kerr Mayavase database, no. K2931
• Pic 3: illustration by Felipe Dávalos commissioned by Mexicolore
• Pic 4: photo by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore
• Pic 5: graphic scanned from Stone & Zender (cf)
• Pic 6: photo downloaded from http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/olmec-dragon.htm.
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