30 May 2025 / 10 House
Small round ‘sun’ stamp
Denise Regnani writes:-
Last weekend, my partner and I had a yard sale. He opened a box of items for sale, one which I spotted immediately. I took the item out of the box and said, “Um....no. We are not selling this. Tell me what you know about this piece?”
My partner is from Mexico. His friend gave his the item years ago along with a story. Apparently, his wife’s grandfather unearthed the object while plowing a field in Santiago Ixcuintla. I estimate he found it at least 90-100 years ago.
I believe it is a cermaic stamp carved like a sun, similar to the clay stamp mould pictured on your web site. It feels heavy like stone, perhaps fired clay.
I would appreciate any insight you can offer on the age and origin of the stamp. I am very intrigued to have found such an interesting artifact, which almost made its way into a yard sale. (smile)
Comments (2)
Joe
6th Jan 2011
Are you sure it is ceramic and not a lightweight volcanic stone? It looks very much like a small example of one of the many Mesoamerican mushroom stones. The shape is very distinctive. Way too much effort+time to make something like that just to be used as a stamp when a carved wooden stamp could be carved much more quickly + easily... IMO it is clearly something of ritual/ceremonial significance, surely a mushroom stone. If you change your mind about selling it please email me.
For more info about the mushroom stones of Mesoamerica see
http://physics.lunet.edu/~snow/stone.html
tecpaocelotl
7th Sep 2010
From what you written I can say that it’s real, but it’s not “Aztec” since the Nahuas didn’t live in that region.