The Penn's Grove record., 1886-09-25
Arr of the Aztecs.

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IT is a long time since students OF
American antiquitiesh had their attention
first called to the strange little a
which have been dug up In immense
quantities in Mexico, upon the PLAIN
called the Path of the Dead, at Seotl-
huacan. They are generally quite
small, from one to two inches long,
invariably have a neck or handle at
tached to them behind, not TO repre-
sent the human neck, but merely as a
convenient means of fastening them TO
some sort of a body made OF other ma
terial. AT least that is the inference
from the appearance. These nttle
terra Gotta heads have been often COM
mented upon and have been USED as
arguments in favor of this or that view
of Aztec origin or custom, but no sys'
tematic study of them has been made,
although they exist In great numbers
In various museums. The Academy OF
Natural Sciences has some OF them,
which were once in Peal's museum; at
the Smithsonian there Is a large collec-
ton, and at the National museum IN
the City of Mexico a still larger. There
they are labeled inqulringiy, Idols or
ex-votosp"
In the last number of the American
Journal of Archaeology leila Mutual,
perhaps a daughter of the author OF the
North American Sylvia , has a very
interesting paper upon these heads. In
it an attempt is made to CLASSIFY them
and to show that they represent ind
yiduals, men or women, among the
| - - &Aok fhn 0trannp head
dresses upon many of them correspond
exactly with those described by the
Spanish eye witnesses as worn at dlI-
ferent times-sometimes according TO
caprice of fashion, sometimes at re-
ligious festivals, or in the exercise OF
military OF judicial functions. In classl-
fying them it Is found that they r
respond to three orders OF development.
The earliest are simply like masks,
without backs to TIE heads or orna-
ments of any sort; those of the middle
class have rounded heads, with grooves
and holes for the adjustment of head
dresses, which were afterward affixed,
while in the latest class the head
dresses, including very elaborate and
extraordinary arrangements OF curls
and puffs of the hair, are represented
in the nodded clay, as well as feathers
and skins. gold and precisus stones.
Extracts are given from Spanish
writer's, who describe the figures of
their idols and of their priests and vic
tins, tic military classes and the fash.
ionable women, and they are found to
correspond with what is found nodded
in these terra cottas. Moreover, it
is shown that to this day the manufac-
ture of small wax and clay figures,
which are dressed as dolls, is carried on
extensively, and that at Puebla are
made by Indians of the Aztec race
truly wonderful groups OF fine clay fg-
ures not half an inch in height. The
skill Of the Indian potters of Guadala-
jdra is lauded throughout Mexico, and
the writer has often been told of certain
individuals there who, after moments
observation only, a reproduce in clay
with extraordinary fidelity not only the
features of a stranger, but the whole
figure, with details of a complex mod
ern costume.
The conclusion. therefore, Is come to
that the little heads are in all proba-
bility portraits of persons. The heads
are always in repose, and IN some the
eyes are closed. which, in the picture
writings, means death. The same head
dresses are found upon faces young and
smooth, or with sunken cheeks and
elongated jaws. A deity would not be
so represented, but a conventional
character having been decided upon he
would be always portrayed accordingly.
The heads are made of too many vari-
cites of clay for them to have all come
from the same place. They are intended
to be attached to bodies made of some
perishable material. They may be ar
ranged IN classes, representing either
different periods Or merely exhibiting
greater or less skill of workmanship.
They veal in common a limited variety
of headgear, and the reasons given by
recent writers for assigning the clay
hsads of S~eOtihuacan to remote and un-
known periods cease to exist, as the
evidence of trustworthy writer's
show thatTlosely similar headgear was
worm by the Mexlcans at or about the
period of the Spanish conquest.