The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-09-28
ART OF THE AZTECS.
THE CURIOUS TERRA GOTTA HEADS
WHICH SHOW THEIR SKILL.

resent-The Accounts Given by Span
ish Writers-In All Probability Por-
traits of Persons.
1t is a long time since students of American
antiquities hal their attention first called to
the strange little heads which have been dug
up in immense quantities in Mexico, upon the
plain called the Path of the Dead, at Seotihua-
can They are generally quite small, from
one to two inches long, and invariably have
q neck or handle attached to them behind, not
to represent the human neck, but merely as q
convenient means of fastening them to some
sort of body made of other material. AT
least TINT l. the inference from the appear
ance. These little terra Gotta heads have been
often commented upon and have been used as
arguments ia favor of this or that view OF
Aztec origin custom, but no systematic
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 Peales museum; !;
at the Smithsonian there Is n large collection,
and at the National museum in the City OF
Mexico a still larger. There they are labeled
inquiringly, Idols or eX-votoSp
WHAT THEY REPRESENT.
In the last number of The American Jour
nal of Archaeology, Zelia Nuttall, perhaps a
daughter of the author of the North Amer
ican SYLVIA has very interesting paper
upon th.-se heals In it an attempt Is made
to classify t,,c'-i and to show that they repre-
sent individuals. ilen or women, among the
Aztecs and that the strange head dresses up
ON many of th"El correspond exactly with
those described 10y the Spanish eye witnesses
as worn at different times-sometiInes accord
ing to caprice of f,shion, sometimes at re-
igious festivals, in the exercise OF military
or judicial functions. In classifying them 1t
Is found that they correspond to three orders
of DEVELOPMENT The earliest are simply like
masks, without bacL to the 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 dresss. including very elaborate
| and extraordinary arrangements of curls and
| puffs of the hair az. represented in the nodded
| clay, well as feathers and skins, gold and
| precious stones.
FINE CLAY FIGURES.
| Extracts are givei from Spanish writers
| who describe the figures of their idols and OF
their priests and victims, the military classes
| and the Fashionable women, and they are
| found to CORES, md with what is found
| nodded in these rra cottas. Moreover, 1t l.
shown that to this day the manufacture OF
small wax and cldy figures, which are dressed
as dolls, is carried On extensively, and that al
| Puebla are made 10y Indians of the Aztec race
| truly wonderful groups of fine clay fig
| ures not half n. inch in height. The skill OF
| the Indian pott. Of Guadala jara is lauded
| throughout Me. ico, and the writer has often
been told of certain individuals there who
/ after a few moments observation only, car
reproduce in clay with extraordinary fidelity
/ not only the features of stranger, but the
whole figure, with H. details of n complies
| modern costume
PORTRAITS OF PERSONS
The conclusion, therefore, is come to that
the little heads are in all probability portrait:
of persons. The heads are always i'll repose
and in some the eyes are closed, which, in the
picture writings, means death. The same
head dresses are found upon faces young anc
smooth, or with sunken checks and elongated
Jaws \ deity would not be SO represented
but n conventional character having been de
| cided upon he would be always portrayed
| accordingly The heads are made of to,
many varieties of clay for them to have al
come from the same place. They are in
tended to be attached to bodies made of SOM
pcrishable material. They may be arranget
in classes, representing either different period
or merely exhibiting greater or less skill o
workmanship. They wear in common linn
tied variety of headgear, and the reason
given by recent writers for assigning the ella,
heads of Seotihuncan to remote and unknown
| periods cease to exist, the evidence o
trustworthy writers show that closely simila
headgear was worn by the Mexicans at o
about the period of the Spanish conquest
Philadelphia Times.