{"id":187,"date":"2013-10-20T17:30:25","date_gmt":"2013-10-20T17:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wonderful\/?p=187"},"modified":"2013-10-22T09:30:11","modified_gmt":"2013-10-22T09:30:11","slug":"obsidian-mirror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wonderful\/coverage\/global\/obsidian-mirror\/","title":{"rendered":"Obsidian Mirror &#8211; Dora Moutsiou"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_188\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-188\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/ceres.mcu.es\/pages\/Viewer?accion=4&amp;AMuseo=MAM&amp;Museo=MAM&amp;Ninv=09996\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-188\" alt=\"Obsidian Mirror, in later wooden frame. 1400-1520. Object: 09996. Museum of the Americas, Madrid.Gonzalo Cases Ortega.  Rights Reserved. \u00a9 Ministerio de Educaci\u00f3n, Cultura y Deporte.\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wonderful\/files\/2013\/10\/WT_Wk0_ObsidianMirror_RightsReserved-300x199.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wonderful\/files\/2013\/10\/WT_Wk0_ObsidianMirror_RightsReserved-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wonderful\/files\/2013\/10\/WT_Wk0_ObsidianMirror_RightsReserved-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wonderful\/files\/2013\/10\/WT_Wk0_ObsidianMirror_RightsReserved-700x465.jpg 700w, https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wonderful\/files\/2013\/10\/WT_Wk0_ObsidianMirror_RightsReserved.jpg 1540w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-188\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Obsidian Mirror, in later wooden frame. 1400-1520. Object: 09996. Museum of the Americas, Madrid. Gonzalo Cases Ortega. Rights Reserved. \u00a9 Ministerio de Educaci\u00f3n, Cultura y Deporte.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>by\u00a0Dora Moutsiou<\/h2>\n<p>The aesthetic value that obsidian enjoyed in the past reached its apotheosis in the Mesoamerican cultures whose economic and symbolic life it underwrote for ~3000 years. The symbolic importance and authority obsidian attained throughout that period is exemplified by the Aztecs\u2019 respect towards their patron god Tezcatlipoca, Lord of the Smoking Mirror. Tezcatlipoca\u2019 s eponymous possession, the obsidian mirror, was a metaphor for rulership and power. Obsidian\u2019s unequalled utility generated an enduring Mesoamerican aesthetic, unique in its capacity to create social relationships and stimulate symbolic connections.<\/p>\n<h2>Reading<\/h2>\n<p>Heyden, D. 1988, Black Magic: obsidian in symbolism and metaphor, in J. K. Josser\u00a0 and&amp; K. Dakin (eds) <i>Smoke and mist: Mesoamerican studies in memory of Thelma D. Sullivan<\/i>. Oxford, British Archaeological Reports International Series <b>402: <\/b>217-236.<\/p>\n<p>Saunders, N.J. 2001, A dark light: reflections on obsidian in Mesoamerica, <i>World Archaeology\u00a0<\/i><b>33<\/b>: 220-236.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by\u00a0Dora Moutsiou The aesthetic value that obsidian enjoyed in the past reached its apotheosis in the Mesoamerican cultures whose economic and symbolic life it underwrote for ~3000 years. The symbolic importance and authority obsidian attained throughout that period is exemplified by the Aztecs\u2019 respect towards their patron god Tezcatlipoca, Lord of the Smoking Mirror. Tezcatlipoca\u2019 s eponymous possession, the obsidian &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[529189,538938,146326,533148,543581,151269,527739,538555],"tags":[556453,567445,567796,430840,567328,567149,11800,567908,568141,568536],"class_list":["post-187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-11000-3000-years-ago","category-exotic-material","category-global","category-helen-farr","category-object","category-podcast","category-taming-nature-and-laying-foundations","category-uses-of-volcanic-glass","tag-aesthetic","tag-aztec","tag-mesoamerica","tag-metaphor","tag-mirror","tag-obsidian","tag-power","tag-rulership","tag-symbolic","tag-tezcatlipoca","column","threecol"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wonderful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wonderful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wonderful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wonderful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wonderful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wonderful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":350,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wonderful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions\/350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wonderful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wonderful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/wonderful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}