A rcheological workers at Teotihuacan have unearthed a wealth of objects. A museum on the site displays a selection. We wander through a series of softly lit galleries.
Fragments of frescoes carefully lifted from hidden walls tantalize us with glimpses into the minds of ancient artists.
During the millennium since the fall of Teotihuacan, a few pieces of pottery managed to survive, some better than others. A tiny seated figure meditates; a life-sized head seems all the more terrifying for the pieces that are missing.
The head of a singer informs in a single piece that the inhabitants of Teotihuacan practiced performing arts as well as plastic ones. The piece is perfect, miraculously surviving the fall of the city and subsequent depredations of vandals and scavengers.
Ancient Mesoamericans may not have used the wheel for transportation, but they certainly found other uses for it. The perfect form of this exquisite alabaster bowl could only have been produced on a lathe.
Sharp tools were made from obsidian, a volcanic glass that when properly worked, produces edges as keen as scalpels. The curators cleaved this large chunk of obsidian as a demonstration piece by striking it with a round stone hand hammer.
Wicked leaf-shaped knives are on display, some nearly a foot long. Outstanding among the obsidian artifacts, this knapped hook catches my imagination. It looks just like the knife used by the torturer to eviscerate Mel Gibson in Braveheart.
A finely polished bone needle illustrates yet again the sophistication and skill of Teotihuacan's toolmakers.
An entire gallery is dedicated to housing a scale model of the pyramid site. This view encompasses the north half of Teotihuacan, with the Pyramid of the Sun in the foreground and the Pyramid of the Moon in back.
Curiously missing from the museum's exhibits are metal artifacts. Probably only objects made from gold would have survived uncorroded. I imagine security considerations would preclude housing such valuables at a location so remote as this one.
A small but exquisite museum, I was torn between spending time studying the exhibits and going outside to explore the ruins.
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