HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

A chacmool (also spelled chac-mool or Chac Mool) is a form of
pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...
Mesoamerican Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El S ...
sculpture depicting a reclining figure with its head facing 90 degrees from the front, supporting itself on its elbows and supporting a bowl or a disk upon its stomach. These figures possibly symbolised slain warriors carrying offerings to the gods; the bowl upon the chest was used to hold sacrificial offerings, including
pulque Pulque (; ), occasionally known as octli or agave wine, is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented sap of the maguey (agave) plant. It is traditional in central Mexico, where it has been produced for millennia. It has the color of milk, ...
,
tamale A tamale, in Spanish language, Spanish , is a traditional Mesoamerican dish made of ''masa'', a dough made from nixtamalization, nixtamalized maize, corn, which is steaming, steamed in a corn husk or Banana leaf, banana leaves. The wrapping ...
s,
tortilla A tortilla (, ) is a thin, circular unleavened flatbread from Mesoamerica originally made from maize hominy meal, and now also from wheat flour. The Aztecs and other Nahuatl speakers called tortillas ''tlaxcalli'' (). First made by the indi ...
s,
tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
, turkeys, feathers, and incense. In
Aztec The Aztecs ( ) were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the Post-Classic stage, post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central ...
examples, the receptacle is a cuauhxicalli (a stone bowl to receive sacrificed human hearts). Chacmools were often associated with sacrificial stones or thrones.Miller and Taube 1993, 2003, p. 60. The chacmool form of sculpture first appeared around the 9th century AD in the
Valley of Mexico The Valley of Mexico (; ), sometimes also called Basin of Mexico, is a highlands plateau in central Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the Valley of Mexico was a centre for several pre-Columbian civilizations including Teotihuacan, ...
and the northern
Yucatán Peninsula The Yucatán Peninsula ( , ; ) is a large peninsula in southeast Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north and west of the peninsula from the C ...
. Aztec chacmools bore water imagery and were associated with Tlaloc, the rain god. Their symbolism placed them on the frontier between the physical and supernatural realms, as intermediaries with the gods.


Form

The chacmool is a distinctive form of Mesoamerican sculpture representing a reclining figure with its head facing 90 degrees from the front, leaning on its elbows and supporting a bowl or a disk upon its chest. There is great variation among individual chacmools, with some possessing heads that are right-facing and others left-facing, and some with the heads facing upwards; some examples have movable heads. The figure may be lying on its back or on its side and the abdomen can be sunken below the level of the chest and knees or at the same level. Some chacmools were raised upon rectangular bases. Some of the figures are richly attired whilst others are almost naked.López Austin and López Luján 2001, p. 60. The chacmools of Chichen Itza and Tula depict young men with warrior attributes, while the chacmools of
Michoacán Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo, is one of the 31 states which, together with Mexico City, compose the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The stat ...
depict elderly men with wrinkled faces and erect penises. A chacmool from Guácimo, Costa Rica, combines human and
jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large felidae, cat species and the only extant taxon, living member of the genus ''Panthera'' that is native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the biggest cat spe ...
features and grips a bowl.Solano, 21 February 2012. The face of the figure looks upwards and the bowl was apparently used to grind foodstuffs.Solano, 26 February 2012. A wide variety of materials were used to sculpt chacmools, including
limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
and hard
metamorphic Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock (protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, causi ...
and
igneous Igneous rock ( ), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rocks are formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava. The magma can be derived from partial ...
rock types. Other materials employed include ceramic and cement.


Discovery and naming

The ancient name for these types of sculptures is unknown. The term ''chacmool'' is derived from the name "Chaacmol," which Augustus Le Plongeon in 1875 gave to a sculpture that he and his wife Alice Dixon Le Plongeon excavated within the Temple of the Eagles and Jaguars at Chichén Itzá in 1875; he translated ''Chaacmol'' from Yucatecan Mayan as the "paw swift like thunder." Le Plongeon believed the statue, which he had found buried beneath the Platform of the Eagles and the Jaguars, depicted a former ruler of Chichen Itza. Le Plongeon's sponsor, Stephen Salisbury of
Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...
, published Le Plongeon's find, but revised the spelling to "Chac-Mool." Le Plongeon sought permission from Mexico's president to display the statue at the
Centennial Exhibition The Centennial International Exhibition, officially the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and Products of the Soil and Mine, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876. It was the first official wo ...
in Philadelphia in 1876, a request that was denied. In 1877 the Yucatecan government seized the statue and brought it to Mérida. Weeks later Yucatán turned over the statue to the federal government, which brought it to Mexico City to the National Museum of Anthropology. Museum worker Jesús Sanchez realised that the Chichen Itza sculpture was stylistically similar to two sculptures from central Mexico and the wide occurrence of the form within Mesoamerica was first recognised.Miller 1985, p. 7. The 19th century discovery of chacmools in both central Mexico and the Yucatán Peninsula helped to promote the idea of a
Toltec The Toltec culture () was a Pre-Columbian era, pre-Columbian Mesoamerican culture that ruled a state centered in Tula (Mesoamerican site), Tula, Hidalgo (state), Hidalgo, Mexico, during the Epiclassic and the early Post-Classic period of Mesoam ...
empire although the chacmool sculptures may have originated in the Maya region. Although the name ''chacmool'' was inappropriately applied, it has become a useful label to link stylistically similar sculptures from different regions and periods without imposing a unified interpretation. Besides these sites, the sculpture was also found in
Michoacán Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo, is one of the 31 states which, together with Mexico City, compose the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The stat ...
, where it is called Uaxanoti (The Seated One) in the
Purépecha language Purépecha ( autonym: or ), often called Tarascan (), a term coined by Spanish settlers that can be seen as pejorative, is a language isolate or small language family that is spoken by some 140,000 Purépecha in the highlands of Michoacán, Mex ...
.


Distribution

Examples of chacmool sculptures have been found widely across Mesoamerica from
Michoacán Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo, is one of the 31 states which, together with Mexico City, compose the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The stat ...
in
Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
down to
El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...
. The earliest examples date from the Terminal Classic period of
Mesoamerican chronology Mesoamerican chronology divides the history of pre-Columbian, prehispanic Mesoamerica into several periods: the Paleo-Indian (first human habitation until 3500 BCE); the Archaic (before 2600 BCE), the Preclassic or Formative (2500 BC ...
(c. AD 800–900). Examples are known from the Postclassic Aztec capital of
Tenochtitlan , also known as Mexico-Tenochtitlan, was a large Mexican in what is now the historic center of Mexico City. The exact date of the founding of the city is unclear, but the date 13 March 1325 was chosen in 1925 to celebrate the 600th annivers ...
, from the central Mexican city of Tula and from the
Maya city Maya cities were the centres of population of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica. They served the specialised roles of administration, commerce, manufacturing and religion that characterised ancient cities worldwide.Sharer & Tra ...
of
Chichen Itza Chichén Itzá , , often with the emphasis reversed in English to ; from () "at the mouth of the well of the Itza people, Itza people" (often spelled ''Chichen Itza'' in English and traditional Yucatec Maya) was a large Pre-Columbian era, ...
in the
Yucatán Peninsula The Yucatán Peninsula ( , ; ) is a large peninsula in southeast Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north and west of the peninsula from the C ...
. Fourteen chacmools are known from Chichen Itza and twelve from Tula. The chacmool from the palace at Tula is dated to the Early Postclassic (c. AD 900–1200). Further examples are known from Acolman,
Cempoala Cempoala or Zempoala (Nahuatl ''Cēmpoalātl'' 'Place of Twenty Waters') is an important Mesoamerican archaeological site located in the municipality of Úrsulo Galván in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The site was inhabited mainly by Totonac ...
,
Michoacán Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo, is one of the 31 states which, together with Mexico City, compose the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The stat ...
,
Querétaro Querétaro, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Querétaro, is one of the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Querétaro, 18 municipalities. Its capital city is Querétaro Cit ...
and
Tlaxcala Tlaxcala, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tlaxcala, is one of the 32 federal entities that comprise the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Tlaxcala, 60 municipalities and t ...
. In Chichen Itza, only five of the fourteen chacmools were securely confirmed in architectural contexts, those in the Castillo, the Chacmool Temple, the North Colonnade, the Temple of the Little Tables and the Temple of the Warriors. The rest were found interred in or near important structures. The five that were found in secure architectural contexts were all placed within entrance areas near a ritual seat or throne.Miller 1985, p. 11. The chacmools in Tula also had an association with thrones or raised seating platforms, either in front of the throne or at the entrance to a chamber containing a throne.Miller 1985, p. 12. Two chacmools have been recovered that were associated with the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital. The first was discovered in 1943, on the junction of Venustiano Carranza and Pino Suarez, about two blocks south of the temple itself. The second chacmool was excavated in the sacred precinct.Miller 1985, p. 15. This is the only fully polychrome chacmool that has been recovered anywhere; it had an open mouth and exposed teeth and stood in front of the temple of Tlaloc, the Aztec rain god; its sculpted bowl probably received heart and blood sacrifices. This latter sculpture is by far the older of the two. Chacmools have been reported as far south as the Maya city of
Quiriguá Quiriguá () is an ancient Maya civilization, Maya archaeological site in the Departments of Guatemala, department of Izabal Department, Izabal in south-eastern Guatemala. It is a medium-sized site covering approximately along the lower Motagua ...
, near the Guatemalan border with Honduras. The Quiriguá chacmool most likely dated to the Postclassic period and is stylistically similar to those of Tula rather than Chichen Itza. Two chacmools were reported from Tazumal, a Maya site in western
El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...
. A chacmool was excavated at Las Mercedes in Guácimo, Costa Rica.


Dating and origin

The oldest chacmool ever discovered was the Terminal Classic. The form was unknown in such important Mesoamerican cities as
Teotihuacan Teotihuacan (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Teotihuacán'', ; ) is an ancient Mesoamerican city located in a sub-valley of the Valley of Mexico, which is located in the State of Mexico, northeast of modern-day Mexico City. Teotihuacan is ...
and
Tikal Tikal (; ''Tik'al'' in modern Mayan orthography) is the ruin of an ancient city, which was likely to have been called Yax Mutal, found in a rainforest in Guatemala. It is one of the largest archaeological sites and urban centers of the Pre-Col ...
. After the first appearance of the form, it was rapidly disseminated throughout Mesoamerica, spreading as far south as
Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...
. Although a central Mexican origin is generally assumed, there are no antecedents pre-dating the
Toltec The Toltec culture () was a Pre-Columbian era, pre-Columbian Mesoamerican culture that ruled a state centered in Tula (Mesoamerican site), Tula, Hidalgo (state), Hidalgo, Mexico, during the Epiclassic and the early Post-Classic period of Mesoam ...
s and the form is not present in central Mexican
codices The codex (: codices ) was the historical ancestor format of the modern book. Technically, the vast majority of modern books use the codex format of a stack of pages bound at one edge, along the side of the text. But the term ''codex'' is now r ...
. The positioning and context of the chacmool form do have antecedents in Classic
Maya art Ancient Maya art comprises the visual arts of the Maya civilization, an eastern and south-eastern Mesoamerican culture made up of a great number of small kingdoms in what is now Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras. Many regional artistic tradit ...
and art historian Mary Ellen Miller has argued that the chacmool developed out of Classic period Maya imagery.Miller 1985, p. 8. No central Mexican chacmool has been found that clearly predates the Chichen Itza examples. However, Tula and Chichen Itza may have developed simultaneously with rapid communication of the chacmool form from one city to the other.Miller 1985, p. 14. The wider variety of chacmool forms at Chichen Itza has also been used to support the development of the form there; no two possess identical form, dress and proportions. At Tula the chacmools have a standardised form with little variation in position or proportions. Miller has proposed that the chacmool developed out of Classic Maya iconography and underwent a transition into three dimensional sculpture at Chichen Itza, perhaps spurred by the influence of central Mexican sculptural forms. A chacmool from Costa Rica was dated by the excavators to approximately AD 1000.


Aztec Chacmool

During the 1930 excavation of
Templo Mayor The (English: Main Temple) was the main temple of the Mexica people in their capital city of Tenochtitlan, Tenōchtitlan, which is now Mexico City. Its architectural style belongs to the late Mesoamerican chronology, Postclassic period of Me ...
, the only fully
polychrome Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery, or sculpture in multiple colors. When looking at artworks and ...
chacmool to be found at that site was in its original context on the top level of the Tlaloc side (the rain god) of the temple. The position of this chacmool statue mirrored the position of the sacrificial stone on the Huitzilopochtli (the Aztecs' patron deity, associated with war) side of the temple. Archaeologist Eduardo Matos Moctezuma posits that this mirroring confirms his interpretation that the chacmool acted as an "intermediary between the priest and the god, a divine messenger," in the same way the sacrificial stone on the Huitzilopochtli side does. The pigment that remained on this chacmool sculpture was crucial to its identification, as it does not contain any sculpted iconography or symbols associated with the rain god Tlaloc. Archaeologists were able to create a reconstruction of the sculpture's original colors, which they then compared to
pictographic A pictogram (also pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto) is a graphical symbol that conveys meaning through its visual resemblance to a physical object. Pictograms are used in systems of writing and visual communication. A pictography is a wri ...
representations of Tlaloc. This comparison confirmed that the polychrome chacmool discovered at Tlaloc's side of the Templo Mayor was a representation of the deity itself. Characteristics such as the "''chia'' circles on the cheeks, the circular gold pectoral medallion, and the color combination of the petticoat, as well as the black skin, the red hands and feet, and the white headdress and bangles" echo the iconography of other depictions of Tlaloc. Art historians Leonardo Lopez Lujan and Giacomo Chiari argue that this "confirms that there is symbolic continuity between the early and late Mexica ztecchacmool," due to early Aztec chacmools containing iconographic nods to Tlaloc. A second chacmool discovery from the Templo Mayor, dating to a later period, displays iconographic features which are distinct from the larger corpus of chacmool figures but consistent with other sculptures (Tlaloc ritual vessels and bench reliefs) found in a similar context at the Templo Mayor. Whereas Tlaloc's eyes are generally represented with a round goggle-like frame, the later chacmool, the vessels, and the bench relief feature a rectangular eye frame within which almond eyes are engraved.López Austin, Alfredo. 1983. "The Masked God of Fire," ''The Aztec Templo Mayor: a symposium at Dumbarton Oaks, 8th and 9th October 1983'', edited by Elizabeth 135 Hill Boone. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection: 257–292. All three sculptures also include large fangs at the corners of the god's mouth. The ornaments worn by the later chacmool and included in the vessels and the bench relief also differ from other representations of Tlaloc. The later chacmool, vessels, and bench relief sport oversized circular earspools, rather than the characteristic earspools with a square plug and central dangal; they are also adorned with a multistrand, beaded collar in which one strand has larger beads that have been interpreted to be hanging bells. The chacmool holds onto a '' cuauhxicalli'' vessel that is engraved with the face of Tlaloc, including the same rectangular eye and mouth features. In 1942, archaeologists recovered another chacmool example located a few blocks away from the Templo Mayor. This chacmool has overt iconographic associations with Tlaloc, wearing his mask and holding a ''cuauhxicalli'' vessel whose top is carved with the face of Tlaloc (rather than being concave and able to hold something). He is wearing several strands of beaded necklaces, with the outer most ring containing oliva shells, which were a characteristic of Maya costuming. Another
Maya Maya may refer to: Ethnic groups * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Mayan languages, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (East Africa), a p ...
influence can be seen in his headdress, which scholars Mary Miller and Marco Samayoa compare to a headdress worn by Maya king Shield Jaguar (also known as Itzamnaaj Bahlam III) of
Yaxchilan Yaxchilan () is an ancient Maya city located on the bank of the Usumacinta River in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. In the Late Classic Period Yaxchilan was one of the most powerful Maya states along the course of the Usumacinta River, with Pied ...
. Perhaps the most interesting iconographic feature of this chacmool, however, is the large necklace pendant he wears, which Miller and Samayoa argue is a representation of an actual heirloom pendant. They suggest that the pendant was looted from a Maya site, probably "from a stone vessel interred behind a chacmool" and that "its subject is probably the enthroned, resurrected
Maize God Like other Mesoamerican peoples, the traditional Maya recognize in their staple crop, maize, a vital force with which they strongly identify. This is clearly shown by their mythological traditions. According to the 16th-century Popol Vuh, the Hero ...
." This association between chacmools and maize deities is rooted in Maya examples (from which the Aztecs were clearly drawing inspiration, as this example's headdress and shell necklace demonstrate), but does not necessarily mean that the Aztecs would have associated their chacmools with maize deities. In all likelihood, the Aztecs conceived of chacmools as being connected to Tlaloc, as it is his image and associated iconographic characteristics that cover the majority of discovered Aztec chacmools. This chacmool, for instance, features a carving of Tlaloc on its underside, the symbolic meaning of which Miller explores: "With their undersides carved with aquatic symbols, these sculptures seem to float on water. This suspension suggests the liminal qualities of the messenger, the link between earth and supernaturals."


Interpretations

The meaning of the chacmool figures varied across time depending upon the geographical and cultural context. Chacmools do not appear to have been worshipped, since they are never found within inner sanctuary of temples or shrines; it appears to have rather been a piece of religious paraphernalia used by the priesthood in the course of their duties. Three uses have generally been attributed to chacmools.López Austin and López Luján 2001, p. 62. The first interpretation is that the chacmool is an offering table (or ''tlamanalco'') to receive gifts such as
pulque Pulque (; ), occasionally known as octli or agave wine, is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented sap of the maguey (agave) plant. It is traditional in central Mexico, where it has been produced for millennia. It has the color of milk, ...
,
tamale A tamale, in Spanish language, Spanish , is a traditional Mesoamerican dish made of ''masa'', a dough made from nixtamalization, nixtamalized maize, corn, which is steaming, steamed in a corn husk or Banana leaf, banana leaves. The wrapping ...
s,
tortilla A tortilla (, ) is a thin, circular unleavened flatbread from Mesoamerica originally made from maize hominy meal, and now also from wheat flour. The Aztecs and other Nahuatl speakers called tortillas ''tlaxcalli'' (). First made by the indi ...
s, tobacco, turkeys, feathers and incense. The second is that the chacmool was a ''cuauhxicalli'' to receive blood and human hearts; this use is particularly relevant to the Aztecs, who used a ''cuauhxicalli'' bowl in place of the usual disc-altar. These bowls may have accepted these blood offerings directly or may have been holders for portable ''cuauhxicalli'' bowls that were placed within them. A chacmool from Tlaxcala has a bloodied heart sculpted on the underside, supporting this interpretation. It has also been suggested that chacmools were used as a ''techcatl'', or sacrificial stone over which victims were stretched so their hearts could be cut from their chests. The ''
Crónica Mexicayotl Crónica may refer to: * ''Crónica'' (newspaper), Buenos Aires newspaper * Crónica Electrónica or Crónica, independent media label based in Porto, Portugal * Crónica TV, Argentine news cable channel * Crônica, Portuguese-language form of sh ...
'' describes such a sacrificial stone as sculpted in the form of a person with a twisted head. ''Techcatl'' were not just used for human sacrifice, they were also used in the '' yacaxapotlaliztli'' ceremony, where the nose of a future ruler was pierced. Such rituals may also have been executed upon chacmools, and the presence of small nose jewels sculpted onto various chacmools at Chichen Itza and one at Tula has been used to support this idea.López Austin and López Luján 2001, p. 63. The backward reclining figure of the chacmool presents a defenceless, passive appearance and has been likened by Miller to the positioning of captives in Classic period Maya sculpture and painting. Bent elbows and knees are common in depictions of Maya captives; the full-frontal view of the face is rare in Maya art except among representations of captives. The form of the Chichen Itza chacmools lacks the typical traits of Maya deities and most scholars have assumed that the iconography of Maya chacmools is equivalent to that of the central Mexican examples. Eduard Seler commented in the early 1960s that chacmools in Chichen Itza tended to be located in temple antechambers, where the bowl or disc gripped by the figure served to receive pulque as an offering.Miller 1985, p. 9. The chacmools at Chichen Itza were found in a combination of chacmool, throne and serpent column; this chacmool-throne-serpent complex was associated with rulership during the Early Postclassic period. The original chacmool described by Le Plongeon in the 19th century included small images of the central Mexican deity Tlaloc on its ear ornaments. Among the Classic period Maya, such Tlaloc imagery was associated with war and human sacrifice. Associations between the rain god, war and human sacrifice may have continued into the Postclassic period as demonstrated by the chacmool within the Castillo at Chichen Itza, which bears small images of the Maya rain god
Chaac Chaac (also spelled Chac or, in Classic Maya language, Classic Mayan, Chaahk ) is the name of the Maya civilization, Maya god of rain, thunder, and lightning. With his lightning axe, Chaac strikes the clouds, causing them to produce thunder and r ...
on its ear ornaments.Miller 1985, p. 17. The chacmools at Tula, with contextual similarity to those at Chichen Itza, probably also represent war captives. The lack of the representation of chacmools in Central Mexican codices has led to them being associated with a great variety of deities by scholars, including Cinteotl, Tezcatzoncatl and Tlaloc. Both of the chacmools from the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan were clearly associated with Tlaloc. The chacmool found two blocks south of the temple was sculpted with three images of the deity. These included an elaborate relief image of Tlaloc amongst aquatic symbols on the underside, one on the bowl that the figure grips and the last is the Tlaloc mask with characteristic goggles and fangs that is worn by the chacmool. The fully polychrome chacmool found ''in situ'' in the Great Temple was associated with Tlaloc by its placement on the Tlaloc half of the double pyramid. A further Aztec chacmool was described in the 19th century; it is of uncertain origin but stylistically it is typical of Tenochtitlan. It is sculpted on the underside with aquatic imagery and the figure wears a goggle-and-fangs Tlaloc mask. Spanish observers reported the great quantity of human sacrifices during important ceremonies at the Great Temple and the chacmool was probably used during these rituals to symbolise the sacrificed captives as well as receive their blood. The discs gripped by some chacmools may represent a
mirror A mirror, also known as a looking glass, is an object that Reflection (physics), reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror forms an image of whatever is in front of it, which is then focused through the lens of the eye or a camera ...
. Chacmools were placed in entrances in order to receive sacrificial offerings, including human blood and hearts. The aquatic imagery carved onto the underside of some of the figures symbolised that they were floating on water, on the frontier between the physical world and the supernatural realm. This suggests that chacmools acted as messengers between the mortal realm and that of the gods. Costa Rican chacmools gripped sculpted bowls; these chacmools also served ceremonial purposes although the bowl was used to grind foodstuffs.


In contemporary culture

The short story "Chac Mool" by Mexican novelist
Carlos Fuentes Carlos Fuentes Macías (; ; November 11, 1928 – May 15, 2012) was a Mexican novelist and essayist. Among his works are ''The Death of Artemio Cruz'' (1962), '' Aura'' (1962), '' Terra Nostra'' (1975), '' The Old Gringo'' (1985) and '' Christop ...
is found in his book ''Los días enmascarados'' (), published in 1954. A man named Filiberto buys a chacmool for his art collection,Filer 1984, p. 477 and discovers that the stone is slowly becoming flesh. The idol eventually becomes fully human, dominating his life, causing flooding and other disasters. Filiberto dies by drowning. His story is found in a diary describing the terrors brought on by the idol, and his plans to escape. According to the author, this short story was inspired by news reports from 1952 when the lending of a representation of the Maya rain deity to a Mexican exhibition in Europe had coincided with wet weather there. The short story was included in the 2008 anthology '' Sun, Stone, and Shadows.'' In
Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract art, abstract monumental Bronze sculpture, bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. Moore ...
's early examples of monumental reclining figures, the artist relied on the cast of a chacmool sculpture he saw in Paris. Commenting on the major impact chacmool sculpted figures had on his early career, Moore stated that "Its stillness and alertness, a sense of readiness – and the whole presence of it, and the legs coming down like columns" were characteristics that inspired his creations.


References


General references

* * * * * Desmond, Lawrence G. "Chacmool." In Davíd Carrasco (ed). ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures''. : Oxford University Press, 2001. * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

*


External links


"Chacmool," by Lawrence G. Desmond, Peabody Museum, Harvard University
{{Authority control Maya civilization Religious objects Stone sculptures Indigenous sculpture of the Americas Aztec artifacts Mesoamerican stone sculptures