CAST #PRE-2
AZTEC SERPENT
SOUTHERN MEXICO
PETE BOSTROM COLLECTION

CAST #PRE-2

   This delicately flaked effigy of a serpent was made from slightly translucent black obsidian that has a slight greenish tinge on the edge. This same variety of obsidian is found in Mexico and was used by the Aztec culture in the Tehuacan Valley. These people were using a core and blade manufacturing technique to produce large numbers of long narrow blades with extremely sharp cutting edges. This snake effigy and other similar examples were most probably made from these blades.
   This delicately flaked serpentine shaped effigy is most certainly an object made for ceremonial purposes rather than having had a utilitarian function. It's too delicate to have been used for anything other than a ritual offering or display symbol.
   In North, Central and South America the serpent of snake was an important image that was revered in native cultures. Many of these cultures were separated by wide distances and by thousands of years. Serpents have been sculpted in stone, engraved in all types of materials, hammered in copper, molded in clay pots and painted on walls. The snake image in the Americas and around the world seems to have always been a powerful symbol.
   This serpent effigy was made by a very skilled flintknapper, someone who did this type of work for several years. There is a report (which I have not been able to locate) that says these artifacts are always found broken and this example has been broken in two places. That could either be because they are so delicate that they do not survive or it was done deliberately. This example measures 8 1/2 inches long and is flaked in such a way that it has a medial ridge along the length of both sides!

AZTEC SERPENT EFFIGY
SOUTHERN MEXICO
PETE BOSTROM COLLECTION

   During the Late Stone Age a few societies in various locations around the world were able to expand and become culturally stable long enough to allow specialized craftsman to work and become the best at what they did, in this case flintknapping. They were probably able to pass their flint smithing skills down from father to son or to apprentices for, in some cases, several generations. Predynastic Egypt in North Africa, the Hopewell people in the Illinois River Valley and farther east, Mississippian cultures in the eastern U.S., the Mayan people of Belize & Guatemala and the Aztec in Mexico are examples of Stone Age cultures that reached a golden age of flintknapping. They not only produced flaked stone artifacts that were used in a utilitarian way but also made items for ceremonial purposes that have yet to be duplicated to this day. The Aztec culture is high on the list of Stone Age societies that produced some of the most skillfully made flaked stone artifacts in the history of the world.

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AZTEC SERPENT
SOUTHERN MEXICO
PETE BOSTROM COLLECTION

   This obsidian snake effigy measures 8 1/2 inches long. It's laying on a very large Aztec blade (biface) in this picture.

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