Aztec Empire Gold Necklace

Hi my name is Huy Huynh, and welcome to my podcast, today we will be talking about a very special necklace from what is possibly the largest and strongest empire on the continent of the America during the 15th and 16th century. That empire is known as the Aztec Empire. The object that we are talking about today is a golden necklace made by an artisan of the Aztec empire. while we don’t know much about the person who had made this necklace itself, but we can use it to take a look at how the Giant Aztec empire had rule its subject and function as a whole.

First off, let me give you a description of the object. The necklace is made from a collection of small golden frogs, which was once held together by a string of some sort.each frog was only about 2 cm tall. The back of each frog was forged was made to look like a diamond by the way that the way that the four legs were bent.

When looking at the toes of the frogs, it is made with two elongated loops.

The facial feature is still quite pronounced. One could still make out its eyes and the slightly stout nose. Some of the frogs had a part of it chipped away but, overall the condition of the actual necklace as a whole is still good. The condition of the necklace of indicates the advancement in metal working techniques that the Aztec has developed.

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The necklace is said to be made around 15th to the early 16th century in Mexico by the Aztec empire. For this necklace was most likely own by a person of high power or of noble background. One of the first thing that we can say about these people is that they very skilled in terms of metal working and has an eye for artistic values, and the reason why we can assume that is because.

The condition of the necklace, while the necklace has some general wear and tear, the overall condition of it is still very good, as we can still make out the small details of the frogs such as the eyes, body and toes.up another thing that we can tell by looking at this necklace is that the Aztec people and society as a whole is that they were a very religious society. The main religion that the empire had follow was the Mesoamerican religion. Similar to how the Greeks had a god for each of natures phenomenon, the Aztec believed that there is a god for each aspect of society. There is a sun god, a god of water, a god of war, a god of fertility, a god of agriculture, so on and so fourth. Seeing how there are frogs on this frog, we can assume that this necklace has an import connection to the god of water and Earthly fertility- Tlaloc; and it is said that his animal form is a frog. So considering how the frog symbolizes earthly fertility and water, this necklaced might’ve been worn by a priest or shaman that is conducting a prayer ritual for a good harvest or for rain in time of droughts.

Gold, the material that this necklace was made from plays an important role in both the economics of the Aztec empire and It was one of the factor that had allow them expand so massively, but it was also one of the key factor that had lead to their down fall. The Aztec empire had begun as an alliance between the Aztec themselves, the Texcoco and Tlacopan. At the beginning of the Alliance, the three state had kept their autonomy from each other, and would only come together during a time of military conquest or action. Each time that there is a conquest, the Aztec warriors were often encouraged to capture some prisoner alive. There are several reason for this encouragement. One of them being that the capture prisoner will be used as a living sacrifice to the Aztec gods. The Aztec believe that if they can provide to their god with an adequate amount of blood and living sacrifice, the god will continue to provide them with prosperity and protection.

The living sacrifice had also act as a deterrent. One of the things that The Aztec would do is that they would force the king or people of a conquered state to watch the gruesome ritual, essentially the rituals were also used as a scare tactics that would prevent any major form of rebellion against the empire and in particular its ruling class. The irony in this practice was that, as it was meant to stop the people from rebelling against the Aztec, it had also cause for their downfall. This practice further fan the flame of hatred of the conquered people towards the Aztec as it was their people ( the people that was conquered) that were being sacrificed, and it had made them even more willing to jump at an opportunity to overthrow the empire if given the chance. And as we now know, that they did when the Spanish had given them that chance.

When a state is conquered, they would often be forced to pay tributes to the empire. Some of these tribute would come in form of precious stone and metal. These tribute would then be put into use for the growth of the empire. It would be used to create roads, temple, raising army and any other major projects. The down fall of the Aztec empire was something of their own doing. As they were expanding, taking over land and taxing more people, which are all of the things that they need to do in order to function and rule over their empire; they were also creating a lot of enemies out of the states that they had conquered and taken control of. The only reason why the conquered state couldn’t take on the task of overthrowing the Aztec sooner was because they were at a disadvantage in military and economic aspect. But when the Spanish had arrive, with their superior weapons, it was then that all of the Azect’s enemy had decided to join in and lend the Spanish a hand to overthrow the Aztec.