Aztec music: Did you mean...?

A detail of the celebrated Aztec double-headed serpent. It is made from wood covered in turquoise mosaic, spondylus (red) and conch (white) shell. The eyes would have been rendered with inlay, probably of iron pyrite. The piece is believed...

The lighting of fires during the Aztec New Fire Ceremony of 1507, a ritual held every 52 years to ensure the continuation of the Sun. The priests carry fire bundles and wear turquoise masks in imitation of the fire god Xiuhtecuhtli, as do...

The Aztec Sun Stone (or Calendar Stone) depicts the five consecutive worlds of the sun from Aztec mythology. The stone is not, therefore, in any sense a functioning calendar, but rather it is an elaborately carved solar disk, which for the...

An 1862 oil on canvas painting, Music in the Tuileries Gardens, by Edouard Manet (1832-83), the French modernist painter. This work has often been called the first modern painting since it broke the artistic convention that artists avoided...

The Aztec civilisation spanned from around 1300 CE until 1521, and at its greatest extent, the empire covered most of Northern Mesoamerica. Although we refer to these peoples as ‘Aztecs,’ that is not what they called themselves. They were...

The striking turquoise mask now in the British Museum in London is thought to represent Xiuhtecuhtli, the Aztec god of fire, and dates to the final century of the Aztec empire, c. 1400-1521 CE. It is made from hundreds of small pieces of...

An Aztec (Mexica) shield of wood covered in turquoise and shell mosaic. Likely used only as a ceremonial shield. The design shows solar disks and a long, winding snake crisscrossing the shield horizontally. The shield was dedicated to the...

A map illustrating the various stages of Aztec expansion under successive rulers in the 15th and early 16th centuries CE.

A scene from the 16th century CE Florentine Codex depicting Aztec musicians. Music and dance were an important element of Aztec education and public life.

In Ancient Egyptian society, both dance and music were highly valued. They were integral to creation and communication with the gods and there was an intrinsic link between music and dance and the divine. The goddess Hathor was associated...