National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico

It is known for world-famous repository of some 600,000 art and other objects relating to the country

§  Founded in 1825, the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico is known for world-famous repository of some 600,000 art and other objects relating to the country.

§  In 1964, the museum moved to a modern new building that housed a school, a library of some 300,000 volumes, a film archive, and public auditoriums.

§  Located in Chapultepec Park in Mexico City, the museum houses significant archaeological and anthropological artefacts from the country’s pre-Columbian heritage, such as the Stone of the Sun and the 16^th- century Aztec Xochipilli statue.

Interesting Facts

§  It contains artefacts from the Olmec and Mayan civilisations. The museum extensively traces the lives of people of Olmec and Mayan civilisations with rare artefacts.

§  The giant colossal heads at the museum are a unique feature of the Olmec civilisation. These heads portray mature men with fleshy cheeks, resembling physical characteristics still common among the inhabitants of Tabasco and Veracruz, the Mexican states, which at once were dominated by the Olmec civilisation 3,000 years ago, with its height around 800 BC.

§  The Olmec were the oldest Mesoamerican culture which dominated areas in what are now the states of Mexico, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Veracruz and Tabasco as well as parts of Central America, and considered to be the founding culture for all of Mesoamerica.

Unique Features

§  Among other most important features of the museum is the ‘Stone of the Sun’, an Aztec stone calendar dating back to the 1400s. In 1792, two years after the stone’s unearthing, Mexican anthropologist Antonio de León y Gama wrote a treatise on the Aztec calendar using the stone as its basis. He concluded that some of the circles of glyphs for the days of the month, and some of the symbols may represent the five ages that the Mexican people believed the earth had passed through.

§  The museum houses impressive statues of Aztec goddesses and a remarkable miniature model of Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, long since replaced by present-day Mexico City.

§  One of the most valuable pieces is a ‘Monkey Cup’ made of black obsidian. The ancient Mexicans did not have access to diamonds, carving an entire cup with the form of a monkey on it and polishing it was not an easy task. Some scientists say it took generations t create such a piece.

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Statue of Tlaloc, also called the great goddess of water, considered an important deity in Aztec religion. He was worshipped as a beneficent giver of life and sustenance.