A gigantic and at times rather overwhelming exhibition has just opened at the Australian Museum . Allow plenty of time and possibly plan on return visits as there is so much to take in.
The main overall room colour is a dark blood red, while the labels are clear and legible. Most of the smaller artefacts are grouped together in cases, with the big ones displayed on plinths. There are models, pictures , wonderful timelines and interactive touch screens that speak to us in Mexican accents, along with an imagined imposing reconstruction of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán, which has an internal display focusing on the Aztec beliefs about the afterlife.
Through extended trading networks the Aztecs had access to turquoise, jade, and pearl shell, which were delicately fashioned. Examples of both appear in the exhibition, but their most prized item (feathers) is really nowhere to be found although replicas are featured.
The macabre details of the Aztec sacrifices are detailed in this exhibition but we also learn about a sophisticated people with a prosperous marketplace, an amazing talent for agriculture , who developed a 365-day calendar and had a great love of art.
We see models of the bustling marketplace and learn about the incredible Chinapmas ( floating gardens ) and the canal system . We are also informed of the migrant origins of the Aztecs and follow their crushing Imperial march through Mesoamerica. The show also focuses on domestic life, religious beliefs and the eventual fall of their empire to the forces of the Conquistador, Hernan Cortes.The duality of Aztec life is emphasised.
We learn about their social structure – with the Emperor at the top – the tribute system imposed, and what life was like especially for men and boys with the emphasis on warrior training and on blood sacrifice.
It was a rigidly hierarchical society in which the nobles lived in luxury whilst commoners had virtually nothing; an authoritarian state that dispensed swift and ruthless justice to those who broke the rules. Every aspect of Aztec life was permeated by religion, under the aegis of greedy, hypersensitive gods that demanded constant tribute.
We are told that the Aztecs believed the world had been created and destroyed four times by warring gods.and that they were living in the era of the Fifth Sun, which had been brought about by the gods’ self-sacrifice. Yet this primary sacrifice required human reciprocity if life on earth were to continue.
The Aztec world ideally created model citizens all of whom knew their place . The Aztecs believed that to die in battle or to be sacrificed were the most honourable forms of death, ensuring a speedy transition to the afterlife. Those who died of natural causes had to negotiate nine horrific levels of the underworld before finding eternal rest .
The capital city they built, Tenochtitlán, would have almost 200,000 inhabitants by the time the Spaniards arrived. (This was twice as large as any city in Europe). It amazed the visitors with its size, its wealth, and the orderly manner in which it functioned.That order was built on a rigorous code of justice that dispensed death for even small offences, and an educational system that trained every boy to be a warrior.No one was more revered than a man who excelled on the battlefield, which usually meant bringing home captives for sacrifice.
One of the first things viewers meet in this exhibition is a life-sized ceramic statue of an eagle warrior, painstakingly reconstructed from broken shards. It perhaps looks like a theatrical costume, but the bravest warriors earned the right to dress as an eagle or a jaguar, as if to channel the qualities of those creatures. The fiercest generals would paint their faces half-red, half-blue. Sacrificial stones and knives are also included in the exhibition.
Aztec cosmology worshipped a few major deities, the most important being Huitzilopochtli (god of war) and Tláloc (god of rain and lightning). This duo occupied the top of the Great Temple, where sacrifices were made and greet us at the entrance .There were thousands of lesser gods associated with every aspect of life.We also see delicate depictions of the Goddess of Young Corn for example and there are several replicas of various major codexes that have survived the Spanish destruction.
Another of the most popular gods was Quetzalcóatl, god of the wind, who has many forms in this exhibition.The undeniably scary ,unforgettable statue however of this exhibition is a large clay version of Mictlantecuhtli, god of death and lord of the underworld. He stands grinning and waiting for us at the entrance to the display that represents the afterlife.
Sort of like a ghoulish skeletal Nosferatu , his hands have long, scythe-like claws, while his liver dangles from his torso. This was the welcoming party for souls that had completed the arduous journey that took them to the final level of the underworld.Terrifying .
It is sobering to note that the Aztecs lasted as an empire barely 200 years after the Spanish invasion, approximately around the same time span as European settlement in Australia.
A fascinating sometimes chilling spellbinding exhibition and there is lots to splurge on at the shop at the end.
AZTECS runs at the Australian Museum until 1 Feb 2015
For more about AZTECS, visit http://australianmuseum.net.au/landing/aztecs/