Anthropomorphic rattle

This rattle shows the face of a human being with closed eyelids; it may be a deceased individual, although another possibility is that it represents the so-called God Gordo. This specimen features an alloy similar to bronze and was manufactured using the technique of lost wax casting. Similar rattles have been reported on the Gulf Coast, and it is likely that the displayed object comes from the same region.

Gonzalo Sanchez

At the end of the Early Post-Classic Period to the twelfth or thirteenth century, metallurgy showed remarkable progress in parts of Mesoamerica, particularly in Michoacan and Oaxaca. This is most likely due to sustained maritime with merchants originating in the Andean world; not only goods from distant sources but, above all, the secrets of the metallurgical arts that in southern lands had already been flourishing for millennia. Such mastery of the procedures of making alloys allowed them to create new and more complex forms.

In Mesoamerica, in such a short time before the technological breakthrough imposed by the Conquest, metallurgy never revolutionized production methods, and was largely confined to the realm of the power of the gods and leaders. Rattles or bells were the first metal objects to gain great popularity from the beginning of Mesoamerican metallurgy around the eighth or ninth century.

Thus, the first thing that changed with the use of metals was the sound of the dances, the age of dignitaries and officiants when they honored the gods, when the rattles were strung and rolled on the arms and ankles of the dancers, together with or instead of, the rattles made of shell and seed from earlier times. Later on, with the progress made in the technique of lost wax casting and alloys, larger rattles decorated in the form of human faces or animals were made. Centuries later, upon the arrival of the Spaniards, the sound of metal also marked the pace of new times, with the ringing of church bells.

Marie-Areti Hers