In the Tuxtlas region of Mexico, sources of grey and green obsidian are abundant. Obsidian can be found in numerous shades and pigments throughout Mesoamerica, with grey and green obsidian being the predominate commodity used to create religious and consumer goods. However, not all obsidian was equal in Mesoamerican eyes. In a world devoid of metal products, obsidian served as a malleable substitute for iron and bronze. This paper attempts to fill this void of knowledge by exploring why obsidian held such deep importance to Mesoamerican culture, further it attempts to provide a contextual understanding of how the Pachuca mines that produced this commodity gave rise to a succession of powerful empires and cemented Teotihuacan as the center of a vast pre-industrial empire of obsidian. The historiography of the Mesoamerican peoples has been explored from many differing perspectives in centuries post conquest, however, the almost complete omission of the symbolic importance of obsidian in Mesoamerican culture from the historiography of Mesoamerica creates a void in understanding the complexities of Mesoamerican society and the rise of empires in the region. The glass, highly prized for its versatile tool making abilities, iridescent color, and supernatural connection to the Aztec gods, was central to the Aztec religious, economic, political, and daily life. Obsidian, a volcanic glass native to central Mexico, exemplifies the Mesoamerican cultural blending of spiritual and terrestrial symbolism that is found throughout the region. Quetzalcoatl represents, like many things in Mesoamerican culture, a balance between the mundane and the divine. The mythology that surrounded Quetzalcoatl’s return has been associated with the creation of the sun, the moon, and the collapse of the Aztec empire. Quetzalcoatl’s image is a central feature in both Toltec and Aztec ceremonial complexes and pyramids, and it decorates the pages of surviving codices. Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent ingrained in the historiography of Mesoamerica cultures, is steeped in mystic symbolism that permeates almost every aspect of the Mesoamerican cultures dating back almost two millennia.
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