The Phenomenal Anthropology And Archaeology Museum In Mexico City

Hi, this is Brian Forster and this is an exploration of the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City. But first of all, we're actually in the subway system and this is the scale model of the ancient Mexico City during Aztec times when it was called Tenochtitlan, which means the place of prophecy. And now we're at El Zocalo, which is the main square in Mexico City, and this is sculpture representing the arrival of the Aztecs to Tenochtitlan. Again, this was a place that was prophesied as to where they should set up their capital. And outside the main museum, here we have a huge sculpture of Tlaloc, the rain god. And this sculpture is of mysterious origin, weighing in at about a hundred tons and made of basalt. Now we're in the actual museum and we're going to be going through a number of different displays. This is one of the finest museums in the world, built in the 1960s and still looks very contemporary. So with our guide, Sergio, we're going to go inside and explore some of the amazing ancient artworks from different cultures. This is actually the Aztec room. And here we see a sculpture of a jaguar out of basalt, quite finely made. The fact that the Aztecs had no metallic tools that we know of makes it very interesting in terms of how did they actually create any of these sculptural works. They only had obsidian, which has a hardness of 5.5, and basalt tools, which is a hardness of 6. And yet they were able to create all of this incredible artwork in basalt and other hard stones. Here we have some death effigies. The Aztec believed that there were nine worlds underground, not hells, but nine levels of death. And after you went through the nine levels, then you would come back out, possibly to be reborn. And here is the classic, off to the left, now disappeared Aztec calendar stone. And this magnificent sculpture made out of very hard stone with a very high polish. So this is the iconic Aztec calendar stone that was found, I believe, in the 19th or 20th centuries in Tenochtitlan, which was the main part of ancient Mexico City during the time of the Aztecs. It was an island in the middle of a lake called Texcoco. And now the population of Mexico City is somewhere between 25 and 30 million people. And at the time of the Aztec was a population of about 200 to 250,000. And this sculpture is called a chacmul. This is where offerings were given to the gods. I think there's been too much of a statement that it was human hearts. It was probably fruit and vegetables more than human hearts. And this quite incredible stone sculpture of a snake entwined upon itself. And here we have a painting of what Tenochtitlan looked like at the time the Cortes and the Spanish conquistadors entered and destroyed the Aztec world. This is an obsidian carving, absolutely astonishing in that it's a vessel. It's perfectly round in terms of the top part and how this was achieved during Aztec times or older is completely unknown. Then we have one of the classic Olmec heads from the Veracruz and Mexican Panhandle Caribbean slash Gulf of Mexico area, weighing in probably between 10 and 20 tons. And these somewhat strange depressions at the back. Again, if they only had basalt tools, how could they shape something of this scale in the same material? So we're now in the actual Olmec section of the museum. And here we have another one of the famous Olmec basalt heads. There are two or three in this museum and many more in the Xalapa Museum, which is in Olmec country. And now we're going to be looking at some interesting circular artifacts. These do appear to be handmade. They're out of jade, but we did see some other ones that are perfectly circular and appear to have had to have been made on some kind of lathe, which of course did not exist during Olmec times. So it's possible that they are artifacts from a much earlier period. And then elongated skulls, not as obviously elongated as the practice of the coast of Peru, but it shows that the Maya and the Olmec and possibly even the Aztecs performed cranial deformation. Now we're walking into a different section, and this is more of the Olmec and Gulf Coast area. Here you have an ancient mask of a man with a mustache and a beard, quite curious since Native Americans don't tend to have facial hair. And then a Mayan sculpture here, again showing cranial deformation amongst the Maya people. And the death mask out of jade of Lord Pakal of Palenque. Palenque will be the subject of another upcoming video. And now we're going into the Teotihuacan section. Teotihuacan is the massive pyramidal complex outside of Mexico City. That again will be the subject of another video coming up. And here we have a replica of the ancient gods Tlaloc and also Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent, known by the Maya as Kukulkan. And these are the intriguing circular stone pieces that I was talking about earlier. They're perfectly round and appear to have had to have been made on a lathe. It's very unlikely that they could have been made by hand. And these spindle-whirl objects made of obsidian, again perfectly round, I think they were made by a lost ancient civilization and were inherited by the Olmec or another culture. And these ones made of quartz crystal, again they could not have been made by the Olmec or the Maya or the Aztec. So, they seem to be examples of lost ancient high technology that were found and then utilized by one or more of those cultures. These are the anomalies that I tend to look for when I'm in like this. And here, too, three perfectly circular objects of stone that could not have been made by hand using the tools that the known cultures had. And some more beautiful objects. These could almost be contemporary, but yet they're likely to be at least a thousand years old. And some small figures made out of clay that appear to be almost alien-looking when you look at the coffee bean shaped eyes. Where the influence came for these, I have no idea. But this museum has thousands upon thousands of different ancient pieces in beautiful condition. Another example of cranial deformation there on the left. And again, more of these curious humanoid-looking figures that some would say are alien or alien-influenced, perhaps. And here we have a painting of ancient locations in Mexico. And finally, the Vera Cruz flyers. This is an ancient tradition that still exists to this day, representing the cycle of time. You have four men, in this case, making 13 turns around the central axis. And 13 times 4 is 52, representing the weeks of the year.