Turquoise Mosaic Shield in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, May 2018

Mosaic Shield

Date: A.D. 1400–1521

Geography: Mexico, Puebla

Culture: Mixtec (Ñudzavui)

Medium: Turquoise, wood, stone, tree resin

Dimensions: Diam. 13/16 × D. 12 13/16 in. (2 × 32.5 cm)

Classification: Shields

Credit Line: National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (10/8708)

This ceremonial shield, one of the few surviving examples from ancient Mexico, is constructed of an estimated fourteen thousand pieces of turquoise and other stones. Around the rim are twenty-eight perforations that once may have held feathers. The central scene depicts a woman descending from a sky band; she is flanked by two richly dressed men holding ceremonial staffs. The curved mountain below them—a hieroglyphic place sign known from painted codices and historical documents—refers to Culhuacan, a site in central Mexico revered as a place of mythical origin. The style and iconography of the shield follow the pictorial conventions of Mixtec painted manuscripts.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/722121