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UNITED STATES, CANADA AND MEXICO
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299
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number
of the finest known mirror and engraved plaques of obsidian are in the
Trocadero Museum. A square one from Texcoco, measuring 9 1/2 x 8 1/2 x
1 1/2| inches (24 x 21 1/2 x 3 centimeters), and a round one, convex
on one side, from Oaxaca, 61 inches (16 centimeters) in diameter (see
Fig. 16), are both wonderful pieces of primitive stone work. The one
possessing the greatest archaeological interest is the square plaque
described by the director, Dr. E. Hamy,1 on which is the inscription
"Ypanquetza-litzli 4 acatl" (9th December, 1483), the date of the
laying of the first stone of the Great Temple of Mexico. The polished
carved figures are exceedingly interesting. (See Illustration.)
The
richly mottled red and black, brown and black, and yellow and black
obsidian, called marekanite, is found in large quantities in the State
of Jalisco, generally in sufficiently large masses to be useful as a
decorative stone, since it admits of polish. Associated with it in
quantity is pearlite, or sphserulite, which shows reddish-brown
spherules in a gray matrix. Pitchstone exists in quantity with it.
Pyrite
which is really a mixture of pyrite in cubes and marcasite in plates,
as determined by Dr. Alexis A. Julien"—was worked by the ancient Aztecs
into mirrors and other objects. The mirrors were generally semicircular
on one side, and polished fiat on the other side, and the polish is
often still preserved.
1 Revue d' Ethnographie, Vol. 2, p. 193, 1883.
8 Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci., Vol. 3, p. 365, 1886 and Vol. 4, p. 125, 1887.
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