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49-694: The Toxcatl Massacre , a turning point in the Spanish conquest of Mexico , occurred when the Spaniards who were tolerated as guests in Tenochtitlan attacked and massacred the unprepared Aztecs during the celebration of Toxcatl. This caused the outbreak of open hostilities between the Aztecs and Spaniards, and during the Noche Triste a few weeks later the Spaniards fled the city. The Aztec calendar

98-663: A relative dating system, obsidian hydration dating , to calculate the age of obsidian artifacts . Obsidian artifacts first appeared in the European continent in Central Europe in the Middle Paleolithic and had become common by the Upper Paleolithic , although there are exceptions to this. Obsidian played an important role in the transmission of Neolithic knowledge and experiences . The material

147-556: A culture or place can be of considerable use to reconstruct commerce, production, and distribution, and thereby understand economic, social and political aspects of a civilization. This is the case in Yaxchilán , a Maya city where even warfare implications have been studied linked with obsidian use and its debris. Another example is the archeological recovery at coastal Chumash sites in California, indicating considerable trade with

196-455: A distinguishable type of obsidian allowing archaeologists to use methods such as non-destructive energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence to select minor element compositions from both the artifact and geological sample to trace the origins of a particular artifact. Similar tracing techniques have also allowed obsidian in Greece to be identified as coming from Milos , Nisyros or Gyali , islands in

245-528: A glass, it is not crystalline ; in addition, its composition is too variable to be classified as a mineral. It is sometimes classified as a mineraloid . Though obsidian is usually dark in color, similar to mafic rocks such as basalt , the composition of obsidian is extremely felsic. Obsidian consists mainly of SiO 2 ( silicon dioxide ), usually 70% by weight or more; the remainder consists of variable amounts of other oxides, mostly oxides of aluminum, iron, potassium, sodium and calcium. Crystalline rocks with

294-403: A high content of silica , giving them a high viscosity . The high viscosity inhibits diffusion of atoms through the lava, which inhibits the first step ( nucleation ) in the formation of mineral crystals . Together with rapid cooling, this results in a natural glass forming from the lava. Obsidian is hard, brittle , and amorphous ; it therefore fractures with sharp edges. In the past, it

343-501: A high level of sophistication by the late Neolithic, and was traded as far as Sicily, the southern Po river valley, and Croatia. Obsidian bladelets were used in ritual circumcisions and cutting of umbilical cords of newborns. Anatolian sources of obsidian are known to have been the material used in the Levant and modern-day Iraqi Kurdistan from a time beginning sometime about 12,500 BC. Obsidian artifacts are common at Tell Brak , one of

392-452: A similar composition include granite and rhyolite . Because obsidian is metastable at the Earth's surface (over time the glass devitrifies , becoming fine-grained mineral crystals), obsidian older than Miocene in age is rare. Exceptionally old obsidians include a Cretaceous welded tuff and a partially devitrified Ordovician perlite . This transformation of obsidian is accelerated by

441-653: A site in the western Negev in Israel. Eight obsidian artifacts dating to the Chalcolithic Age found at this site were traced to obsidian sources in Anatolia . Neutron activation analysis (NAA) on the obsidian found at this site helped to reveal trade routes and exchange networks previously unknown. Lithic analysis helps to understand pre-Hispanic groups in Mesoamerica . A careful analysis of obsidian in

490-459: A type of glass knife made using naturally occurring obsidian instead of manufactured glass. Obsidian is used by some surgeons for scalpel blades, although this is not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use on humans. Well-crafted obsidian blades, like any glass knife, can have a cutting edge many times sharper than high-quality steel surgical scalpels: the cutting edge of

539-403: Is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth . It is an igneous rock . Produced from felsic lava, obsidian is rich in the lighter elements such as silicon , oxygen , aluminum, sodium , and potassium . It is commonly found within the margins of rhyolitic lava flows known as obsidian flows. These flows have

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588-679: Is caused by inclusions of magnetite nanoparticles creating thin-film interference . Colorful, striped obsidian ( rainbow obsidian ) from Mexico contains oriented nanorods of hedenbergite , which cause the rainbow striping effects by thin-film interference . Obsidian is found near volcanoes in locations which have undergone rhyolitic eruptions. It can be found in Argentina, Armenia , Azerbaijan , Australia, Canada, Chile, Georgia , Ecuador , El Salvador , Greece, Guatemala , Hungary , Iceland, Indonesia , Italy, Japan, Kenya , Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea , Peru, Russia , Scotland,

637-651: The Aegean Sea . Obsidian cores and blades were traded great distances inland from the coast. In Chile obsidian tools from Chaitén Volcano have been found as far away as in Chan-Chan 400 km (250 mi) north of the volcano, and also in sites 400 km south of it. The Lapita culture , active across a large area of the Pacific Ocean around 1000 BC, made widespread use of obsidian tools and engaged in long distance obsidian trading. The complexity of

686-702: The Alvarado Massacre , was an event on 22 May 1520, in the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire , in which the celebration of the Feast of Toxcatl ended in a massacre of Aztec elites. While Hernán Cortés was in Tenochtitlan, he heard about other Spaniards arriving on the coast – Pánfilo de Narváez had come from Cuba with orders to arrest him – and Cortés

735-701: The Canary Islands , Turkey and the United States. Obsidian flows which are so large that they can be hiked on are found within the calderas of Newberry Volcano (Big Obsidian Flow, 700 acres) and Medicine Lake Volcano in the Cascade Range of western North America, and at Inyo Craters east of the Sierra Nevada in California. Yellowstone National Park has a mountainside containing obsidian located between Mammoth Hot Springs and

784-602: The Florentine Codex , in Fray Duráns description of the gods and rites, and in the chronicle of Juan Bautista Pomar . The most important part of the Toxcatl ritual was the sacrifice of a young man who had been impersonating Tezcatlipoca since the last Toxcatl festival, and the selection of a new man to take that role in the year to come. The youth chosen to be the ixiptlatli (impersonator) of Tezcatlipoca

833-702: The Göllü Dağ volcano were the most important sources in central Anatolia , one of the more important source areas in the prehistoric Near East . The first known archaeological evidence of usage was in Kariandusi (Kenya) and other sites of the Acheulian age (beginning 1.5 million years BP) dated 700,000 BC, although only very few objects have been found at these sites relative to the Neolithic. Manufacture of obsidian bladelets at Lipari had reached

882-535: The Norris Geyser Basin , and deposits can be found in many other western U.S. states including Arizona , Colorado , New Mexico , Texas , Utah , and Washington , Oregon and Idaho . There are only four major deposit areas in the central Mediterranean: Lipari , Pantelleria , Palmarola and Monte Arci ( Sardinia ). Ancient sources in the Aegean were Milos and Gyali . Acıgöl town and

931-489: The inclusion of small, white, radially clustered crystals ( spherulites ) of the mineral cristobalite in the black glass produce a blotchy or snowflake pattern ( snowflake obsidian ). Obsidian may contain patterns of gas bubbles remaining from the lava flow, aligned along layers created as the molten rock was flowing before being cooled. These bubbles can produce interesting effects such as a golden sheen ( sheen obsidian ). An iridescent , rainbow -like sheen ( fire obsidian )

980-468: The House of Darts"). He then freely walked up the stairs of the pyramid, breaking a flute on each step. At the summit the priests would lay him on a sacrificial stone, open his chest with an obsidian dagger, and remove his heart. He was beheaded and his skull was placed on the tzompantli (skull rack), his body was flayed and his flesh was distributed among the nobles of the city and eaten. The warcaptive who

1029-519: The Spaniards for being inside their city and for holding Moctezuma under house arrest. When Cortés and his men, including those who had come under Narváez, returned, the Aztecs began full-scale hostilities against the Spaniards. The Spaniards had no choice but to retreat from the city, which they did on what is called the Sad Night ( La Noche Triste ), losing most of their men, who were either killed in

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1078-477: The abundance of maize. Olivier (2003) stresses the importance of the actions of the tlatoani in the ritual and sees the feast as a way for the ruler to offer a worthy sacrifice to the lord of rulership, Tezcatlipoca. Massacre in the Great Temple 19°26′06″N 99°07′53″W  /  19.435°N 99.1314°W  / 19.435; -99.1314 The Massacre in the Great Temple , also called

1127-494: The battle or were captured and sacrificed. This is part of the Aztec account: Spanish Historian Francisco López de Gómara 's account: Cortes returned to the city in late June, by which time the Aztecs had elected Cuitláhuac as Tlatoani , supplanting the still-captive Moctezuma. Cortes ordered Moctezuma to try and quell the Aztec rebellion so that the Spaniards might safely depart the city. The strategy backfired badly, and in

1176-514: The blade is only about three nanometers thick. All metal knives have a jagged, irregular blade when viewed under a strong enough microscope ; however, obsidian blades are still smooth, even when examined under an electron microscope . One study found that obsidian incisions produced fewer inflammatory cells and less granulation tissue in a group of rats after seven days but the differences disappeared after twenty-one days. Don Crabtree has produced surgical obsidian blades and written articles on

1225-451: The city playing the flute, smoking tobacco and smelling flowers, and people would salute him as the living image of the god. At the building called Quauhxicalco he would sometimes burn copal incense and play his flute. Several times during the year he would meet with the Aztec ruler, the tlatoani , who would ritually adorn him. In the month of Huey Tozoztli which preceded Toxcatl, he would be ritually wed to four maidens who impersonated

1274-449: The corresponding month in other Mesoamerican cultures often have to do with smoke, steam or clouds. The Otomi word for the feast was Atzibiphi , biphi meaning smoke. The Kaqchikel name was Cibixic , meaning "cloudy smoke". The Matlatzinca word for the feast however was Unditini meaning "we are going to grill maize". The rituals which the Aztecs carried out during the feast of Toxcatl are described by Bernardino de Sahagún in

1323-502: The distant site of Casa Diablo Hot Springs in the Sierra Nevada . Pre-Columbian Mesoamericans' use of obsidian was extensive and sophisticated; including carved and worked obsidian for tools and decorative objects. Mesoamericans also made a type of sword with obsidian blades mounted in a wooden body. Called a macuahuitl , the weapon could inflict terrible injuries, combining the sharp cutting edge of an obsidian blade with

1372-501: The earliest Mesopotamian urban centers, dating to the late fifth millennium BC. Obsidian was valued in Stone Age cultures because, like flint , it could be fractured to produce sharp blades or arrowheads in a process called knapping . Like all glass and some other naturally occurring rocks, obsidian breaks with a characteristic conchoidal fracture . It was also polished to create early mirrors . Modern archaeologists have developed

1421-632: The eastern Mediterranean and southern Red Sea regions. Obsidian scalpels older than 2100 BC have been found in a Bronze Age settlement in Turkey. In the eastern Mediterranean area the material was used to make tools, mirrors and decorative objects. The use of obsidian tools was present in Japan near areas of volcanic activity. Obsidian was mined during the Jōmon period . Obsidian has also been found in Gilat ,

1470-419: The edges of a felsic lava flow or volcanic dome, or when lava cools during sudden contact with water or air. Intrusive formation of obsidian may occur when felsic lava cools along the edges of a dike . Tektites were once thought by many to be obsidian produced by lunar volcanic eruptions, though few scientists now adhere to this hypothesis . Obsidian is mineral-like, but not a true mineral because, as

1519-428: The ensuing mayhem Moctezuma was killed and Cortes instead resorted to an attempt to stealthily depart under cover of darkness and a rainstorm, but they were detected and what followed became known as La Noche Triste or The Night of Sorrows in which many conquistadors and their Tlaxcaltec allies were killed. Obsidian Obsidian ( / ə b ˈ s ɪ d i . ən , ɒ b -/ əb- SID -ee-ən ob- )

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1568-482: The goddesses Xochiquetzal , Xilonen , Atlatonan and Huixtocihuatl , and he lived with them for twenty days. Four days before the main ceremony the tlatoani secluded himself in his palace and the Tezcatlipoca impersonator and his four wives paraded through the city. On the fifth day they travelled by canoe to a place called Acaquilpan, here he was left to himself by his wives near the temple Tlacochcalco ("In

1617-446: The incident contains several differing possible motives, while the Aztec version says the Spaniards were enticed into action by the gold the Aztecs were wearing, prompting an Aztec rebellion against the orders of Moctezuma. While differing so on Alvarado's specific motive, all accounts agree that the Aztecs were mostly unarmed and that the massacre occurred without warning or direct provocation. The Aztecs were already antagonistic towards

1666-607: The island outcrops of the central Mediterranean . Through trade, these artifacts ended up in lands thousands of kilometers away from the original source; this indicates that they were a highly valued commodity. John Dee had a mirror, made of obsidian, which was brought from Mexico to Europe between 1527 and 1530 after Hernando Cortés's conquest of the region. In the Ubaid in the 5th millennium BC , blades were manufactured from obsidian extracted from outcrops located in modern-day Turkey . Ancient Egyptians used obsidian imported from

1715-460: The name Toxcatl derives from the Nahuatl verb toxcahuia meaning "wither from thirst". Toxcatl then means "drought". Many other meanings have since been proposed for the name - many having to do with the necklaces of grilled maize that were worn by the revellers during the festivities. The Aztecs also used the name Tepopochtli (smoking or fumigation) to refer to the month of Toxcatl. The name of

1764-548: The presence of water. Although newly formed obsidian has a low water content, typically less than 1% water by weight, it becomes progressively hydrated when exposed to groundwater , forming perlite . Pure obsidian is usually dark in appearance, though the color varies depending on the impurities present. Iron and other transition elements may give the obsidian a dark brown to black color. Most black obsidians contain nanoinclusions of magnetite , an iron oxide . Very few samples of obsidian are nearly colorless. In some stones,

1813-554: The production technique for these tools, and the care taken in their storage, may indicate that beyond their practical use they were associated with prestige or high status. Obsidian was also used on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) for edged tools such as Mataia and the pupils of the eyes of their Moai (statues), which were encircled by rings of bird bone. Obsidian was used to inscribe the Rongorongo glyphs . Obsidian can be used to make extremely sharp knives, and obsidian blades are

1862-579: The ragged cut of a serrated weapon. The polearm version of this weapon was called tepoztopilli . Obsidian mirrors were used by some Aztec priests to conjure visions and make prophecies. They were connected with Tezcatlipoca , god of obsidian and sorcery, whose name can be translated from the Nahuatl language as 'Smoking Mirror'. Indigenous people traded obsidian throughout the Americas. Each volcano and in some cases each volcanic eruption produces

1911-413: The same agrarian cycles year after year. But other descriptions state that the leap year was unknown to the Aztecs and that the correlation of the months to the astronomical year would change over time. In any case, from the descriptions of Spanish conquistadors who witnessed the celebration of Toxcatl in 1521 we know that in that year the feast fell in our month of May. According to Fray Diego Durán

1960-436: The subject. Obsidian scalpels may be purchased for surgical use on research animals . The major disadvantage of obsidian blades is their brittleness compared to those made of metal, thus limiting the surgical applications for obsidian blades to a variety of specialized uses where this is not a concern. Obsidian is also used for ornamental purposes and as a gemstone . It presents a different appearance depending on how it

2009-415: The village nobles. Eduard Seler saw the Toxcatl ritual as symbol of the change of season represented as the death and rebirth of Tezcatlipoca. He likens Toxcatl to its K'iche' Maya equivalent, the feast of Jun Raqan , which is the celebration of the new year. Michel Graulich, who advocates a different calendrical correlation, places Toxcatl in the fall and sees the festival as a harvest feast celebrating

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2058-416: The women a dance named "Grilled Corn". During these dances there would be kissing and playing between men and women. After the dances the participants were ritually scarred by the priests of Tezcatlipoca (the tlatlacanahualtin ). A lifesize figure of Huitzilipochtli was made of amaranth dough then painted, dressed and decorated with clothes and gold jewelry that were symbols of the deity. The sculpture

2107-409: Was built on a platform and was carried about. The female attendants who had ground the seeds, made the dough and dressed the sculpture had fasted for a year as part their ritualistic role. When Pedro de Alverado thought he had evidence against the Aztecs to think that they were going to attack the Spaniards, he ordered his men to attack the Aztecs during this festival. Many people died including some of

2156-424: Was composed of two separate cycles—one of 260 days called the tonalpohualli (day count) and one of 365 days called the xiuhpohualli (year count). The 365-day xiuhpohualli consisted of 18 twenty-day "months" (or veintenas ), plus an additional 5 days at the end of the year. Some descriptions of the Aztec calendar state that it also included a leap day which allowed the calendar cycle to remain aligned with

2205-411: Was forced to leave the city to fight them. During his absence, Moctezuma asked deputy governor Pedro de Alvarado for permission to celebrate Toxcatl (an Aztec festivity in honor of Tezcatlipoca , one of their main gods.) After the festivities had started, Alvarado interrupted the celebration, killing all the warriors and noblemen who were celebrating inside the Great Temple. The Spanish version of

2254-609: Was mainly used for production of chipped tools which were very sharp due to its nature. Artifacts made of obsidian can be found in many Neolithic cultures across Europe. The source of obsidian for cultures inhabiting the territory of and around Greece was the island of Milos ; the Starčevo–Körös–Criș culture obtained obsidian from sources in Hungary and Slovakia, while the Cardium -Impresso cultural complex acquired obsidian from

2303-454: Was normally a war captive. He was taught courtly speech, singing and to play the flute. Throughout the year he would parade in the streets of Tenochtitlan and be treated with great reverence. His skin was painted black except for a ribbon across his eyes, he was dressed in precious jewellery and cotton embroidered clothes. He wore a snail-shell lip pendant, eagle down headdress, turquoise bracelets and golden bells on his ankles. He walked about

2352-461: Was to be the next impersonator of Tezcatlipoca also took part in the flesh and probably also wore the skin of his predecessor. During the feast other deity impersonators were also sacrificed. Offerings of food, flowers and paper banners were made throughout the festival, and as the offerings were presented the people danced the "Leap of Toxcatl". Men would also perform the dance of "the Serpent", and

2401-648: Was used to manufacture cutting and piercing tools, and it has been used experimentally as surgical scalpel blades. The Natural History by the Roman writer Pliny the Elder includes a few sentences about a volcanic glass called obsidian ( lapis obsidianus ), discovered in Ethiopia by Obsidius, a Roman explorer. Obsidian is formed from quickly cooled lava , which is the parent material . Extrusive formation of obsidian may occur when felsic lava cools rapidly at

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