An exhibition that opened yesterday at the National Palace Museum in Taipei features a 400-year-old obsidian mirror associated with the Aztec deity Tezcatlipoca.
The mirror is being displayed in Exhibition Room 302, the museum said on Monday.
It was taken from Mesoamerica following the region’s conquest by Spain and found its way to the court of the Qing Dynasty through European missionaries, it said.
Photo courtesy of the National Palace Museum via CNA
The exhibition contains correct and updated information about the artifact, the museum said.
Emperor Shunzhi (順治), the first Qing emperor, attempted to identify the mineral used in the mirror to no avail, it said.
Later Qing emperors Qianlong (乾隆) and Daoguang (道光) wrote songs and poetry in praise of the mirror, showcasing its value within the court, it added.
The Qing court even had a protective pouch made for the mirror, the museum said, adding that the pouch is being displayed alongside the mirror at the exhibition.
As the function, properties and name of the mirror were unknown to the Qing court, it was called the “Ink-Jade Mirror.” The museum retained the name for some time before renaming the piece the “Ink-Crystal Mirror” in its first modern update.
Researchers at the museum have since confirmed that the artifact is a rare obsidian mirror from the Mesoamerican Aztec culture fashioned from the naturally occurring volcanic mineral.
This has resulted in the piece being renamed again to “Aztec Obsidian Mirror” from the Qing imperial collection, the museum said.
Mirrors were important relics in the mystic traditions of Mesoamerican cultures, as they were believed to be portals to intangible realms, such as the past and the future, the museum said.
The mirror is traditionally associated with the god Tezcatlipoca, often representing a wide range of concepts, including the night sky, night winds, the jaguar, sorcery, war and conflict, it said.
Other obsidian mirrors also found their way to European collectors following the fall of the Aztec Empire, the most famous of which belonged to John Dee, an astronomer, occultist and alchemist at the court of Queen Elizabeth I.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS