The Mexica Double-Headed Serpent in the British Museum

In 1521, less than 30 years after Columbus first landed in the Americas a Spanish force of invaders/adventurers/colonists had sacked the Mexica (Aztec) capital of Technoctitlan, and a great,albeit short-lived, empire (one that controlled the land of much of modern day Mexico), was in its death throes.

The Spanish leveraged dissent within the Mexica empire, allying with the subject peoples to take the capital and kill Moctezuma II, the all-powerful ruler.

Within a couple of generations of this, it is estimated that as many as 90% of the indigenous inhabitants of central and south America had been killed – not by war, but by diseases (primarily smallpox) that the Europeans brought to the ‘New World’. And, of course, the continent was then open to plunder, the Spanish in particular transporting an estimated 185 tonnes of gold and 16,000 tonnes of silver across the Atlantic.

The British Museum has a number of Mexica artefacts in room 27, the most beautiful of which are made from turquoise, a stone prized more highly than gold by the Mexica, and which was frequently demanded in tribute from subject territories within their empire.

Turquoise was identified with the gods, and its use was reserved for ritual and ceremonial objects used by rulers and priests. Only around 55 of these turquoise artefacts are thought to survive from this time, and 9 of these are in the British Museum collection.

The most striking of these is the double-headed serpent, an object approximately 40cm by 20cm which comprises over 2,000 worked pieces of turquoise on a cedar wood base. These pieces are held in place by various aromatic resins of a type that would also have been used for incense. It has fearsome teeth made from strombus shells, and blood red snouts from shells of the thorny oyster which were considered extremely precious because they could only be obtained by diving to great depths.

This would have been an important religious piece and two holes in the top of the object implies that it was a pectoral, something worn across the chest. It may even have been part of Moctezuma’s costume during his accession ceremony in 1502.

The serpent is a powerful creature in Mexica mythology, one that crosses the border between the underworld, water and the sky, and which also represented fertility and water. And as Neil MacGregor points out in his ‘History of the World in 100 Objects’ the shimmering turquoise scales of this creature can also be interpreted as feathers – linking this piece with the feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl.

Mexica legend said that Quetzalcoatl had floated eastward into the Atlantic, but would one day return as a bearded, fair-skinned man. The Spanish claimed that when Cortes arrived in Technoctitlan he (fair-skinned and bearded as he was) was treated as the returning god and honoured with many gifts, including ‘ a serpent inlaid with turquoise’. It is tempting to think that this might even be the British Museum’s artefact – a direct link between the glories and terrors of the Mexica empire and of its destruction and looting.

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