I recently went to the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. That place is huge. At a leisurely pace we covered only half of it and we took the upstairs at a fast clip just to say we’d covered the whole thing and all in all, it took us quite a few hours.

I really dig museums with ancient things in them. I especially dig pictures and sculptures of female goddesses so I got some pics of Mictecacihuatl and her friends. I don’t know that much about Mexican art, but I could tell right away that the sugar skulls that are all over in tourist shops here in New Mexico are deeply rooted in ancient culture. I mean, I knew they are a Day of the Dead thing, but the roots in ancient history were fascinating. If you’re into a fun learning tangent, head over to Wikipedia to learn about the art of José Guadalupe Posada.

More fertility goddess, this time with snakes

Fertility goddess

Mictecacihuatl, Aztec goddess of the dead. Presumably influenced José Guadalupe Posada and his calaveras

More goddess of the underworld. Apparently, Aztecs deified women who died in childbirth.

Another highlight were these murals red murals found somewhere at Teotihuacan, I think. It’s some underworld, creation, or world flood scenario. In any case fascinating and I spent a few minutes sitting there staring at it. Some of the people seem to be having a really good time and some are quite distressed.

This amazing mural was taken out of a building in Teotihuacan. Interesting underworld depiction.

closeup.

Here are the rest of the pics:

The fountain at the Museum

Viewing the entrance through the fountain

Another super cool fountain

Courtyar

Pond and shell

The sun calendar

Lots of snakes

More snakes

Me 🙂

Tons of amazing stone

A reference to the trade route between New Mexico and the Aztecs

The plants in Mexico rule.

A cup on the top of a spinal column. Hm, I wonder what this chalice was used for…