Omens of an Indistinct Future
These drawings, covered in punctured openings, are based on maps of the constellations that Aztec emperor Moctezuma was reported in the Florentine Codex to have witnessed in the black crest of a crane-like bird as omens of the impending conquest. The drawings imagine obsidian mirrors to be the reflective lenses through which these constellations may have been studied. The notion of using obsidian to aid sky gazing allows Mesoamerican obsidian mirrors to assume their role as instruments of precise empirical observation.
scrying redux series: omen of an indistinct future I, Photo: Rachel Topham Photography
scrying redux series: omen of an indistinct future II, Photo: Rachel Topham Photography
scrying redux series: omen of an indistinct future III, Photo: Rachel Topham Photography
Note: I became privy to the possible scientific use of obsidian by ancient peoples through the research of scholar Dr. Michael A. Rappenglück and his collaborator Josef Vit, who have generously been in correspondence with me. Their article “Looking Through a Telescope with an Obsidian Mirror: Would specialists of ancient cultures have been able to view the night sky using such an instrument?” in the Volume 16, No. 4 issue of Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry (2016) can be found here.