The 'dreaded' Aztec Priests, Peruvian Mummies and Mayan Warriors (the spirit of locking part 3)

"Unsurprisingly, one section that was left well alone by the thieves was the mummy exhibit. This consisted of a number of skulls, skeletons and fully intact mummies buried by pre-Incan and Incan societies. The burial customs and cold dry climate of Peru are perfect for preserving bodies, so many of the mummies still had skin, hair and fingernails. One had awesome dreadlocks."

The Aztec Priest

"Pre-Columbian Aztec priests were described in Aztec codices (including the Durán Codex, the Codex Tudela and the Codex Mendoza) as wearing their hair untouched, allowing it to grow long and matted.

Spanish conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo records:

"[H]ere were priests with long robes of black cloth... The hair of these priests was very long and so matted that it could not be separated or disentangled, and most of them had their ears scarified, and their hair was clotted with blood."

"According to codices, the Aztecs had a wide range of hairstyles that were worn by people of different professions and ranks throughout the empire. Whilst the vast majority of commoners wore their hair in a similar fashion, warriors distinguished their rank by wearing elaborate styles or hair ornaments. Whilst officials also showed their position through ornaments and special cuts, priests grew their hair long.

"A great trait of Aztec priests is that their hair was long and untended. When young nobles entered religious schools, Calmecacs, they let their shaved childhood heads grow hair and it was not cut until they departed. Some of them, however, became priests and consequently left their hair untouched forever. A priest’s hair was tied back with a white ribbon and smeared, as was his entire body, with soot. Durán explained that the locks of hair became matted, long and mouldy, and likened them to “tightly curled horse’s manes” . In time they came to reach the knee in length."

The Mayan Warrior

"According to Linda Schele, the late mayan scholar, the warfare of the MAYAN was dedicated to KuKulkan, and the nobles of the Mayan wore their hair very long, this was done as a way of showing their fearlessness, to say, "any warrior who can get close to me can grab my hair and have me at a disadvantage... if you live to get that close... catch me if you can... or i will catch you by your hair."

"The art of the Mayan warriors shows fantastic headresses with the famous long plumes of the quetzal bird. but also ... the art of the MAYA clearly shows. they wore their hair in dreadlocks. im sure this may be a radical view too some mayan scholars, but the art is very clear, and also,the MAYAN, Living Legend artist, CHINO, who expertise of his culture art is know and taught world-wide agrees with me... and in the end it is their carved in stone for all to see."

The Peruvian Mummy

"In the Andes, mummification was a way of preserving power, not memorializing it.

"As the Spanish discovered, the western spine of South America might be the Earth’s largest natural laboratory for making mummies. The sands of its bone-dry coast, stretching from Peru down to northern Chile, first made them naturally. Then, 7,000 years ago, the Chinchorro people learned to mummify their dead—2,000 years before the ancient Egyptians. Archaeologists now think that artificial mummification transformed loved ones into representatives of the community—ambassadors to the natural world who ensured the fertility of their descendants and their resources. It also may have been a way of understanding and ritualizing the everyday experience of encountering the dead, preserved and exposed by the passage of time in desert sands, on cold, dry peaks and across high plains."