SOLAR DISKS AND SOLAR CYCLES: SPINDLE WHORLS AND THE DAWN OF SOLAR ART IN POSTCLASSIC MEXICO

Abstract

Sun disks are a common motif in spindle whorl decorations at Xaltocan, Mexico. These and other forms of symbolism on domestic artifacts suggest that women participated in the solar cosmologies of Postclassic Central Mexico. These symbols and their cosmologies precede and anticipate the principles of Aztec state religion. Thus, the spindle whorls with solar symbolism suggest that rulers appropriated the symbolism of household units in their efforts to establish the legitimacy of their states. The "Little Tradition" in Mesoamerica was the source of the "Great Tradition", and not the other way around.

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