4. The Mixtec were considered the masters of goldsmithing in ancient Mesoamerica, with their products prized even by the Aztec Emperors
The Mixtec were an indigenous and disunited people located in the modern-day Mexican states of Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Puebla. Traditionally a divided people, separated between three key city-state regions – Tilantongo in the Mixteca Alta area, Teozacualco of the Mixteca Baja area, and Tututepec of the coastal Mixteca area – the Mixtec were briefly united into a single polity during the 11th century CE under Eight Deer Jaguar Claw.
Believed to have lived between 1063 and 1115 CE, Eight Deer is best known for his successful military campaigns, with surviving historical records detailing a total of 94 cities conquered during his reign, and for sporting his iconic jaguar helmet; eventually, after massacring much of his extended family, in 1115 his youngest brother-in-law, Four Wind, led an alliance against him, capturing and sacrificing Eight Deer to the Mesoamerican deities. Subsequently devolving into a state of internal factional conflict, the Mixtec were easily subjugated by the rising Aztec Empire, becoming tributary vassals, before suffering conquest and cultural annihilation by the Spanish in the 16th century.
One of the smaller major civilizations of Mesoamerica, the Mixtec were historically renowned throughout the region for their artisan capabilities, described by historians as being regarded as “the foremost goldsmiths of Mesoamerica”. These valuable items were immensely prized, typically fashioned from gold and turquoise, with the goldsmiths of Mixtec prominent figures even as their independent status waned; the produce of said goldsmiths, frequently using the “lost-wax casting” method, was so highly regarded that it formed a core component of the tribute paid by the Mixtec to the Aztecs.
