Aztecs

1. Aztecs Karsten, James and Jessica

2. Aztec • The term "Aztec" refers exclusively to the • Mexica people of Tenochtitlan, situated • on an island in Lake Texcoco. Despite its popular use, the term Aztec use to define the founder of the empire that ruled over the Ancient Mexico at 1428 to 1521 AD, which is incorrect, the real proper name of Aztec is Mexica. The Aztec Empire was located in the sliver of land between North and South America.

3. How it was made Masks were created by highly skilled artisans in the Aztec civilization, with forethought as to design and great care in material choice based on the ultimate end use of the mask. The art form was ancient, and had religious connections. Masks were created in a variety of ways for a number of purposes, but there's one thing that may surprise you about a typical type of mask – they were often made for display, not to be worn. That's why you'll often see masks with no eye-holes, or masks placed on stone or on skulls.

4. ceremonies Masks are commonly used in religious and cultural ceremonies of many peoples, such as the ‘Kachina’ Aztec masks were regularly worn during the all-important rite of human sacrifice to appease the gods. They represented gods or elements and were worn to enact stories or to remove the wearer from some quotient. Masks designed by the Aztecs were very detailed and astonishingly beautiful, even when their intent was to awe or frighten.

6. Symbolism • A death mask represents the culture of Aztec; A death mask is used to worship a dead warrior of putting a death mask on their face and carries the dead person with a mask to their temples to rest in peace. Death mask were generally used to worship gods, whether by being displayed in a temple or worn by a priest

7. Citation • http://archaeology.about.com/od/mameterms/a/Mexica.htm • http://www.aztec-history.com/aztec-masks.html • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec