Aztec Materials in Museum Collections: Some Frustrations of a Field Archaeologist by

In writing up the artifacts from my excavations in Morelos (Smith 2004a, b), I have run up against a roadblock in scholarship in Aztec archaeology and art history. Aztec objects are scattered in museums throughout the world, and there are few catalogs or comprehensive studies of particular classes of object (Smith 2003:6). This makes it difficult to find relevant comparative examples for my fragmentary artifacts, hindering efforts to interpret their forms, uses, and meanings. Most of the attention given to Aztec art focuses on a small number of fine objects, ignoring the range of variation in particular material categories. In this paper I provide a few examples of this problem with the hope that some colleagues will join me in finding a way to better publicize and study the many collections of Aztec artifacts and art.