The multiple ironies and paradoxes in this useful book start with its title, Manufactured Light, and continue through its 13 chapters to the back flap. Mirrors capture light and can even bounce it into dark recesses but, of course, do not manufacture light in any literal or metaphorical sense. Chapters touch on technical and spiritual aspects of the ancient fabrication and use of mirrors of obsidian, hematite, and pyrite, and even the use of quartz crystals as natural mirrors. The pervading theme throughout the book is the metaphysical function of mirrors as reflective surfaces deployed in rituals to “see” other realities. Mineral mirrors were seer stones rather than lamps. They may have served some cosmetic functions, but ethnographic and historical information privileges the esoteric over the mundane, and the 15 scholars in this book largely follow suit. Most chapters contribute data on the distribution of stone mirrors in time and space in the Americas, but Classic period pyrite mirrors qua shamanic devices dominate discussion. Space precludes a full listing of insights and deficiencies in this book, but mention of a few will give a flavor of the book and its utility.
Topical coverage ranges from modern experiments in mirror making to the use of mirrors by modern Huichol Indians. The opening chapter by Emiliano Gallaga and the summary chapter by Karl Taube deal with the cultural significance of mirrors in aggregate and to a lesser extent with technicalities of individual mirrors as hard objects. Remarkably, there is not a single adequate photograph, drawing, or description of a complete mirror in the book. Exacerbating this incongruity between wondrous objects and images, University Press of Colorado downgraded all the color photographs into murky shades of gray. This nadir in publishing quality, however, may be metaphorically appropriate for a book on this topic. Mesoamerican mirrors blurred reality, and this made scrying with them possible. In Mesoamerican lore, mortals should not see too clearly.
Metal mirrors roughed out by percussion and polished by abrasion appeared in Middle America by 1600 B.C., making them slightly older than the inception of Mesoamerican society itself. The use of mirrors may have been integral to the cultural practices that gave rise to Mesoamerican culture and sustained it over three millennia, but the early evolution of mirror use is not considered in Manufactured Light. Rather, individual contributions deal with synchronic topics rather than the long view. The focus is on pyrite, mosaic mirrors. These Classic-period mirrors of golden cast were composed of small, flat pieces of polished pyrite glued onto flat pieces of slate or fine sandstone. Such mirrors were generally larger than the one-piece mirrors made by Olmecs in the Formative era and also more regular in shape. Circular mirrors were the most popular form of pyrite mirrors. The polygon pyrite tesserae of these mirrors were custom fit with the skill of Inca masons, leaving no gaps between conjoining pieces. Because each tessera was unique, those of individual mirrors fit together in only one way on their back plates. The composite surface of each assembled mirror was ground and polished to the same optical plane, probably as the final manufacturing step (this has not been verified). Complete mirrors are wonders to behold, but few are found whole because pyrite decomposes into a yellowish powder in most archaeological contexts.
This is the only book I know of that moves beyond conjectural treatments of mirror making to descriptions based on replication experiments and analyses of microscopic traces of manufacturing marks. The first three chapters outline nascent studies designed to discover the techniques, time, and skill required to make pyrite mosaic mirrors. I am not swayed by the specific answers but am heartened that experiments with lapidary technologies have begun at long last. Extrapolating from one trial in making a sandstone mirror back and one pyrite mosaic piece, Gallaga ventures that it might have taken 110 to 160 working days to make a pyrite mirror with 20 to 30 pyrite plaques. Once the best ways of working pyrite have been discovered, I expect future experiments to demonstrate that the labor needed is less than a fifth this estimate.
Five chapters report on sites with evidence for the production and use of mirrors. Of particular interest are data from Cancuén, Guatemala, that indicate pyrite mirror pieces were produced in workshops devoted to jade jewelry. Brigitte Kovacevich argues that these workshops were not associated with elite residences. This leads to the interesting surmise that nonelite craftspersons made items that circulated among elites. The connections between the manufacture and consumption of stone mirrors remain to be worked out. Carrie Dennett and Marc Blainey address this issue for the southern frontier of Mesoamerica; they look at the distribution of Maya-like pyrite mirrors and mirror backs in Central America. After evaluating various explanations they conclude that mirrors were items of gift exchange among elites—but gifts that presupposed the use of these mirrors in front of audiences. This conclusion reminds one of Kent Flannery's famous article on Early Formative exchange of small, iron-ore mirrors (in Benson, ed., Dumbarton Oaks Conference on the Olmec, 1968). His groundbreaking study is nowhere mentioned. The sole treatment of Formative mirrors is Joseph Mountjoy's study of artifacts from the Mascota region near Acapulco, Mexico. He describes exquisite pyrite and polished quartz mirrors and jewels found in cemeteries dating to 900–700 B.C. These items circulated in societies that were not obviously complex or hierarchical.
Given the book's focus on pyrite mosaic mirrors, one surprise is that the earliest example escaped notice. Its absence points to a gap in scholarly imagination. Authors in Manufactured Light deal with the composite, assembled surfaces of mosaic mirrors as singular, shiny surfaces and ignore other salient properties, namely, geometry and number. In his study of the large mirror from Las Bocas, Puebla (thought to date to about 1000 B.C.), Alexander Marshack (in Aveni, ed., Archaeoastronomy in Pre-Columbian America, 1975) analyzed the number, shapes, and arrangement of pyrite pieces of the mirror. He argued persuasively that the 354 tesserae that once comprised this rectangular-shaped mirror represented a calendar count of 12 lunar months. It would be well to analyze Classic-period mirrors in as much detail. The possibility that mosaic mirrors had calendrical, geometric, or numerological significance is not considered in this book. Rather, mirrors provided luminous surfaces for looking into other realms. Some mirrors even spoke, and the senses of touch and smell were involved with others.
In his summation, Taube discusses Postclassic mosaic mirrors that were clearly laid out as cosmograms. Olivia Kindl documents that Huichol mirrors continue to be framed as cosmograms. Her study calls attention to framing devices, most of which do not preserve archaeologically. Some Maya flint eccentrics appear to be copies of wooden mirror frames, so I would not be surprised if some mirrors had been attached to wooden handles rather than worn as pectorals. I suspect that the earliest mirrors were viewed in cosmological terms. As depicted in Olmec art, mirrors were centering devices that surely marked their wearers as central persons. These observations only scratch the surface of Manufactured Light. The book merits careful perusal by those interested in Mesoamerican cultures, and some chapters deserve to be read twice.
