Cast 3 Original OLMEC, MAYA, TEOTIHUACAN AMULET FACES

Picture Size:  17 1/2" tall x 7 3/4"wide x 1 3/4" deep

Material:
Faces: Simulated stone
Frame: Shadowbox wooden frame, Double matted under glass
            with engraved brass plate .

a.) MAYAN Amulet  c. 700 AD The original was carved in jade. 1 5/8" high x 1 3/8" wide	a.) TEOTIHUACAN Amulet  c. 0 AD The original was carved in volcanic stone 1 1/2" high x 1 3/8" wide	a.) OLMEC Amulet  c. 1000 BC The original was in blue-green jade. 1 5/8" high x 1" wide

THE OLMECS (1200-600 BC):
Considered the Mother Culture of Mesoamerica the Olmec (meaning "those who live in the land of rubber") entered the scene about 3500 years ago and created the most advanced culture the New World had ever seen.  These 'jaguar people' took engineering and construction to new levels developing giant pyramids and water aqueducts, spurred new artistic development, created an advanced social structure, calendars, writing, and developed  the 'ball game', a major sport which was avidly played in all subsequent cultures for at least 2500 years.  Even after the fall of this great civilization, It's accomplishments were incorporated into all subsequent Mesoamerican civilizations until the Spanish Conquest.

THE TEOTIHUACANS (BC 200-600 AD):
Few cities in the world have been considered worthy of being inhabited by Gods, who are usually accustomed to occupying loftier realms than those housing mere mortals. Teotihuacan is such a city, and a thousand years of civilization, which today can still be felt along its wide avenues projecting out towards the cardinal points of the universe, had to pass before this place could be elevated to the ranks of a mythical city. It is a divine yet human city, patterned with streets and dwelling places which bore witness to bustling activity and into which men and goods entered and exited from all of Mesoamerica.

Teotihuacan, a virtual city-state, arose as a new religious center in the Mexican Highland, around the time of Christ. Although its first two centuries is poorly understood, archaeological data show that the next two centuries ( A.D. 1-200) were characterized by monumental construction, during which Teotihuacan quickly became the largest and most populous urban center in the New World. By this time, the city already appears to have expanded to approximately 20 square km, with about 60,000 to 80,000 inhabitants. Its people developed effective strategies of inter-site population movements, exploitation of natural resources, increased efficiency in agricultural production, technological inventions, establishment of trading systems and other kinds of socio-political organizations, and attractive belief systems. By the fourth century, unmistakable influences of Teotihuacan were felt throughout most parts of Mesoamerica. Teotihuacan was the sixth largest city in the world during its period of greatest prosperity, according to an estimated population of 125,000. The city seems to have functioned for centuries as a well-developed urban center until its rather sudden collapse, possibly in the seventh century. The place was called Teotihuacan by Nahuatl speakers several centuries after the city's fall, but its original name, the language or languages spoken there, and the ethnic groups who built the city are still unknown. 

Why the enormous and successful city complex was abruptly abandoned remains a great mystery.  Hundreds of years after it was abandoned, other people named this site the "City of the Gods", and not without reason, for its existence was governed by deep religious convictions and ways of life centered around the natural cycles and seasons of sowing, reaping, rainfall, and a cosmology of strict phenomenological relationships whose astronomical and calendrical expression was reflected in the construction of the city.  So great was its mystique and so powerful its reputation, no other people dared to inhabit  its beautiful monumental structures again.

THE MAYANS (300-1200 AD):
The archaeological legacy of the Maya civilization are also a testimony to their intellectual accomplishments; they developed a  written language (hieroglyphic), a number system that included the concept of zero (before the Arab scholars), and a calendar (the most accurate in the world). Also, they made complicated  calculations about the sun, stars, and planets and their art has been the subject matter of many outstanding museum displays.  The cities and temples exude a sheer immensity, awesomeness, scale seldom achieved.   The ancient Maya civilization occupied a region that now  encompasses the modern day nations of Mexico,  Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador. 

THE REPRODUCTIONS:
Each exact reproduction was molded directly  from the original face amulet using a unique, patent pending technology which exactly duplicates the object without risking direct contact.  This guarantees the safety and integrity of the original antiquity while permitting an exact duplicate to be produced.   The technique perfectly  reproduces the original artifact down to the finest tool marks made by the original artist.  Unlike other reproduction techniques, there has been NO modern recarving  or  reinterpretation of these pieces.  They are as they were discovered.

The original amulets are currently in a private collections and were reproduced by Echoes In Time under exclusive agreement with the owners. 
Each reproduction is individually handmade and hand finished by artisans in USA with particular attention to authenticity and craftsmanship.