

Painted ceramics with decorative features such as shell impressions, and reflective hematite.

The first known mirrors in Mesoamerica were made of polished stone, and the earliest examples available date to around the middle of the 2nd millennium BC.Īn Aztec mirror made of obsidian. For example, an obsidian mirror in the collection of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (MNHN) in Paris, France that was previously attributed to a shipment sent by Hernán Cortez in 1522, has recently been discovered to have actually originated in what is now Quito, Ecuador, when that area was ruled by the Inca.

One instance of this is the Inca culture, which also created obsidian mirrors. Īlthough not the focus of this article, it’s worth mentioning that stone mirrors were created further south than Mesoamerica as well. Instead, they took on symbolic meanings as well, and were also often used for divination. For the Mesoamericans, mirrors were not used merely as tools for personal grooming. These, however, date from around the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. Over in Mesoamerica, it has been found that polished stones were also used to make mirrors. These were made from pieces of polished stone, and have been dated to around 6000 BC. The earliest examples of manufactured mirrors come from Anatolia (known today as Turkey). Mirrors are known to have been used by human beings for thousands of years.
