Scientists have proven that an obsidian hand-mirror as soon as owned by the Renaissance polymath John Dee has Aztec origins, thus confirming a longstanding thriller.

John Dee was fairly the character. Born in 1527, the Renaissance thinker was thinking about all kinds of stuff, from arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy to astrology, alchemy, and the occult. This unholy combination of science and quackery appears unsavory by at present’s requirements, however Dee, like lots of his contemporaries, did not make the excellence. This was pre-Enlightenment Europe, a time when thinkers gave credence to all kinds of concepts that now appear fairly unusual. Now, don’t act all smug—astrology nonetheless takes up approach an excessive amount of of our collective headspace (to not point out all kinds of different unfounded beliefs floating round lately), so there’s nonetheless room for enchancment.

Dee was the scientific advisor to Queen Elizabeth I from 1550 to 1570, however his pursuits steadily gravitated towards the supernatural. By the 1580s, Dee was actively scrying, or performing divinations, to foretell the long run. His instruments included crystals (he actually used a crystal ball) and a number of other mirrors, certainly one of which was a hand-held mirror constructed from obsidian.

Historians have presumed that this putting black mirror was of Aztec origin, however no identified data exist to indicate how Dee received his arms on it. New research printed in Antiquity now clears up the matter, affirming the mirror’s Aztec provenance. Accordingly, the paper is offering new insights into Renaissance tradition and Europeans’ relationship with overseas supplies introduced in throughout the colonial interval.

Archaeologist Stuart Campbell from the University of Manchester and colleagues Elizabeth Healey, Yaroslav Kuzmin, and Michael Glascock decided the composition, and thereby the geographic supply, of the artifact by means of a geochemical evaluation, particularly X-ray fluorescence. The obsidian mirror was bombarded with X-rays, inflicting it to leak out measurable quantities of radiation (the fluorescence). Different parts inside the obsidian generated various kinds of fluorescence, permitting the group to measure its chemical composition, which in flip created a kind of chemical fingerprint for the thing.

“The good thing about doing it with obsidian is that obsidian is only found at a limited number of volcanoes around the world, so there are quite a small number of potential sources and we largely know their composition,” Campbell defined in an e mail. “So it simply becomes a case of matching the chemical profile of the object against the chemical profiles of all the potential obsidian sources.”

In this case, the chemical fingerprint from the John Dee mirror intently matched the profile of Mexican obsidian, particularly obsidian from Pachuca—a identified supply of Aztec obsidian. In addition to this relic, the group analyzed two different presumed Aztec mirrors and a sophisticated rectangular obsidian slab, all three of which have been likewise discovered to return from Mexico.

“We were also able to use previous studies of Aztec obsidian mirrors and, as part of this research, we made a new catalogue of similar mirrors that are known in museum collections,” stated Campbell. “Currently we know of 18 mirrors of this type and, although there is some variation, it is clear that the John Dee mirror fits into this group very well.”

The European curiosity in these mirrors might have been a mirrored image of how the Aztecs used them. Polished by bat guano, they have been religious gadgets used for therapeutic, safety in opposition to evil spirits, and for capturing souls. Aztec artwork depicts the deity Tezcatlipoca, whose identify interprets to “smoking mirror,” as sporting a round obsidian mirror—a “medium and symbol of revelation, premonition and power,” based on the examine. These mirrors seemingly made an enormous impression on the European colonizers, who shipped them dwelling as gadgets of worth. Dee, together with his curiosity within the Spanish conquest of the Americas, seemingly heard tales of those obsidian mirrors, which presumably led him to need one for himself.

Campbell says this analysis “helps us understand something of the way in which the European voyages of discovery and engagement with other parts of the world—often through disastrous conquest—was matched by new intellectual attempts to understand how the world worked.” These novel artifacts typically entered the collections of the Aristocracy and specialists, whether or not as curiosities or gadgets that would assist scientists like Dee to grasp the world in new methods, he defined.

“It’s important to see what John Dee thought he was doing in that light,” stated Campbell. “He was attempting to understand how the world worked and thought he could do that through a search for hidden meanings, however odd his methods now seem. New and exotic artefacts that were appearing in Europe in the 16th century were one tool that he could use.”

For Dee, his obsession with the occult and supernatural by no means received him very far. After leaving Elizabeth’s service, he traveled round Europe with Edward Kelley—a medium who used crystal balls to converse with angels and spirits, or so he claimed. The duo typically carried out magic in entrance of royalty, however Dee finally fell into poverty. He returned to England solely to search out that his intensive library of books have been vandalized and his scientific devices stolen. The English have been additionally changing into much less tolerant of his occult practices, making it tough for him to earn a dwelling. He died in poverty on the age of 81. Dee has no identified gravesite, however a memorial plaque was put in in 2013 contained in the church of St. Mary the Virgin of Mortlake.

As for the obsidian mirror, it will definitely fell into the arms of English author and politician Horace Walpole. The relic is at present saved on the British Museum.

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