I'm saying treating British occultism as a co-ordinate for serious inquiry into the function of an Aztec artifact wandered into Ancient Aliens territory. I presented it in the form of that theatrical style of questioning to illustrate that. But I am not an archeologist, I just watch Ancient Aliens sometimes because it's like eating mental cookie dough, in so many ways.
But the news here isn't "the Aztecs had obsidian mirrors they used for ritual purposes", it's "several obsidian mirrors found in Europe, one purportedly belonging to John Dee, have been authenticated as being of Aztec make by analyzing the chemical makeup of the material". It could have been a contemporary knockoff or later forgery; now there's a strong case for its authenticity.
> treating British occultism as a co-ordinate for serious inquiry into the function of an Aztec artifact
I don't think the article did that. The article suggests the occult significance of obsidian mirrors to Aztecs is known through the relationship of those mirrors to the god Tezcatlipoca:
>The Aztec god Tezcatlipoca, or “Smoking Mirror,” is frequently depicted wearing mirrors that allow him to see humans’ thoughts and actions. As Campbell tells Live Science’s Mindy Weisberger, “[T]here’s quite a specific association with these types of mirrors and that particular deity.”
Of this god, wikipedia says:
> His name in the Nahuatl language is often translated as "Smoking Mirror"[3] and alludes to his connection to obsidian, the material from which mirrors were made in Mesoamerica and which were used for shamanic rituals and prophecy.[4] Another talisman related to Tezcatlipoca was a disc worn as a chest pectoral. This talisman was carved out of abalone shell and depicted on the chest of both Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca in codex illustrations.[5][6]
