Monkey stamp 13th-16th century Aztec This ceramic stamp features the image of a monkey in profile with its arms splayed to either side of its head. The parallel lines radiating out from the monkeys crown resemble the shock of unkempt hair of the Mexican spider monkey. Its upright stance and flexed knees create a sense of movement in the figure—as if it were walking—while its rotund, helical belly is a playful element of abstraction. As the German archaeologist Eduard Seler long ago noted, in ancient Mexico, the spider monkey was connected with the themes of music, dance, and clowning.In Nahuatl, the monkey is called ozomatli and is the eleventh day sign of the ancient Aztec calendar. Unlike our calendar today, which consists of twelve months of approximately thirty days each, the Aztecs and other Mesoamerican peoples used "months" of just twenty days. Each day was given a number and named after a different animal or other natural element—for example, "1 Crocodile," "2 Reed," or "4 Mov