Toltec giants in Savannah, Georgia

by Richard L. Thornton, Architect and City Planner

One Summer In Mexico – Part 15b

Savannah, Georgia, USA – 1735

Some extremely talented artists were associated with the early days of the Province of Georgia. Unlike the cartoon-like portrayals that we typically see of Native Americans in that period, those of the Creeks and Uchees are of photographic quality. In particular, the work of Baron Phillip Georg Fredrich Von Reck and William Verelst are outstanding. Above you see a detail of Verelst’s painting of the reception given the Georgia Creek delegation by the Georgia Board of Trustees. Notice the seven feet tall man on the right? His facial features are identical to those Toltecs painted by the earliest Spanish artists in Mexico.

On the left, standing in back of Tamachichi (Tomochichi in English) is an Itstate Creek (Itza Maya) with a flattened forehead. Tamachichi had a pure Itza Maya name, but his facial features are that of the Soque and Chontal Maya of Tabasco State, Mexico.

There were still a few Toltecs around in the early 1500’s, but most Toltec tribes had been hunted to extinction by the Aztecs. The remaining Toltecs in the mountains between Oaxaca and Veracruz were wiped out by a series of plagues. This was the region where the Kaushete Creeks (Upper Creeks) originated. The Toltecs in this region produced a red on buff checkered pottery, which is also found in southeastern Tennessee about the time that the Kaushete arrived.

The Toltec language is extinct now, but Mexican ethnologists are trying to re-create it by discerning the non-Nahuatl words spoken by the few remaining Toltec villages in Jalisco State, Mexico. I strongly suspect that the language will be similar to the Muskogean languages.

Below is the same seven feet tall Kaushete Creek, dressed in war paint and his warrior’s clothes. This water color painting is by Von Reck. Note how “lanky” and long armed he is. This is exactly how the Aztecs described their arch-enemies, who even they admitted, were the founders of civilization in Central Mexico. Von Reck’s fascinating paintings in Georgia may be viewed in the website of the Danish Royal Library.