Images represented in the dressed flint knife offerings from the plaza west of Tenochtitlan's Great Temple

Summary

During the seventh field season of the Templo Mayor Project directed by archaeologist Leonardo López Luján, twenty-two ritual deposits were found in the west plaza at the foot of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan. Eight of the deposits (Offerings 123, 125, 126, 136, 137, 138, 141, and 163, dating to Ahuitzotl’s reign, Stage VI, 1486–1502 CE) contained more than one hundred flint knives that were dressed with garments bearing the attributes of gods and deified warriors. Some of the knives were adorned with miniature artifacts related to warfare, such as darts, spear-throwers, and maces, while others were decorated with wooden masks, pectorals, marine shell and greenstone pendants, depictions of bloodletting implements, and round insignia made of gold. This paper will discuss the identification of the supernatural beings personified in the flint knives as images of deities or ixiptlatin (soul containers), as well as their symbolism in each offering, and thus contribute to our understanding of oblation rituals at Tenochtitlan.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• The Seventh Field Season of the Proyecto Templo Mayor: Recent Investigations on the Sacred Precinct of Tenochtitlan

Keywords

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