An Iconographic Analysis on the Offering H Polychrome Knives of Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Crossing Boundaries: Interregional Interactions in Pre-Columbian Times" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Mexicas were one of the civilizations that achieved a striking power of acquisition during Postclassic Mesoamerica. Through trade routes reaching down to Central America, they were able to procure exotic materials and artifacts not accessible in the basin of Mexico. One of these exotic materials was flint, a cryptocrystalline stone that forms in limestones areas. The Mexicas procured this rock to manufacture flint knives also identified as sacrificial knives and, based on historical accounts, Mexica priests used them to perform human sacrifice. At the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan, archaeologists have discovered three different types of these highly specialized lithic artifacts deposited in the offerings. In offering H, excavators retrieved for the first time, 33 polychrome flint knives ornamented with unknown iconography of geometric motifs. This paper will present the iconographic analysis on the offering H polychrome knives.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Crossing Boundaries: Interregional Interactions in Pre-Columbian Times   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25963