The Mexica Tzompantli ("Skull Rack") as Life-Energy Battery Pack

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Embodied Essence: Anthropological, Historical, and Archaeological Perspectives on the Use of Body Parts and Bodily Substances in Religious Beliefs and Practices" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Mexica tzompantli (“skull rack”) consisted of multiple, agricultural-style ordered rows of human skull-seeds. As such it constituted an enormous “battery pack,” or milpa, that contained, stored, and radiated the life-energies and powers contained within the still animate skull-seeds placed on its rows. Its principal function was to actively rejuvenate, refortify, and renew Tenochtitlan, the Mexica lifeway, and the Mexica cosmos—not (as commonly averred) to intimidate functionaries visiting from other polities or intimidate the citizenry of Tenochtitlan, and not (as commonly averred) merely to symbolize or represent its fearsome power and efficiency at dispatching enemies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Embodied Essence: Anthropological, Historical, and Archaeological Perspectives on the Use of Body Parts and Bodily Substances in Religious Beliefs and Practices   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38506.0