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Face Blades

Cuchillos Rostro photoFace Blades. These are made of flint, with applications of white flint, obsidian and turquoise to simulate a face in profile. These knives were symbolic in nature, since they represented the tecpatl or sacrificial knife. Within Templo Mayor offerings, the majority of these knives were found associated with skulls of decapitated victims. This particular example is stuck into a base made of copal, a resinous incense.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Last Modified: January 14, 1998.
Museo del Templo Mayor, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e História, México.
Seminario #8, Centro Histórico. Cuauhtémoc, México, D.F. 06060
©Copyright 1997
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