Cuauhxicalli con calaveras

Glass of eagle, or cuauhxicalli, was the generic name that old Mexicans used to refer to the ritual containers that kept the heart of the sacrificed captives to honor the Sun and the Earth, or the papers and the stained blood instruments of the self-sacrifice which mainly leaders, priests and warriors did as penance in honor of their gods. This is a piece skillfully carved in relief with diverse motifs. Inside the container has a conventional representation of the grass ball, called zacatapayolli, inserted with prongs or punches used to extract blood from different parts of the body (ears, penis, legs) to wet, with the valuable liquid, papers that were burned and the essence of the smoke offered to their gods. The exterior of the container has two opposite rows of skulls in profile with tongue and a prominent curved nasal appendix faced in the frontal side of the container; this motif is framed by a carved border with the texture of petatillo (a kind of hornbeam). The object was sculpted in Cuitláhuac (today Tlahuac), an important lake town tributary of the Mexicas, located south-east Tenochtitlan. There are other pieces almost identical to this one in museums in The United States.Arqlga. Bertina Olmedo Vera