Standard Bearer

This figure with a plumed feather headdress (indicating high status) was a sentinel of the type that stood at the top of a temple staircase in Tenochtitlán (present-day Mexico City), the great capital city of the Aztecs. He once held something with a shaft in his right hand, perhaps a ceremonial weapon. Also missing are shell or precious stone inlays that would have decorated the entire face, not just the eyes.