General Aztecs Maya Tocuaro Kids Contact 19 Mar 2024/2 Death
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A ‘tecpatl’ in the Templo Mayor Museum

Get a grip!

Handle and blade - both homeless! Imagine how these two might have fitted together in Aztec times. If you want to learn much more about a ‘Tecpatl’ (flint or obsidian blade), you must meet our very own animated Aztec character, Tec (follow the link below to reveal all...) (Written/compiled by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)

A ‘tecpatl’ in the Templo Mayor Museum
A ‘tecpatl’ in the Templo Mayor Museum (Click on image to enlarge)
The handle of a sacrificial knife
The handle of a sacrificial knife (Click on image to enlarge)

The ‘tecpatl’ blade is on display in the Templo Mayor Museum in Mexico City. The handle - 12 cms. long, made of wood and decorated with turquoise and shell mosaic - is in the Pigorini Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography, Rome. Incidentally, the Aztecs wouldn’t have ‘personalised’ a blade in this way if it was being used in a real sacrificial knife - learn more about this at our Kids site.

A complete sacrificial knife, British Museum
A complete sacrificial knife, British Museum
emoticon Overheard at the Aztecs exhibition at the Royal Academy back in 2003: a pupil comments on the caption [’Knife used for the practice of human sacrifice’] beside one of the exhibits - ‘Miss, how did they practise for the sacrifices?’!

Bring a ‘Tec(patl)’ to life at MexicoloreKids!

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