A ‘tecpatl’ in the Templo Mayor Museum (Click on image to enlarge) |
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 |