drawing
- Museum number
- Am2006,Drg.246
- Title
- Object: Aztec/Mixtec Sacrificial Knife
- Description
-
Drawing; The handle of this knife is carved from a single piece of wood (Cedrela odorata) and takes the form of a crouching man wearing the regalia of an eagle warrior. The warrior looks out from the open beak of the eagle headdress and clasps the haft of the flint knife.
Eagle warriors were a prestigious military order, the 'fighters of the daytime'. In Aztec mythology the eagle represented the power of the day and was believed to carry the sun into the sky from the underworld each morning.
The handle of this knife is covered with mosaic made from turquoise, shell and malachite. At least four kinds of shell are used: red Spondylus (thorny oyster), white Strombus (conch), pink Stombus gigas (queen conch) and iridescent Pinctada (mother-of-pearl). Pine resin is used to hold the mosaic in place. The hafting of the blade is bound with cord made from maguey (Agave) fibre and coated with pale yellow Protium resin. Mexico.
Watercolour and graphite
- Production date
- 1840-1844
- Dimensions
-
Height: 44 centimetres (mounted)
-
Height: 27.80 centimetres
-
Width: 61.60 centimetres (mounted)
-
Width: 30.30 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- Thirty-one drawings of antiquities from Isla de Sacrificios (Island of Sacrifices) near the port of Veracruz, in Mexico.The objects were excavated 1840 by Captain Evan Nepean and sold by him to the British Museum in1844. Drawing number 244 is signed by Capt. Nepean, the others are unsigned. It is thought that all the drawings were probably done by Capt. Nepean. This drawing is the same as Am2006-Drg247.
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- good
- Acquisition date
- 2006
- Acquisition notes
- Purchased from Captain Evan Nepean 1844
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Am2006,Drg.246