Sea shell or conch

The painted snail shell shown in our main picture is a particularly fine example, from Teotihuacan, where we know specialist craft workshops thrived. Not only have beautiful examples survived, but large numbers have been found in ofrendas (offerings) at Tenochtitlan’s Templo Mayor, the ceremonial centre of the Mexica (Aztec) empire. What’s more, depictions of shells exist in stone sculptures, in codices and in painted murals, showing their importance in rituals. Their symbolism ranges from fertility to war and sacrifice, to calendrical representation. The painted Strombus shell shown here is from Xolalpan-Metepec and measures 38 cms. in length and now resides in Mexico’s Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City.

Pic 1: Line drawing by Abel Mendoza of the Teotihuatecan sea shell above, showing calendrical and numerical signs

To the Aztecs the shell was especially prized. Giant stone conch sculptures adorned the Tlaloc side of the Templo Mayor. By the time of the Spanish invasion some 1,600 Spondylus shells (more ornamental than the Strombus variety) were being sent to Tenochtitlan as tribute from coastal provinces. Literally thousands of shells have been recovered from sacred offerings at the Templo Mayor. “The conch shells included in Offering 48, a deposit of sacrificed children, referred to the aquatic nature of Tlaloc, to whom the offering was dedicated” (Miller & Taube, 1993: 152). Conch, spondylus and other shells are prominent in the Feathered Serpent sculpture on the Temple of Quetzalcóatl at Teotihuacan.

Pic 3: Several conch shells can be seen in this single offering at the Templo Mayor (Museum), Mexico City

”In the ancient Mesoamerican view of the universe a layer of water existed under the surface of the earth that was inhabited by fantastical animals such as the alligator-like cipactli. The sculpture of a caracol (spiral snail shell) [pic 5], found in the subsoil of the Templo Mayor in Mexico City, relates to this belief.
“Archaeologists discovered three similar depictions of the queen conch (Strombus gigas), a shell characteristic of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, in the north-eastern area of the former sacred precinct of Tenochtitlan. [It is] a fine example of the ability of sculptors during the Late Postclassic Period (1250-1521) to create a naturalistic image interwoven with symbolic meaning. The caracol was associated with water and rain... and the sculpture shows remains of the original stucco and blue paint, linking it to the Tlaloc shrine” (Solís & Velasco, 2002: 462-463).

Pic 5: Stone Aztec sculpture of a snail shell, over a metre in length, National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City