Pulque beaker

Pulque beaker, phyllite (metamorphic rock, derived from slate), height 37 cms., Mexica (Aztec), beginning of the 16th century, KHM-Museumsverband, Weltmuseum, Vienna, Austria.

The day sign ‘Grass’ (malinalli) is prominent: it consists of a face with a fleshless lower jaw and tied-up hair. It is connected to Mayahuel, a pulque goddess. The patron of this day was the pulque god Patecatl... The drink was associated with the night and the souls of deceased - defeated and sacrificed - warriors. The calendar sign ‘8 Flint Sacrificial Knife’ (tecpatl) engraved on the edge possibly refers to the catastrophic flooding in 1500 AD or gives the name of the maguey agave. Above the tied hair there is a half-darkened solar disc with the day sign ‘4 Movement’ (ollin), the name of the present creation (‘Sun’). It is being attacked by eight figures, which presumably represent threatening and militant tzitzimime. As dreaded death beings in the night sky, with whom the sun repeatedly has to fight, the tzitzimime threaten to destroy the Earth and creation. They attack in the darkness and at the end of a 52-year cycle... The complex symbolism of the vessel emphasises the pulque, the night and cosmic wars, the 52-year time cycles, sacrifices and the constant threat of destruction.

From Aztecs, eds. Doris Kurella, Martin Berger and Inés de Castro, with INAH, Mexico - catalogue for the exhibition Azteken, Linden Museum, Stuttgart, Hirmer Publishers, Germany, 2019, p. 340.

Photo by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore.