30 May 2025 / 10 House
Get a grip!
A ‘tecpatl’ in the Templo Mayor Museum
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)
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.
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?’!
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A ‘tecpatl’ in the Templo Mayor Museum
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