30 May 2025 / 10 House
Blow your own trumpet!
Aztec musicians were named after the instruments they played - a conch player was a quiquizoani - this shows us how keen they were on music: you weren’t just a ‘blower’, you were a special SHELL TRUMPET PLAYER!
The conch was ancient and was a symbol of the Wind God (look for it here on his chest!). It also had links with the sea, with the call to prayer, with the underworld, with the moon, with fertility... Its deep haunting sound harked back to the first blast in the underworld that announced the creation of humankind...
The conch trumpet was a timekeeping and announcing instrument, blown regularly four times during the day and five times during the night; here you can see it being blown at the front of a procession. Make way...!
Conch shell horns were also part of military equipment: blown perhaps in a similar way to modern (brass) bugles, as calls for battle to begin when the Aztec army went off to fight.
Offerings to the god of rain, Tlaloc, found recently buried under Mexico City, often contained objects linked to music. Can you spot several conch shells in this offering?