Tzompantli

The tzompantli is a structure which one finds in many civilizations mésoaméricaines. The etymology of the word is Nahuatl: tzom- , i.e. the cranium, and - pantli , the wall. It is about a platform on which one exhibait the heads of the sacrificed victims. Between lines of piles poles were fixed on which one threaded by the temples craniums of the victims. There was another version, more frequent at the Mayas, where the craniums were threaded on vertical poles. One finds of them representations in various codex of the 16th century, in particular a miniature version on famous the first page of the Codex Mendoza , which undoubtedly represents symbolically the tzomptantli ceremonial center of Tenochtitlan. Bernardino de Sahagún gives of it us a curious example, accompanied by an image in the Manuscrit: at the time of the conquest of Tenochtitlan by the Spanish , the Aztec , having captured Spanish soldiers and horses, sacrifices them and “when they were immolés, then they threaded on rods the heads of the Spaniards; they have piqué there also the heads of the horses. In bottom they placed them, and the heads of the Spaniards they put them higher. ” ( Codex of Florence , delivers XII, chapter XXXV)

The same word indicates a monument hones some whose sides are covered with cranium lines carved in low-relief. Most known is that of Chichen Itza.

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