![]() ![]() In the version of the Legend of the Five Suns, Tecpatl becomes temporal marker of the birth of the Centzonmimixcoa, and the name of the mother goddess switches to Iztac Chalchiuhtlicue(She of the Jade Skirt).Īccording to Bernardino de Sahagún and Diego Durán they present the homology between this myth and ritual. Then they went into a cave and upon entering, their mother gave birth to five more Mimixcoa". This is confirmed by another version of the myth where the Flint serves as a temporary event marker, appearing as a calendar date, as a carrier of the year Centzonmimixcoa are born: "In year 1 Tecpatl Centzonmimixcoa were born, Iztac Chalchiuhtlicue (She of the Jade Skirt) begat the fourhundreth mixcohua. These gods emerging from the Seven Caves are the Centzonmimixcoa (four hundred cloud snakes, or “countless cloud snakes” - in Nāhuatl, 400 is used to express being countless). It falls in Chicomoztoc (The Place of the Seven Caves) primary array of peoples, fragmenting into 1600 pieces, and from those fragments a thousand and six hundred gods emerge, the first gods on Earth. The Tecpatl was born in the height of heaven shaped as a knife, and was thrown down by his brother, and it was destined to descend from heaven to Earth. This knife expresses multiple meanings that carry a complex view of the world which are closely associated with the notions of origin and human sacrifice. Tecpatl, is one of the most complex iconographic symbols of Aztec mythology. Mythical origin of Tecpatl Xipe Totec, carrying a bloody tecpatl. Although it may have seen only limited use on the battlefield, its sharp edges would have made it an effective sidearm. The Tecpatl knife was traditionally used for human sacrifice by the Aztecs, but it also was the short-range weapon of the jaguar warriors. It was the sign of the eighteenth day, the twentieth day of the month of the Aztec calendar and the beginning of one of the twenty trecenas of the tonalpohualli. It can be represented with the top half red, reminiscent of the color of blood, in representations of human sacrifice and the rest white, indicating the color of the flint blade. Both ends could be rounded or pointed, but other designs were made with a blade attached to a handle. In the Aztec culture, a tecpatl was a flint or obsidian knife with a lanceolate figure and double-edged blade, with elongated ends. Técpatl (18th day sign of the Aztec calendar) (Image from the Codex Magliabechiano) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) JSTOR ( June 2014) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message).Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ![]() Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Hailing this remarkable achievement, the researchers say the old axe makers “creatively solved through convergent thinking technological problems such as effectively detaching and shaping large flakes of the unusually brittle and cutting volcanic glass.This article needs additional citations for verification. According to the authors, the adaptation of existing flint knapping techniques to create more challenging obsidian tools can be seen as an example of “convergent thinking”, which is associated with creative problem-solving. The emergence of such abilities marks a surprisingly massive cognitive leap for such an ancient group of humans. And yet, when describing tools from over a million years ago, the study authors say that “the standardized obsidian handaxes provide ample evidence of the repetitive use of fully mastered skills.” Techniques for shaping obsidian are believed to have first emerged during the Upper Paleolithic, and even modern knappers wear protective gloves to avoid shredding their hands when working with the razor-sharp material. “Accordingly, manufacturers had to accurately evaluate the strength of the blow to avoid producing flakes of little use, or just to avoid smashing the core,” explain the researchers. Achieving such homogeneity would have required highly sharpened skills and a fair amount of dexterity, as obsidian is a fragile rock that must be knapped with considerably more finesse than flint or basalt. ![]()
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