Human Sacrifice

Lauren has a project to do. She has a choice to do her research on one of the Meso-American Civilizations. She is interested in the Aztec. Some possible topics she can explore are: location & history, buildings, astronomy, calendar, number system, and daily life. Guess what topic she chose? Human sacrifice (yep, that's my girl!)

Last night Lauren and I were surfing the web for a picture of the handle of a ceremonial knife. It is a rather ornate handle and nervous that we are undertaking a rather complex project, I suggested to Lauren than maybe we can do another object. "How about this, Mom? How about a cuauhxicalli?" asked Lauren.

So it is either an ornate ceremonial knife, a tool used to cut open the body in order to take out the still-beating heart of a sacrificed victim, OR a cuauhxicalli, an altar-like stone vessel used to contain the extracted human hearts.

Yeesh! I'm going to have nightmares!