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A Decorated Bone Rattle from Culhuacan, Mexico*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Hasso von Winning
Hasso von Winning*
Affiliation:
Southwest Museum, Los Angeles, Calif.
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Abstract

A notched and elaborately decorated human femur purchased at Culhuacan is identified as an omichicahuaztli, the bone rattle or musical rasp which provided musical accompaniment in Aztec funeral ceremonies for dead warriors. The incised designs consist of symbols of war, sacrifice, blood, and death, arranged in a single composition which is analyzed in terms of seven major parts: solar disc and starry sky, shield beneath the sky, eagle warrior, figure clad in slain victim's skin, earth monster, blood streams, and darts. A detailed comparison with Aztec codices and stone monuments shows that the decoration on the Culhuacan rattle is a typical expression of the religious symbolism relating to the death of warriors in late Aztec times, just preceding the Spanish conquest.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , July 1959 , pp. 86 - 93
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1959

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Footnotes

*

H. B. Nicholson, University of California (Los Angeles), read the manuscript and made helpful suggestions

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