tzompantli (Azca28)

This painted black-line drawing of the unglossed iconographic example of a skull rack (what we are calling a tzompantli) shows a rack with two horizontal and four vertical posts. These are painted red. Six skulls appear on this skull rack, all facing forward, each one in its own section of the grid made by the boards. The skulls have two holes where they eyes once were and front upper teeth (numbering from three to five teeth per head). An upside-down Y appears where the nose once was. The rack sits upon what appears to be a stepped structure, whereby the steps go up the middle and some kind of hanging ornamentation appears to the right and left of the steps. In front of the steps is a human head, seemingly male, with long hair. This head is shown in profile facing left. The skin of the face is flesh-toned, and the hair is black. There may be some kind of feathered headdress atop the head. It might be a cuauhpilolli.