More artifacts from the museum

We took so many pictures at the museum that I will be able to do posts for many days in a row. I've been told by other missionaries that a missionary needs to understand a nation's past to understand the culture that it is today. That really struck us hard at the museum the other day. We were amazed at the similarities of Mexico's various pre-Spanish native cultures and today's culture. Though the Mexicans do not have blood thirsty rituals as in days past, ritualism is still very important and this can be seen in the many other religious practices today including sycretized Catholic and native worship forms.

The top picture is of Mictlantecuhtli, the god of death or the underworld. It was discovered in 1962 at the square in front of the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotiuacan. It was common belief in Mesoamerica that the Sun, when it set, stopped giving light to the world, but entered the world of the dead and passed through it to get to the east to light up the world again.

The second picture is of a necklace...made of hundreds of shells that were carved to resemble human teeth. Some real human teeth were used as well. This necklace was found at the Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent. Similar necklaces were apparently found at nearly all the burial sites at the Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent.