Ceramic effigy fragment. Part of a larger sculpture. Xipe Totec, “Our Flayed Lord,” Aztec god of vegetation. The effigy represents a flayed human skin worn by a human impersonator. The skin symbolizes the outer husk of a seed prior to germination. During the festival of Tlacaxipehualiztli, dances and ritual battles were performed, culminating in the gladitorial sacrifice of captives. The captives were ceremonially flayed and their skins worn by priests for a period of twenty days. The ritual was performed annually from March 6th to the 25th.

See The Aztecs by Richard F. Townsend, London: Thames and Hudson, 1992