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This beautifully preserved monument, worked in bas-relief depicts a tongue-piercing self-sacrifice by a character whose body is almost entirely covered by an intricate painted or tattooed design. He wears a sectioned conch shell often associated with the Wind God and his blood offering appears to be received in the mouth by a supernatural snake-like creature.


Huilozintla Stela
Huastec
Post-Classic (900-1521 A.D.)
Unknown
Sandstone
140 x 52 cm.
National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico.

Photo © Jorge Pérez de Lara