Attribute of the God Xipe Totec

Early Classic period, c. 300-600 CE. Mexico, Central Veracruz. Terracotta.

This god of Central Veracruz was the god of spring and regeneration, depicted wearing flayed skin. The culture that this piece originates from celebrated a three-week ritual worshipping this god for the continuity of vegetation cycles, and to honor this god and his flayed skin, they sacrificed humans and adorned themselves with flayed skin around ankles and wrists. This god definitely appears to come from a warlike society, with a firm and masculine stance on top of human hands, perhaps of those who were sacrificed.

Image and Source:
"Attribute of the God Xipe Totec". Meso- and South American Art. Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Missouri. Available online at http://maa.missouri.edu/collections/meso-southam.html. Accessed 18 July 2006.